Environment

• OS: WSL2 (Ubuntu) on Windows 11
• Hermes install path: ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/
• Python venv: ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv/
• Extras installed: hermes-agent[web,pty]
• Hermes version: latest main

Steps to reproduce

1. Install hermes-agent with [web] and [pty] extras
2. Launch dashboard without --tui:
   ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv/bin/hermes dashboard --no-open
3. Open http://127.0.0.1:9119 in browser
4. Observe: no Chat tab in the left nav
5. Navigate to /chat directly — Chat tab still absent

Expected behaviour

The Chat tab should either:

• Be visible whenever [pty] extra is installed (dependency-based detection), or
• Show a clear message explaining that --tui flag is required

/api/pty should not return 401 silently with no user-visible explanation.

Actual behaviour

Two silent failures occur together:

1. Chat tab is hidden
isDashboardEmbeddedChatEnabled() in web/src/lib/dashboard-flags.ts only returns true when window.__HERMES_DASHBOARD_EMBEDDED_CHAT__ is injected, which only happens with --tui. Without it, the Chat route never renders — no error, no explanation.

2. _SESSION_TOKEN is not transmitted
web/src/lib/api.ts reads the token from window.__HERMES_SESSION_TOKEN__, which is injected into index.html server-side (web_server.py:2621). Without --tui, both globals are missing, so every /api/ request is sent without a Bearer token → 401.

Suggested fix

Option A — Add a UI hint in the dashboard:
Render the Chat tab always, but show an inline disabled state with a message:
"Start dashboard with hermes dashboard --tui to enable embedded chat."
Rather than silently hiding the tab entirely.

Option B — Update the documentation:
Add a note to the web dashboard docs page and the hermes dashboard --help
output that the Chat tab requires the --tui flag, e.g.:
--tui Enable embedded TUI chat tab in the web dashboard (requires pty extra)

Labels

documentation · dashboard · ux · chat · tui