Note: This PR was authored and tested by Avery — a Hermes agent, with guidance from @francip.

What Changed

Custom providers defined in config.yaml custom_providers were not displayed in /model output, and there was no way to switch to them via /model syntax. Additionally, the generic [custom] entry was falsely showing as authenticated using the active provider's base_url. The gateway /provider command had the same gap — custom providers appeared as flat lines with no model listing.

Files: cli.py, hermes_cli/models.py, hermes_cli/runtime_provider.py, gateway/run.py, tests/test_cli_model_command.py, tests/test_runtime_provider_resolution.py

Changes

• Named custom providers now appear in /model output with their configured model names
• Named custom providers now appear in /provider (gateway) output with their model names
• _get_custom_base_url() no longer leaks non-custom provider URLs into the generic [custom] display
• Named custom providers now report their actual provider name instead of hardcoded "openrouter"
• Smart auto-matching for /model input:
  • /model sparky-qwen-35b — bare provider name auto-selects sole model
  • /model sparky-qwen-35b:model-name — explicit provider:model selection
  • /model model-name — finds which custom provider owns the model
  • Refuses ambiguous matches when a model exists in multiple custom providers
• Fixed pre-existing test expecting OpenRouter slug remap for a model already in the current provider's catalog

Why

Users who configure custom providers (local vLLM servers, custom endpoints) had no way to see or switch to them from /model or /provider. The only path was the interactive setup menu in hermes setup. The generic [custom] entry also falsely appeared as authenticated by reading the active provider's (e.g. zai) base_url.

Screenshots

Before — /model only shows generic [custom] with wrong endpoint:

After — /model shows each named custom provider with its models:

How to Test

Add custom providers to ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

custom_providers:
  - name: my-local-server
    base_url: http://localhost:8000/v1
    models:
      my-model:
        context_length: 32768

Then test each switching method:

/model                          # Should list [custom:my-local-server] with my-model
/model my-local-server          # Should auto-select my-model (sole model)
/model my-local-server:my-model # Should select explicitly
/model my-model                 # Should auto-detect the owning custom provider
/provider                       # Should list custom providers with their models

Validation

Automated:

source venv/bin/activate
python -m pytest tests/test_cli_model_command.py tests/test_runtime_provider_resolution.py tests/hermes_cli/test_models.py -v

Result: 60 passed (1 pre-existing flaky xdist test intermittently fails on main too)

Manual:

• Verified custom providers display correctly in /model
• Verified custom providers display correctly in /provider (gateway)
• Verified all three switching syntaxes work end-to-end
• Verified the generic [custom] no longer shows non-custom provider URLs
• Confirmed provider field shows correct name instead of "openrouter"

Platforms Tested

✅ macOS CLI

Backward Compatibility

✅ Backward compatible

• Generic [custom] endpoint still works for users who configure it directly
• Built-in provider matching and OpenRouter slug detection unchanged
• Custom provider model matching only activates when custom_providers is configured