Hermes ↔ Envit Skill Integration — Current State (2026-09-20)
Hermes ↔ Envit Skill Integration — Current State (2026-09-20)
Read-only boundary. This is the current-state characterization of the seam between Hermes' skill loader and envit's materialized skill store. Updated after user discovery that all 4 "missing" Hermes-native skills were actually installed in nested subdirs.
Audience: operator setting up a fresh Hermes agent on school-core. Depth: what is and isn't wired today — not a fix plan.
The seam (unchanged — still the core architectural fact)
| Layer | Where it lives | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Hermes skill loader | ~/.hermes/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md (flat AND nested subdirs) | Loads skill context into agent prompts at session start / tool use |
| envit 0.1.0 (sync) | ~/.envit/store/checkouts/<repo>/<commit>/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md | Materializes declared skill SETS from git at pinned commits into a global store |
| Integration layer | DOES NOT EXIST (no auto-scan) | Nothing bridges the two automatically. The bridge_envit_to_hermes.sh script provides a manual symlink bridge for plannotator skills only. |
A Hermes agent pointed at school-core has NO automatic access to the 8 plannotator SKILL.md files that envit sync materialized — unless the operator runs the bridge script or teaches Hermes to scan ~/.envit/store/.
What IS wired today
Plannotator skills (envit-managed, in ~/.envit/store/)
| Skill SET | Repo | Commit | SKILL.md files |
|---|---|---|---|
| effective-html | plannotator/effective-html | d95debbaef15 | html, html-plan, html-diagram, html-wireframe, html-prototype, design-artifact |
| guides | plannotator/guides | da10932bcb86 | plannotator-guide |
| herdr-annotate | plannotator/herdr-annotate | 7c8f5a177b82 | plannotator-tui |
Materialized and readable on disk. ripwire scans them fine. NOT loadable by Hermes without the bridge script.
Hermes-native skills (Hermes-managed, in ~/.hermes/skills/)
All 8 are installed and loadable. The "4 missing" claim was stale — written before these were installed or when the flat ls search was too shallow to catch subdir nesting.
| Status | Skill | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| INSTALLED | pr-verification-gate | ~/.hermes/skills/pr-verification-gate/ (flat) | SKILL.md, references/ |
| INSTALLED | build-verification | ~/.hermes/skills/build-verification/ (flat) | SKILL.md |
| INSTALLED | bounded-adversarial-plan-review | ~/.hermes/skills/bounded-adversarial-plan-review/ (flat) | SKILL.md, references/, assets/ |
| INSTALLED | worst-day-ever | ~/.hermes/skills/worst-day-ever/ (flat) | SKILL.md, assets/ |
| INSTALLED | github-pr-workflow | ~/.hermes/skills/github/github-pr-workflow/ (nested) | SKILL.md, references/ (2 files), modified 2026-08-15 |
| INSTALLED | github-pr-gates | ~/.hermes/skills/github/github-pr-gates/ (nested) | SKILL.md (39KB), references/ (6 files), scripts/ (1), modified 2026-08-13 |
| INSTALLED | pr-merge-readiness | ~/.hermes/skills/github/pr-merge-readiness/ (nested) | SKILL.md (22KB), references/ (2 files), scripts/ (1), modified 2026-09-17 |
| INSTALLED | github-pr-checks-truth | ~/.hermes/skills/github-ops/github-pr-checks-truth/ (nested) | SKILL.md (3.5KB), modified 2026-07-14 |
None are missing. The flat ls ~/.hermes/skills/ lists 230 top-level dirs but does NOT show nested subdirs like github/ or github-ops/. The earlier "missing" assessment used a flat search that missed these. The correct check is recursive: find ~/.hermes/skills -name SKILL.md.
What changed in this update
| Before (stale) | After (corrected) |
|---|---|
envit.json _herm-native-notes.missing listed 4 skills | Empty — all 8 installed |
envit.json _herm-native-notes.installed listed 4 flat skills | Lists all 8 (4 flat + 4 nested with paths) |
envit.json note: "None of these have .skill files" | Note: "All 4 are SKILL.md-only… 2 have references/, 2 have scripts/" |
| school-core-engineering skill: "4 Hermes-native skills missing… need sourcing" | Replaced with "Hermes-native skill inventory (all 8 are pre-installed)" table + descriptions |
| hermes-envit-integration-gap.md: "4 MISSING" table | Replaced with "All 8 installed" table with locations + last-modified dates |
setup_envit.sh: "installs missing Hermes-native skills" | Updated to: "the 8 Hermes-native skills are pre-installed… none need installation from a registry" |
What ISN'T wired (genuine gaps, not stale claims)
| Gap | Severity | What it is |
|---|---|---|
Hermes has no auto-scan of ~/.envit/store/ | MEDIUM | envit-materialized plannotator skills (8 SKILL.md files) are invisible to Hermes without the manual bridge script. This is by design in envit 0.1.0 — no loader hook exists. |
envit.lock.json pins at HEAD, not exact commits | LOW | A fresh envit sync --frozen pulls today's HEAD, not the tested version. Cosmetic until drift matters. |
.envit/AGENTS.md stub is unpopulated by sync | LOW | Cosmetic — the stub says "Generated by envit sync" but envit 0.1.0 doesn't write the repo/skill index into it. |
The bridge script: what it does and doesn't do
scripts/bridge_envit_to_hermes.sh closes the plannotator-side gap only:
- Symlinks 4 unique plannotator skills into
~/.hermes/skills/: html-diagram, html-wireframe, design-artifact, plannotator-tui - Skips 4 identical skills (verified by
diff -q): html, html-plan, html-prototype, plannotator-guide — these already exist in~/.hermes/skills/with identical content - Does NOT touch the 8 Hermes-native skills — they're already in
~/.hermes/skills/(some nested), no bridging needed - Does NOT auto-run — operator runs it manually after
setup_envit.sh
Files updated in this correction
| File | Change |
|---|---|
envit.json | _herm-native-notes.missing → []; installed → all 8 with paths; note → corrected |
school-core-engineering/SKILL.md | Replaced "4 missing" gap with inventory table + descriptions; updated setup_envit.sh description |
docs/setup/hermes-envit-integration-gap.md | Replaced "4 MISSING" table with "all 8 installed" table; corrected all stale claims |
