Summary

• hermes gateway install --force on macOS would fail with exit code 5 if the service was already loaded in launchd
• launchctl bootstrap cannot overwrite a running service — must bootout first

Fix

When --force is passed and a plist already exists, call launchctl bootout before bootstrap to cleanly unload the old service.

if force and plist_path.exists():
    label = get_launchd_label()
    subprocess.run(["launchctl", "bootout", f"{_launchd_domain()}/{label}"], check=False, timeout=90)

Testing

• Manual: hermes -p pi gateway install --force on macOS with a service already running no longer fails