fix(gateway): include external_dirs skills in Telegram/Discord slash commands (salvage #8790) by teknium1 · Pull Request #18741 · NousResearch/hermes-agent

teknium1 · 2026-05-02T08:33:41Z

Summary

Salvages #8790 by @luyao618 — credited via Co-authored-by.

The bug

Skills declared through skills.external_dirs were first-class everywhere EXCEPT gateway slash menus:

Surface	Sees external skills?
`hermes skills list`	Yes
`get_skill_commands()`	Yes
Agent `/skill-name` dispatch	Yes
Telegram `getMyCommands`	No
Discord slash commands	No

Root cause in hermes_cli/commands.py inside _collect_gateway_skill_entries:

_skills_dir = str(SKILLS_DIR.resolve())
...
if not skill_path.startswith(_skills_dir):
    continue   # silently drops every external skill

The fix

Widen the accepted prefix set to include every directory in get_external_skills_dirs() alongside SKILLS_DIR. Also:

Every prefix is slash-terminated so /my-skills cannot accidentally admit /my-skills-extra.
Empty skill_md_path values are skipped up front so they can't match a degenerate prefix.
The hub-exclusion prefix gets the same slash-termination treatment for consistency.

Tests

New test_external_dir_skills_included_in_telegram_menu covers three cases in one test: local skill present, external skill present, prefix-lookalike sibling directory not admitted.
Full tests/hermes_cli/test_commands.py passes (131/131 via hermetic scripts/run_tests.sh).

Why the original PR was closed

#8790 was closed by its author on Apr 30, not rejected by a reviewer. The diff still applies cleanly to current main and the fix is correct, so re-opening the change as a fresh PR with the original author's attribution.

…commands Skills configured through `skills.external_dirs` in config.yaml were visible via `hermes skills list`, `get_skill_commands()`, and the agent's `/skill-name` dispatch, but silently excluded from the Telegram and Discord slash-command menus. The filter in `_collect_gateway_skill_entries` only accepted skills whose `skill_md_path` started with `SKILLS_DIR`, so anything under an external directory fell through. Widen the accepted-prefix set to include all configured external dirs alongside the local skills dir. Every prefix is now slash-terminated so `/my-skills` cannot also admit `/my-skills-extra`. Also guard against empty `skill_md_path` values so they can't accidentally match. Fixes #8110 Salvages #8790 by luyao618. Co-authored-by: Yao <34041715+luyao618@users.noreply.github.com>

… 25x25 caps (#18745) ``discord_skill_commands_by_category`` was lagging the flat ``discord_skill_commands`` collector on two counts. Both were actively dropping skills from Discord's ``/skill`` autocomplete dropdown. 1. External-dir skills were filtered out. #18741 widened the flat collector to accept ``SKILLS_DIR + skills.external_dirs`` but left this sibling collector — the one ``_register_skill_group`` actually uses on Discord — still matching ``SKILLS_DIR`` only. External skills were visible in ``hermes skills list`` and the agent's ``/skill-name`` dispatch but silently absent from Discord's ``/skill`` picker. Widen the accepted roots to match, and derive categories from whichever root the skill lives under so ``<ext>/mlops/foo/SKILL.md`` still lands in the ``mlops`` group. 2. 25-group × 25-subcommand caps were still applied. PR #11580 refactored ``/skill`` to a flat autocomplete (whose options Discord fetches dynamically — no per-command payload concern) and its docstring promises "no hidden skills." The collector kept the old nested-layout caps anyway, silently dropping anything past the 25th alphabetical category. On installs with 29 category dirs today (real example: tail categories ``social-media``, ``software-development``, ``yuanbao`` going missing) this was biting immediately. Remove the caps; ``hidden`` now reports only 32-char name-clamp collisions against reserved names. Tests: guard both behaviors. ``test_no_legacy_25x25_cap`` builds 30 categories × 30 skills each and asserts all 900 are returned. ``test_external_dirs_skills_included`` monkeypatches ``get_external_skills_dirs`` and asserts an external-dir skill makes it into the result grouped under its own top-level directory.

…commands (NousResearch#18741) Skills configured through `skills.external_dirs` in config.yaml were visible via `hermes skills list`, `get_skill_commands()`, and the agent's `/skill-name` dispatch, but silently excluded from the Telegram and Discord slash-command menus. The filter in `_collect_gateway_skill_entries` only accepted skills whose `skill_md_path` started with `SKILLS_DIR`, so anything under an external directory fell through. Widen the accepted-prefix set to include all configured external dirs alongside the local skills dir. Every prefix is now slash-terminated so `/my-skills` cannot also admit `/my-skills-extra`. Also guard against empty `skill_md_path` values so they can't accidentally match. Fixes NousResearch#8110 Salvages NousResearch#8790 by luyao618. Co-authored-by: Yao <34041715+luyao618@users.noreply.github.com>

… drop legacy 25x25 caps (NousResearch#18745) ``discord_skill_commands_by_category`` was lagging the flat ``discord_skill_commands`` collector on two counts. Both were actively dropping skills from Discord's ``/skill`` autocomplete dropdown. 1. External-dir skills were filtered out. NousResearch#18741 widened the flat collector to accept ``SKILLS_DIR + skills.external_dirs`` but left this sibling collector — the one ``_register_skill_group`` actually uses on Discord — still matching ``SKILLS_DIR`` only. External skills were visible in ``hermes skills list`` and the agent's ``/skill-name`` dispatch but silently absent from Discord's ``/skill`` picker. Widen the accepted roots to match, and derive categories from whichever root the skill lives under so ``<ext>/mlops/foo/SKILL.md`` still lands in the ``mlops`` group. 2. 25-group × 25-subcommand caps were still applied. PR NousResearch#11580 refactored ``/skill`` to a flat autocomplete (whose options Discord fetches dynamically — no per-command payload concern) and its docstring promises "no hidden skills." The collector kept the old nested-layout caps anyway, silently dropping anything past the 25th alphabetical category. On installs with 29 category dirs today (real example: tail categories ``social-media``, ``software-development``, ``yuanbao`` going missing) this was biting immediately. Remove the caps; ``hidden`` now reports only 32-char name-clamp collisions against reserved names. Tests: guard both behaviors. ``test_no_legacy_25x25_cap`` builds 30 categories × 30 skills each and asserts all 900 are returned. ``test_external_dirs_skills_included`` monkeypatches ``get_external_skills_dirs`` and asserts an external-dir skill makes it into the result grouped under its own top-level directory.