[5/15/2026 1:07 PM] Tony: ## What does this PR do?

Related Issue

Fixes #

Type of Change

• 🐛 Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
• ✨ New feature (non-breaking change that adds functionality)
• 🔒 Security fix
• 📝 Documentation update
• ✅ Tests (adding or improving test coverage)
• ♻️ Refactor (no behavior change)
• 🎯 New skill (bundled or hub)

Changes Made

scripts/install.ps1

How to Test

1. run install on windows 10, powershell 5.1, it will stop erroring

Checklist

Code

• I've read the Contributing Guide
• My commit messages follow Conventional Commits (fix(scope):, feat(scope):, etc.)
• I searched for existing PRs to make sure this isn't a duplicate
• My PR contains only changes related to this fix/feature (no unrelated commits)
• I've run pytest tests/ -q and all tests pass
• I've added tests for my changes (required for bug fixes, strongly encouraged for features)
• I've tested on my platform:

Documentation & Housekeeping

• I've updated relevant documentation (README, docs/, docstrings) — or N/A
• I've updated cli-config.yaml.example if I added/changed config keys — or N/A
• I've updated CONTRIBUTING.md or AGENTS.md if I changed architecture or workflows — or N/A
• I've considered cross-platform impact (Windows, macOS) per the compatibility guide — or N/A
• I've updated tool descriptions/schemas if I changed tool behavior — or N/A

For New Skills

• This skill is broadly useful to most users (if bundled) — see Contributing Guide
• SKILL.md follows the standard format (frontmatter, trigger conditions, steps, pitfalls)
• No external dependencies that aren't already available (prefer stdlib, curl, existing Hermes tools)
• I've tested the skill end-to-end: hermes --toolsets skills -q "Use the X skill to do Y"

Screenshots / Logs

fill this out too
[5/15/2026 1:07 PM] Alice: 💻 terminal: "cd /x/Eternia/hermes-agent && if comm..."
💻 terminal: "python - <<'PY' import json, urllib.p..."
💻 terminal: "cd /x/Eternia/hermes-agent && test -f..."
[5/15/2026 1:12 PM] Alice: Ahhh yep, Telegram is rendering the nested code fences separately. Use this no-fence plain text block instead — copy from BEGIN to END:

BEGIN PR BODY

What does this PR do?

Fixes Windows PowerShell 5.1 parsing of scripts/install.ps1 by saving the installer with a UTF-8 BOM.

The installer contains Unicode status/branding characters such as check marks, warning symbols, arrows, and box-drawing characters. Windows PowerShell 5.1 can mis-detect UTF-8-without-BOM scripts as a legacy ANSI code page, which may cause parse/rendering failures on fresh Windows installs.

Adding the UTF-8 BOM is the smallest targeted fix: it preserves the existing installer output and makes the file unambiguously UTF-8 for Windows PowerShell 5.1, while remaining compatible with PowerShell 7.

Related Issue

#25191

Fixes #

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change that adds functionality)
• Security fix
• Documentation update
• Tests (adding or improving test coverage)
• Refactor (no behavior change)
• New skill (bundled or hub)

Changes Made

• scripts/install.ps1
  • Saved the PowerShell installer as UTF-8 with BOM so Windows PowerShell 5.1 reliably recognizes the script encoding.

How to Test

1. On Windows, parse the installer with Windows PowerShell 5.1:

   $p = "X:\Eternia\hermes-agent\scripts\install.ps1"
   $text = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($p, [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8)
   [scriptblock]::Create($text) > $null
   Write-Output "parse_ok"

2. Confirm the output is:

   parse_ok

3. Optionally run the installer path normally from Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7 and confirm the banner/status output renders without parse errors.

Checklist

Code

• I've read the Contributing Guide: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
• My commit messages follow Conventional Commits: https://www.conventionalcommits.org/
• I searched existing PRs to make sure this isn't a duplicate
• My PR contains only changes related to this fix/feature
• I've run pytest tests/ -q and all tests pass
• I've added tests for my changes — N/A, encoding-only installer parse fix
• I've tested on my platform: Windows 11, Windows PowerShell 5.1 / PowerShell 7 context

Documentation & Housekeeping

• I've updated relevant documentation — N/A
• I've updated cli-config.yaml.example if I added/changed config keys — N/A
• I've updated CONTRIBUTING.md or AGENTS.md if I changed architecture or workflows — N/A
• I've considered cross-platform impact: Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7
• I've updated tool descriptions/schemas if I changed tool behavior — N/A

Screenshots / Logs

PowerShell parse validation:

parse_ok

Additional checks run locally:

git diff --check upstream/main..HEAD
# passed

security scan
# findings=0

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