release aidev SIG 4/5

Hermes Agent v0.17.0: iMessage and Raft channels, background subagents, image editing

Large release adding two new places Hermes can run — iMessage via Photon's managed line pool (no Mac relay or BlueBubbles bridge) and the Raft agent network via a wake-channel bridge — plus background subagent delegation, image-to-image editing in image_generate, and grok-composer-2.5-fast reachable through an xAI Grok OAuth subscription. The desktop app and dashboard both gained substantial surface. Matters if you run Hermes for yourself or a team on any of these channels.

PUBLISHED2026-06-19
OBSERVED2026-08-11
AGE1mo
SOURCES1
  • iMessage (Photon Spectrum): platform plugin on Photon's managed line pool; hermes photon login with a device code, then send/receive iMessage with no self-hosted Mac relay. Positioned as the BlueBubbles successor
  • Raft: bundled platform adapter connecting Hermes to raft.build as an external agent over a wake-channel bridge; set RAFT_PROFILE and run the bridge. Wake payloads carry only metadata (event IDs, timestamps), never message bodies
  • Background subagents: delegate_task(background=true) returns a handle immediately; result re-enters the conversation as a new turn when it finishes
  • Image editing: image_generate accepts a source image plus prompt and routes to the backend's edit endpoint, across every supported image provider
  • Automation Blueprints: one blueprint definition renders as a dashboard form, a CLI/TUI/messenger slash command, an agent conversation, and a docs catalog entry — no cron syntax
  • Models: grok-composer-2.5-fast added to the xAI OAuth model picker, context window reconciled to 200k
  • Desktop: rebindable shortcuts, native OS notifications with per-type toggles, subagent watch-windows streaming delegated activity, composer model selector with per-model presets, automatic RTL/bidi, resizable VS Code-themed terminal pane, per-thread composer drafts, install any VS Code Marketplace theme
  • Dashboard: full profile builder (model, skills, MCP servers) without hand-editing config.yaml; unified machine-wide multi-profile view with a global profile switcher
  • Also cited: Skills Hub browser rehaul, memory tool upgrade, curator no longer spends aux-model budget on routine runs, 300+ issues closed, security round
  • Scale since v0.16.0: ~1,475 commits, ~800 merged PRs, 1,693 files changed, 245 community contributors
featurecapabilitymodel-supportsecurity

COMMUNITY

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