Description

hermes profile create --clone-all <name> is extremely slow when cloning from the default profile (~/.hermes) because shutil.copytree() copies the entire directory tree with zero exclusions — including multi-GB infrastructure that is not profile data.

Size breakdown of ~/.hermes

~2.26 GB of infrastructure is copied when only ~40 MB is actual profile data.

Root cause

In hermes_cli/profiles.py line 422:

if clone_all and source_dir:
    shutil.copytree(source_dir, profile_dir)  # no ignore= parameter

The fix already exists for export

export_profile() was fixed in commit 68fc4ae with _DEFAULT_EXPORT_EXCLUDE_ROOT (25+ entries) and _default_export_ignore() to exclude infrastructure from default profile exports. But create_profile(clone_all=True) was never updated to use the same exclusion logic.

Expected behavior

--clone-all should copy all profile state (config, memories, sessions, skills, cron, plugins, .env, auth.json) but exclude infrastructure (hermes-agent repo, venv, node_modules, .git, databases, caches, other profiles).

Documentation confirms this

All docs describe --clone-all as copying profile data, not infrastructure:

• profiles.md: "Copies everything — config, API keys, personality, all memories, full session history, skills, cron jobs, plugins."
• profile-commands.md: "Copy everything (config, memories, skills, sessions, state) from the current profile."

Suggested fix

Pass an ignore function to shutil.copytree() in the clone-all codepath, reusing the existing _DEFAULT_EXPORT_EXCLUDE_ROOT set (keeping .env and auth.json since clone-all wants a full working copy unlike export).