…dling (#8919)

What does this PR do? Fixes #8919

Custom providers (e.g. LiteLLM on localhost) were ignored and Hermes defaulted to OpenAI endpoints, causing 401 errors.

bug

• CLI intercepting nested *_API_KEY keys (e.g. model.api_key)
• api_base vs base_url schema mismatch
• Missing runtime hydration of HERMES_INFERENCE_PROVIDER and OPENAI_BASE_URL
• hermes config get lacking nested key traversal

Fix

• Scoped _API_KEY interception to ignore nested keys
• Added api_base → base_url normalization in load_config
• Hydrated provider settings from env vars at runtime
• Implemented nested key traversal for config get

Restores reliable configuration for custom providers and fixes CLI config behavior.

Related Issue

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

How to Test

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