feat(skills): watchers skill — poll RSS / HTTP JSON / GitHub via cron no-agent by teknium1 · Pull Request #21881 · NousResearch/hermes-agent

teknium1 · 2026-05-08T13:20:19Z

Summary

Replaces the closed PR #21497 (parallel watcher subsystem). Same value — polling RSS / HTTP JSON / GitHub with watermark dedup — shipped as an optional skill that composes with the existing cron --no-agent mode instead of a new core subsystem.

Why a skill, not a subsystem

Cron with no_agent=True and --script already does scheduling, delivery, empty-stdout-is-silent, and [SILENT] suppression. A watcher is just "a cron script that polls + dedups + emits new items." The scripts shipped here are the reusable parts; everything else was already in the tree.

Zero new CLI verbs, zero new ticks, zero new database surface.

What ships

optional-skills/devops/watchers/
├── SKILL.md                         # pattern + three end-to-end cron commands
└── scripts/
    ├── _watermark.py                # shared state helper (atomic writes, bounded ID set, first-run baseline)
    ├── watch_rss.py                 # RSS 2.0 + Atom
    ├── watch_http_json.py           # any JSON endpoint with configurable id_field / items_path / headers
    └── watch_github.py              # issues / pulls / releases / commits — uses GITHUB_TOKEN if present

Invariants enforced by the shared helper

First run records baseline, emits nothing (never replays existing feed)
Watermark is <state_dir>/<name>.json, atomic replace on write
Bounded to 500 IDs by default
Empty stdout on no-new — cron already treats that as silent

End-user pattern

hermes cron create hn-watcher \
  --schedule "*/15 * * * *" --no-agent \
  --script "$HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py" \
  --script-args "--name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss" \
  --deliver telegram

(Or --deliver all now that #21495 is merged, to fan out across every connected channel.)

Validation

# First run against a real feed — baseline, empty stdout
$ WATCHER_STATE_DIR=/tmp/t python3 watch_rss.py --name t --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
# (silent — watermark populated)

# Manually remove one seen-id, second run — emits exactly that item
$ python -c "... remove first id from /tmp/t/t.json ..."
$ WATCHER_STATE_DIR=/tmp/t python3 watch_rss.py --name t --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
## Poland is now among the 20 largest economies. How it happened
https://apnews.com/article/...

No DeprecationWarnings (ElementTree's "element with no children is falsy" footgun avoided explicitly in all three scripts).

What this is not

Not the parallel watchers/ core package from feat(watchers): interval-polling watcher engine with watermark dedup #21497 — that's closed
Not a new hermes watch CLI verb — users compose via hermes cron create
Not piggybacking on cron's tick loop — scripts run as normal no-agent cron jobs

If usage patterns emerge that clearly warrant promoting this to core (e.g. users want a declarative CLI, or non-CLI users ask the agent "watch this feed" often enough that the skill feels clunky), that's a future conversation informed by real data. For now this ships with minimal footprint.

… no-agent Ships three reusable polling scripts plus a shared watermark helper as an optional skill. Users wire them into the existing cron (no_agent=True) mode rather than learning a new subsystem. Supersedes the closed PR #21497 (parallel watcher subsystem). Same value, zero new core surface. ## What ships - optional-skills/devops/watchers/SKILL.md: pattern + three example cron commands - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/_watermark.py: shared helper (atomic state writes, bounded ID set, first-run baseline) - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py: RSS 2.0 + Atom - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_http_json.py: any JSON endpoint with configurable id_field / items_path / headers - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_github.py: issues / pulls / releases / commits (uses GITHUB_TOKEN if present) ## Invariants enforced by the shared helper - First run records baseline, emits nothing (never replays existing feed) - Watermark file is <state_dir>/<name>.json, atomic replace on write - Bounded to 500 IDs (configurable) - Empty stdout when no new items — cron treats that as silent delivery ## Validation - watch_rss.py against news.ycombinator.com/rss first run → empty stdout, watermark populated - Removed one seen-id, second run → emitted exactly that item - No DeprecationWarnings (ET element truth-value footgun dodged explicitly) End-user pattern: 'hermes cron create my-feed --schedule "*/15 * * * *" --no-agent --script $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py --script-args "--name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss" --deliver telegram'

github-actions · 2026-05-08T13:21:24Z

🔎 Lint report: `feat/watchers-skill` vs `origin/main`

ruff

Total: 0 on HEAD, 0 on base (➖ 0)

🆕 New issues: none

✅ Fixed issues: none

Unchanged: 0 pre-existing issues carried over.

ty (type checker)

Total: 7704 on HEAD, 7701 on base (🆕 +3)

🆕 New issues (3):

Rule	Count
`unused-type-ignore-comment`	3

First entries

optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py:25: [unused-type-ignore-comment] unused-type-ignore-comment: Unused blanket `type: ignore` directive
optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_github.py:31: [unused-type-ignore-comment] unused-type-ignore-comment: Unused blanket `type: ignore` directive
optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_http_json.py:31: [unused-type-ignore-comment] unused-type-ignore-comment: Unused blanket `type: ignore` directive

✅ Fixed issues: none

Unchanged: 4037 pre-existing issues carried over.

Diagnostics are surfaced as warnings — this check never fails the build.

…al skills

… no-agent (NousResearch#21881) * feat(skills): watchers skill — poll RSS / HTTP JSON / GitHub via cron no-agent Ships three reusable polling scripts plus a shared watermark helper as an optional skill. Users wire them into the existing cron (no_agent=True) mode rather than learning a new subsystem. Supersedes the closed PR NousResearch#21497 (parallel watcher subsystem). Same value, zero new core surface. ## What ships - optional-skills/devops/watchers/SKILL.md: pattern + three example cron commands - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/_watermark.py: shared helper (atomic state writes, bounded ID set, first-run baseline) - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py: RSS 2.0 + Atom - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_http_json.py: any JSON endpoint with configurable id_field / items_path / headers - optional-skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_github.py: issues / pulls / releases / commits (uses GITHUB_TOKEN if present) ## Invariants enforced by the shared helper - First run records baseline, emits nothing (never replays existing feed) - Watermark file is <state_dir>/<name>.json, atomic replace on write - Bounded to 500 IDs (configurable) - Empty stdout when no new items — cron treats that as silent delivery ## Validation - watch_rss.py against news.ycombinator.com/rss first run → empty stdout, watermark populated - Removed one seen-id, second run → emitted exactly that item - No DeprecationWarnings (ET element truth-value footgun dodged explicitly) End-user pattern: 'hermes cron create my-feed --schedule "*/15 * * * *" --no-agent --script $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py --script-args "--name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss" --deliver telegram' * docs(skills/watchers): tighten description to match peer optional skills * docs(skills/watchers): align frontmatter + structure with peer optional skills * docs(skills/watchers): gate to linux/macos (shell syntax in examples)

teknium1 added 3 commits May 8, 2026 08:01

docs(skills/watchers): tighten description to match peer optional skills

961f7ea

docs(skills/watchers): align frontmatter + structure with peer option…

e29f14c

…al skills

docs(skills/watchers): gate to linux/macos (shell syntax in examples)

2eb881c

teknium1 merged commit ea8e608 into main May 8, 2026
11 of 12 checks passed

teknium1 deleted the feat/watchers-skill branch May 8, 2026 16:27

bestsleepit-creator mentioned this pull request May 15, 2026

fix(ci): map zccyman noreply email in AUTHOR_MAP #26295

Closed

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request May 16, 2026

hermes-agent 2026.5.16 Homebrew/homebrew-core#283141

Merged

1 task

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request May 17, 2026

chore: bump NousResearch/hermes-agent version from v2026.5.7 to v2026.5.16 Docker-Hub-sirmark/docker-hermes-agent#6

Merged

teknium1 mentioned this pull request Jun 7, 2026

feat(monitor): proactive urgency-classifying monitor (skill + aux task) #41122

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feat(skills): watchers skill — poll RSS / HTTP JSON / GitHub via cron no-agent#21881

feat(skills): watchers skill — poll RSS / HTTP JSON / GitHub via cron no-agent#21881
teknium1 merged 4 commits into
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teknium1 commented May 8, 2026

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teknium1 commented May 8, 2026

Summary

Why a skill, not a subsystem

What ships

Invariants enforced by the shared helper

End-user pattern

Validation

What this is not

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🔎 Lint report: feat/watchers-skill vs origin/main

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github-actions Bot commented May 8, 2026 •

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🔎 Lint report: `feat/watchers-skill` vs `origin/main`