Hermes Agent Adds Model-per-Task Control and 120x Model-Picker Speedup
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The 48-hour PR window returned 28 feature and performance PRs. Two stories stand out: the model picker got a 120x latency reduction through stale-while-revalidate caching, and kanban tasks gained per-card model control with thinking-depth configuration.
Model picker: 7.3s to 0.06s
Two PRs combined to cut the /model picker payload build from over 7 seconds to under 60 milliseconds in the common case.
teknium1's #76430 (+289/-2, 3 files) introduced stale-while-revalidate caching for the model catalog. When the 1-hour TTL lapsed mid-session, the old behaviour blocked the picker while it rebuilt the full catalog from scratch. The new behaviour serves the expired cache instantly and refreshes it in a background thread. A test file (test_model_cache_swr.py, +185 lines) covers the SWR lifecycle including a TTL-lapse-then-background-refresh sequence.
teknium1's #76386 preceded it, fixing a Copilot token-exchange retry backoff that could stall /model open on a cold cache. The two PRs together take the picker from 7.3 seconds to roughly 60 milliseconds in the typical case -- a 120x improvement.
Kanban: per-task model and thinking depth
OutThisLife's #76417 (+1620/-674, 18 files) adds per-card model and thinking-depth overrides to the kanban board. Previously a task ran on whatever model the assigned profile used. Now a board card can specify a model and reasoning effort directly from the desktop UI.
The PR introduces a model catalog menu (model-catalog-menu.tsx, +589 lines with tests) and refactors the model edit submenu and menu panel. The kanban board component gained a model selector tied to the card's metadata.
Directive chips: hover to act
OutThisLife's #76401 (+399/-15, 14 files) wires hover-pill actions for directive chips like @url: and @session:. In the composer a click on a chip previously only moved the caret. Now a hover pill offers context-aware actions: open the link, view the session reference, or dismiss. Both the docked and edit composer modes support it.
Desktop: terminal fonts and wake indicator
Two user-facing desktop PRs rounded out the window.
teknium1's #76395 (+1009/-30, 23 files) adds a configurable terminal font picker. The font is set via terminal.font_family in config.yaml or through Settings > Appearance, which includes installed-font suggestions and a glyph preview. Font changes repaint the terminal live without a PTY restart.
teknium1's #76396 (+660/-3, 16 files) adds a visual wake confirmation for macOS: a non-focusable glow at the notch that breathes on wake-word detection, holds steady during capture, and fades out. Previously confirmation was audio-only, leaving muted Macs with no feedback.
[^1]: teknium1. "perf(model-picker): serve stale model caches instantly, refresh in background." GitHub. Aug 1, 2026. [^2]: OutThisLife. "Pick a kanban task's model and thinking depth from the board." GitHub. Aug 1, 2026. [^3]: OutThisLife. "Act on composer directive chips from a hover pill." GitHub. Aug 2, 2026. [^4]: teknium1. "feat(desktop): add configurable terminal font picker." GitHub. Aug 1, 2026. [^5]: teknium1. "feat(desktop): add notch wake indicator." GitHub. Aug 1, 2026.