What does this PR do?

This PR speeds up Termux non-TUI CLI startup in two places:

• hermes --version, hermes -V, and hermes version now use a pre-import
  Termux fast path.
• Bare interactive hermes now reaches the classic non-TUI prompt first, then
  defers agent-only discovery until the first submitted turn.

The bare hermes path is the real end-to-end prompt startup path, not a
version-check proxy. It still launches the Python console entry point, imports
the CLI, renders the compact startup UI, initializes prompt-toolkit, and waits
for the input prompt marker.

Why this approach:

• Version output does not need config, logging, argparse, or package metadata.
• Bare interactive startup should not discover plugins/MCP tools, build full
  tool counts, scan skill commands, initialize tool callbacks, or check terminal
  command security before the user has typed anything.
• The heavy agent/tool imports are still loaded before the first agent turn, so
  the first submitted message keeps the same agent behavior.
• The fast paths are Termux-gated and can still be disabled with
  HERMES_TERMUX_DISABLE_FAST_CLI=1.

Related Issue

Issue filed on discord by @likiuslnik https://discord.com/channels/1053877538025386074/1507281286073417798

Related PRs found during duplicate check:

• perf(termux): speed up non-tui cli startup #29438 (perf(termux): speed up non-tui cli startup) was closed.
• perf(termux): speed up tui cold start #29419 (perf(termux): speed up tui cold start) was merged.
• perf(termux): speed up tui cold start #29404 (perf(termux): speed up tui cold start) was closed.

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

• hermes_cli/main.py
  • Adds the pre-import Termux version fast path.
  • Makes bare Termux hermes use compact startup UI.
  • Defers agent startup discovery for bare interactive prompt startup.
  • Preserves eager startup discovery for one-shot and chat -q paths.
• cli.py
  • Defers plugin/MCP/shell-hook startup until the first agent initialization
    when HERMES_DEFER_AGENT_STARTUP=1.
  • Avoids full tool discovery for the compact Termux startup status line.
  • Avoids git banner state lookup on the fast bare startup path.
  • Lazily imports heavy agent/tool/skill/cron/pricing/table modules.
  • Defers tool callbacks and tirith availability checks until tools can run.
• tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py
  • Adds coverage for the ultra-fast version path.
  • Adds coverage that bare Termux hermes defers agent startup and enables
    compact fast startup.

How to Test

1. Run syntax, lint, whitespace, and compatibility checks:

   /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python -m py_compile hermes_cli/main.py cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py
   /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/ruff check hermes_cli/main.py cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py
   git diff --check
   /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py hermes_cli/main.py cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py

2. Run focused tests:

   env -i PATH="$PATH" HOME="$HOME" TZ=UTC LANG=C.UTF-8 LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 PYTHONHASHSEED=0 \
     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python \
     scripts/run_tests_parallel.py \
     tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py \
     tests/hermes_cli/test_startup_plugin_gating.py \
     tests/hermes_cli/test_codex_models.py \
     -- -o addopts=''

3. Measure full bare hermes prompt readiness with a PTY and CPU pinning:

   • Launch /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/hermes
     with PYTHONPATH pointing at this branch.
   • Pin with taskset -c <cpu>.
   • Stop the timer when both Welcome to Hermes Agent and the prompt marker
     � have appeared.

Results

Test platform:

• RedMagic 10 Pro / NX789J
• Android / Termux
• Linux 6.6.92-android15-8-g3637f4904cf5-ab13944661-4k
• Python 3.11.10
• Hermes Agent 0.14.0
• Ruff 0.15.10

Validation:

• py_compile passed for changed Python files.
• ruff check hermes_cli/main.py cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py
  passed.
• git diff --check passed.
• python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py hermes_cli/main.py cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_resume_flow.py
  passed.
• Focused tests passed: 97 passed, 0 failed.

Performance:

• Initial full bare hermes PTY startup-to-prompt measurement was about
  5.079s on cpu4.
• Warm full bare hermes baseline before this second pass was about 2.90s
  on cpu4.
• After this change, full bare hermes prompt readiness on the slowest measured
  core in this run:
  • cpu0 final avg 0.814466s
  • min 0.805957s
  • max 0.827856s
  • 10 runs: 0.809 0.816 0.819 0.806 0.815 0.814 0.809 0.828 0.814 0.813
• All-core bare prompt sweep after validation:
  • cpu0: avg 0.825642s, max 0.878412s
  • cpu1: avg 0.808882s, max 0.812983s
  • cpu2: avg 0.811985s, max 0.818701s
  • cpu3: avg 0.813983s, max 0.818755s
  • cpu4: avg 0.806089s, max 0.818785s
  • cpu5: avg 0.809485s, max 0.817154s
  • cpu6: avg 0.584450s, max 0.590861s
  • cpu7: avg 0.580315s, max 0.580855s
• Existing version fast path remains under the 0.05s target on efficiency
  cores from the earlier validation: worst-core cpu4 avg 0.037920s, max
  0.041s.

Checklist

Code

• I've read the Contributing Guide.
• My commit messages follow Conventional Commits.
• I searched for existing PRs to make sure this is not a duplicate.
• My PR contains only changes related to this fix.
• I've run pytest tests/ -q and all tests pass.
• I've added tests for my changes.
• I've tested on my platform: Android / Termux on RedMagic 10 Pro.

Documentation & Housekeeping

• Documentation update: N/A, startup behavior is implementation-only.
• cli-config.yaml.example update: N/A, no config keys added.
• CONTRIBUTING.md / AGENTS.md update: N/A, no workflow policy changed.
• Cross-platform impact considered: new prompt fast path is Termux-gated;
  regular desktop startup remains unchanged.
• Tool descriptions/schemas update: N/A, no tool behavior changed.

For New Skills

N/A.

Screenshots / Logs

Focused test output:

=== Summary: 3 files, 97 tests passed, 0 failed (100% complete) in 1.1s (16 workers) ===

Worst-core bare prompt timing:

cpu0 final avg=0.814466 min=0.805957 max=0.827856 times=0.809 0.816 0.819 0.806 0.815 0.814 0.809 0.828 0.814 0.813