Description

When a user asks about GIFs, the agent says it can look them up but then errors out.

Root Cause

There is no built-in GIF tool in the codebase. GIF functionality relies entirely on the gif-search skill (which uses Tenor API via curl). If:

• The skill is not installed in ~/.hermes/skills/
• The Tenor API key is not configured
• The skill command fails

...the agent will claim it can search GIFs (because it sees the skill in its prompt) but then fail at execution time.

Expected Behavior

1. If the gif-search skill is not installed, the agent should not claim it can search GIFs
2. If the skill IS installed but the API key is missing, the error should be clear and actionable
3. Consider whether a lightweight built-in GIF search tool (like image_generate) would be better than a skill-only approach

Environment

• macOS Warp Client / Hermes Docker Terminal
• Hermes Agent v1.0.0

Reported By

External user feedback (March 2026)