fix(gateway): run exec quick commands inline when agent is mid-turn (#25783) by briandevans · Pull Request #25804 · NousResearch/hermes-agent

briandevans · 2026-05-14T15:19:26Z

Summary

Exec-type quick commands (`quick_commands..type: exec`) now run inline when a user sends them while the agent is mid-turn, instead of being queued and replayed to the LLM as raw text.
Extracts the existing exec dispatch + execution into `_try_execute_exec_quick_command` so both `_handle_message` (cold path) and `_handle_active_session_busy_message` (busy path) share one source of truth.
Adds a regression test that exercises the busy-path bypass, the alias-not-short-circuited contract, the draining-wins precedence, and the helper's None / error return paths.

The bug

`gateway/run.py` registers `_handle_active_session_busy_message` as each adapter's `busy_session_handler`. Whenever a message arrives for an active session that's mid-turn, the adapter routes through that handler instead of the cold path `_handle_message` — so the existing exec dispatch at `gateway/run.py:6582` was unreachable. The busy handler only knew queue / interrupt / steer:

```
user sends `/note remember to buy milk` during a tool-call turn
→ adapter detects active session
→ calls _handle_active_session_busy_message
→ merge_pending_message_event(...) # queued
→ next turn: agent sees "/note remember to buy milk" as user text
```

The user's daily-note script never runs; the agent receives the slash command as conversation input.

The fix

`_try_execute_exec_quick_command(command)` — new helper that performs the dispatch lookup, runs the subprocess with the same env-sanitization + 30s timeout + redaction as the cold path, and returns the output string. Returns `None` when no exec quick command matches, so callers fall through. `alias`-type quick commands intentionally pass through (they rewrite into agent input and keep normal busy semantics).
`_handle_active_session_busy_message` — after the existing auth + draining branches, call the helper. If it returns a string, deliver via `adapter._send_with_retry` and return `True` (handled). Precedence mirrors the cold path: draining wins, exec quick commands next, queue/interrupt last.
`_handle_message` — refactored to call the same helper, so both call sites use one implementation.

Test plan

`tests/gateway/test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py` (new):
- `test_exec_quick_command_runs_inline_during_busy_session` — exec subprocess spawned, output delivered, `interrupt` and `merge_pending_message_event` never called.
- `test_non_exec_command_falls_through_to_queue_logic` — plain message still queues + acks.
- `test_alias_quick_command_is_not_short_circuited` — alias still falls through to queue.
- `test_exec_quick_command_blocked_during_drain` — draining still wins; user sees the draining message.
- `test_helper_returns_none_for_non_exec_command` + `test_helper_reports_missing_exec_command_string` — helper contract.
Adjacent suites pass with no regressions: `tests/gateway/test_busy_session_ack.py` + `tests/cli/test_quick_commands.py` (33 tests, including the cold-path exec coverage that now exercises the shared helper).
Regression guard: before this PR, `_handle_active_session_busy_message` had no exec branch, so the first test would call `running_agent.interrupt` and `merge_pending_message_event` instead of spawning the subprocess — `mock_spawn.assert_called_once()` fails on `origin/main`.

Sibling code paths that may need the same fix: `built-in slash commands like `/new`, `/voice`, `/goal` are also queued during a busy session even though their handlers don't touch agent state. Intentionally left out of this PR's scope to keep the diff small — happy to widen if preferred.

Pull request overview

Note

Copilot was unable to run its full agentic suite in this review.

Extracts exec-type quick command execution into a reusable helper so that quick commands can bypass the busy-session queue/interrupt path and run inline during an active agent turn (fixes #25783).

Changes:

Adds _try_execute_exec_quick_command helper consolidating exec subprocess logic with env sanitization, timeout, and redaction.
Inserts a short-circuit in _handle_active_session_busy_message (after the draining branch) so exec quick commands run inline and reply without touching the running agent.
Refactors the cold-path quick command branch to delegate to the new helper, plus adds a new test module covering busy bypass, drain precedence, alias fall-through, and helper edge cases.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
gateway/run.py	Extracts exec quick command runner; short-circuits busy-session path for exec commands.
tests/gateway/test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py	New tests verifying busy bypass, drain precedence, alias fall-through, and helper behavior.

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+        exec_cmd = qcmd.get("command", "")
+        if not exec_cmd:
+            return f"Quick command '/{command}' has no command defined."


+                        reply_to=(
+                            reply_anchor
+                            if event.source.platform == Platform.TELEGRAM
+                            and event.source.chat_type == "dm"
+                            and event.source.thread_id
+                            else (None if event.source.platform == Platform.TELEGRAM and event.source.thread_id else event.message_id)
+                        ),


+        try:
+            # Sanitize env to prevent credential leakage — quick commands run
+            # in the gateway process which has all API keys in os.environ.
+            from tools.environments.local import _sanitize_subprocess_env


+        with patch("gateway.run.asyncio.create_subprocess_shell", new=AsyncMock(return_value=fake_proc)) as mock_spawn, \
+             patch("gateway.run.merge_pending_message_event") as mock_merge:
+            result = await runner._handle_active_session_busy_message(event, sk)


+        event = _make_event(text="/note while draining")
+        sk = build_session_key(event.source)
+        runner.adapters[event.source.platform] = adapter
+
+        with patch("gateway.run.asyncio.create_subprocess_shell", new=AsyncMock()) as mock_spawn:
+            result = await runner._handle_active_session_busy_message(event, sk)


briandevans · 2026-05-14T16:10:41Z

@copilot Addressed in 49b06ec51:

gateway/run.py:2612 (reply_to nesting) — Factored into _busy_ack_reply_to(event, reply_anchor) and reused at all three sibling send sites in _handle_active_session_busy_message (drain branch, exec-bypass branch, normal busy-ack branch). Same behaviour; the helper just prevents the three Telegram-rule branches from drifting on future changes.
tests/test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py:117 (real-module dependency) — Added patch("tools.environments.local._sanitize_subprocess_env", return_value={}) and patch("agent.redact.redact_sensitive_text", side_effect=lambda x: x) to the busy-bypass test so it's truly hermetic alongside the existing telegram stub.

Deliberately not changing in this PR:

gateway/run.py:2517 (cold-path None from helper) — The cold path enters this branch only after quick_commands[command]["type"] == "exec", which exactly matches the helper's accept condition: helper returns None only when command is empty, missing from quick_commands, the entry isn't a dict, or type != "exec". All four are excluded by the surrounding guards, so the cold path can never see None here unless something concurrently mutates self.config mid-call (not a pattern this codebase supports). Open to revisiting if you'd prefer a defensive fallthrough anyway.
gateway/run.py:2521 (_sanitize_subprocess_env privacy) — Promoting the underscore-prefix to a public API touches tools/environments/local.py and any other call sites; out of scope for this bug fix. Happy to open a follow-up if maintainers want the public symbol.
test:213 (_running_agents[sk] not set in drain test) — Intentional: the drain branch (lines 2557–2583) runs before the function reads _running_agents, so setting it isn't needed to reach the assertion path. The point of that test is verifying drain precedence over exec bypass; a running-agent fixture would just be inert state.

All 6 tests in test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py pass locally, plus the 86 adjacent busy/drain tests (test_busy_session_ack.py, test_command_bypass_active_session.py, test_restart_drain.py, test_pending_drain_*, test_cancel_background_drain.py) still pass — no regression from the helper extraction.

briandevans · 2026-05-14T17:09:09Z

CI audit — all 46 test failures in the latest Tests run are pre-existing baselines on clean origin/main (b08f53a, run 25872221704). The failure set is byte-for-byte identical between this PR's run 25871056323 and the main run, and none touch gateway/run.py busy-session handling or tests/gateway/test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py (6/6 of which pass locally).

Cluster	Symptom	Root cause on main
dingtalk / weixin / wecom_callback / platform_http_client_limits (~21 failures)	`AttributeError: module 'cryptography.utils' has no attribute 'DeprecatedIn46'` / `Cryptography_HAS_OP_NO_RENEGOTIATION`	CI's lazy-installed `mautrix[encryption]` pulls a newer `cryptography` into the venv that the pinned `alibabacloud-tea-openapi` / `wechatpy` / `cffi` shims aren't compatible with.
bedrock (5)	`ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'botocore'`	`[bedrock]` extra (`botocore`) not in CI install.
transcription / tts_kittentts (3)	`ModuleNotFoundError: faster_whisper`, ImportError test_tts_kittentts	Optional voice extras not installed in CI.
run_agent/test_compression_feasibility (8), test_auxiliary_client (3), test_provider_parity (2), test_switch_model_context (1), test_background_review (1)	`assert None is not None`, `expected call not found`	Aux-client / provider-chain refactor regression — same failure set on main.
test_plugin_discovery (1)	`Expected 33 profiles, got 34`	Profile count drifted on main (new `arcee` profile listed).
test_bedrock_integration / test_update_autostash / test_registry / test_context_compressor_summary_continuity / test_feishu_bot_admission / test_matrix (8)	Various baseline assertion drifts	All reproduce identically on `b08f53a`.

All six focused tests in tests/gateway/test_busy_quick_command_bypass.py pass locally on this branch. Happy to rebase once the cryptography/aux-client baselines clear on main.

…ousResearch#25783) Adapters route incoming messages to ``_handle_active_session_busy_message`` whenever the agent is mid-turn, but that path only knew how to queue/interrupt/steer. Exec-type quick commands (``quick_commands.<name>.type: exec``) bypass the LLM by design — they spawn a subprocess and return its output. When a user sent ``/note ...`` during a multi-tool-call turn, the busy handler had no knowledge of quick commands, so the message was ``merge_pending_message_event``'d into the pending queue and replayed to the agent as raw text on the next turn. Net effect: the daily-note script never ran, and the agent saw ``/note remember to buy milk`` as a user message. Extract the existing exec dispatch + execution from ``_handle_message`` into ``_try_execute_exec_quick_command`` so both the cold path and the busy path can call it. In the busy handler, run the helper after the draining branch (matching the precedence in ``_handle_message``: draining wins, exec quick commands next) and deliver the output via ``adapter._send_with_retry``. ``alias`` quick commands intentionally are NOT short-circuited — they rewrite into agent input and follow normal busy semantics. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

…olation Addresses Copilot inline feedback on NousResearch#25804: * Extract `_busy_ack_reply_to(event, reply_anchor)` to centralize the three-way Telegram reply-target rule that was duplicated across the drain, exec-bypass, and normal busy-ack send sites in `_handle_active_session_busy_message`. The behaviour is unchanged — the goal is just preventing the three branches from drifting on future Telegram changes. * Patch the helper's lazy cross-module imports (`tools.environments.local._sanitize_subprocess_env`, `agent.redact.redact_sensitive_text`) inside the busy-bypass test so it stays hermetic with the `telegram` stub already at the top of the file. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

briandevans · 2026-05-30T16:11:52Z

Closing to focus the queue on security/file-safety work where civilian merges are landing. Happy to reopen if maintainers want this picked up.

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 14, 2026 15:19

Copilot AI reviewed May 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

alt-glitch added type/bug Something isn't working P2 Medium — degraded but workaround exists comp/gateway Gateway runner, session dispatch, delivery labels May 14, 2026

briandevans force-pushed the fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783 branch from 49b06ec to d9fb3ea Compare May 18, 2026 21:25

alt-glitch mentioned this pull request May 19, 2026

Exec-type quick commands are blocked when gateway is draining #28663

Open

zccyman mentioned this pull request May 19, 2026

fix(gateway): allow exec-type quick commands to bypass draining guard #28734

Open

briandevans force-pushed the fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783 branch from d9fb3ea to 634a3f6 Compare May 22, 2026 06:11

briandevans force-pushed the fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783 branch from 634a3f6 to f9640a5 Compare May 24, 2026 03:09

briandevans force-pushed the fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783 branch from f9640a5 to 38606b2 Compare May 26, 2026 07:10

briandevans and others added 2 commits May 28, 2026 11:11

briandevans force-pushed the fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783 branch from 38606b2 to ee3dc72 Compare May 28, 2026 18:11

briandevans closed this May 30, 2026

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fix(gateway): run exec quick commands inline when agent is mid-turn (#25783)#25804

fix(gateway): run exec quick commands inline when agent is mid-turn (#25783)#25804
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briandevans:fix/gateway-exec-quick-command-bypasses-busy-25783

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briandevans commented May 14, 2026

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