Summary

Fixes #3358 (NV QA NVB#6165494). On Brev v0.0.38, running NEMOCLAW_AGENT=hermes nemoclaw onboard printed Run: nemohermes <name> connect in the post-onboard next-steps message — but users who launched via the nemoclaw binary may not have the nemohermes alias on their PATH, so copy-pasting the suggestion hit nemohermes: command not found. The fix decouples the suggested CLI binary name from agent product branding, so the message reflects whichever binary the user actually invoked.

Related Issue

Fixes #3358

Changes

Three commits on this branch:

1. fix(hermes): use invoked CLI name in onboard next-steps output (#3358) — the core fix.

• bin/nemohermes.js — launcher now also sets NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS=nemohermes so the runtime can distinguish "alias-invoked" from "base-binary-invoked with env-var".
• src/lib/cli/branding.ts — getAgentBranding() derives cli from NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS (with a known-name allowlist, defaulting to nemoclaw); display / product / uninstallGoodbye continue to be agent-driven so Hermes branding stays correct everywhere else. All 142 existing cliName() / CLI_NAME callsites pick up the new behaviour transparently.
• src/lib/cli/branding.test.ts (new) — 5 unit tests covering the four invocation paths plus an unknown-value safety fallback.
• test/nemohermes-alias.test.ts — replaced the test that codified the buggy nemoclaw onboard --agent hermes -> nemohermes onboard assertion, and added two regression tests covering the exact NV QA repro (NEMOCLAW_AGENT=hermes nemoclaw onboard) plus the --agent hermes flag path.

2. chore(ci): allowlist NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS as internal launcher marker (#3358) — CI follow-up. The env-var-docs gate caught the new variable in src/. NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS is internal-only (set by bin/nemohermes.js, value constrained to a known-name allowlist), so it's listed in ci/env-var-doc-allowlist.json rather than documented for users.

3. test(hermes): clear NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS from helper env for hermeticity — addresses CodeRabbit's review feedback. The runHermes / runNemoClaw test helpers inherit process.env; an accidentally-set NEMOCLAW_INVOKED_AS in the parent process could flip CLI branding and make the regression assertions environment-dependent. Both helpers now explicitly clear the marker alongside NEMOCLAW_AGENT.

Behaviour matrix after this PR:

Out of scope (filed as a follow-up consideration): src/lib/actions/update.ts:60-68 has the same conceptual cliName resolution but a separate code path, and the NV QA repro did not exercise it. Keeping the diff narrow per the literal issue scope.

The recently-merged docs/CLI parity check from #3234 would not have caught this — it validates --help <-> docs/reference/commands.md parity, not onboard runtime output strings.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Verification

• npx prek run --all-files passes (local env has Python 3.8; prek requires >=3.9 — relying on CI)
• npm test passes for the impacted suites (208/208 across 9 nemohermes-related files; 5/5 in the new branding.test.ts; 8/8 in nemohermes-alias.test.ts). 16 unrelated failures in runtime-shell / ssrf-parity / generate-openclaw-config / secret-redaction confirmed pre-existing on upstream/main.
• npm run typecheck:cli passes
• Plugin tsc --noEmit passes
• Biome lint + format clean on all modified files
• npx tsx scripts/check-env-var-docs.ts passes after the allowlist entry
• Tests added or updated for new or changed behavior
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes (N/A — docs/quickstart-hermes.md describes the alias-bin path which is unchanged; the fix corrects an unintended divergence in the base-bin path; the new env var is internal-only and allowlisted)

Manual repro on the built CLI, all three invocation paths verified directly:

$ HOME=/tmp/v1 node bin/nemohermes.js onboard --resume --non-interactive --yes-i-accept-third-party-software 2>&1 | grep -A1 "rebuild it"
  To change configuration on an existing sandbox, rebuild it:
    nemohermes onboard          <- unchanged (alias-bin path stays correct)

$ HOME=/tmp/v2 NEMOCLAW_AGENT=hermes node bin/nemoclaw.js onboard --resume --non-interactive --yes-i-accept-third-party-software 2>&1 | grep -A1 "rebuild it"
  To change configuration on an existing sandbox, rebuild it:
    nemoclaw onboard            <- NV QA repro, was 'nemohermes onboard' before the fix

$ HOME=/tmp/v3 node bin/nemoclaw.js onboard --agent hermes --resume --non-interactive --yes-i-accept-third-party-software 2>&1 | grep -A1 "rebuild it"
  To change configuration on an existing sandbox, rebuild it:
    nemoclaw onboard            <- --agent flag path, also fixed

Fail-condition counters (grep -c 'nemohermes' on full output):

Signed-off-by: Dongni Yang dongniy@nvidia.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • CLI now correctly identifies and applies proper branding based on which binary (nemohermes or nemoclaw) you invoke, ensuring accurate display names and help text.

• Tests

  • Added comprehensive test coverage for environment-based branding behavior and CLI launcher detection.

• Documentation

  • Updated environment variable documentation to include internal launcher marker.