Hermes Bot 1.1.0

Hermes Bot 1.1.0 — the app now sets itself up, and updates itself.

What is new since 1.0.0

• A setup, on the first run. The first time the app opens, it asks where
  Hermes lives, for the key that opens the door, and who answers on the other
  side. It shakes hands with the host, asks it for the first bot — its name,
  its shape, its colour — and shows that bot on the last page. The setup can
  be run again from Settings → Setup, whenever Hermes moves to another
  machine.
• An actor for the setup. The setup is not a page of forms: it is a scene
  with one character in it, that breathes, blinks, thinks while the tunnel
  opens, and celebrates when the host answers. It takes another colour every
  two seconds, and the light of the window takes the colour with it. While the
  bot is being made the actor is the bot: it wears the shape and the colour
  being picked.
• Hermes on this machine. The app talks to a Hermes that runs on the same
  Mac, on the API port itself: no SSH, no tunnel, no host to name. The key is
  read from the Hermes home right here, and the app says where it lives
  (~/.hermes/.env) for anyone whose Hermes insists on one. A connection
  stored by 1.0.0 keeps meaning ssh.
• An update, on a button. Settings → Updates says which version the
  app is running, and one button looks for the next one. If there is one, it
  is downloaded in front of you — the bar shows how far it has come — and the
  app restarts as the version that was found. The app still looks by itself on
  launch, quietly, and takes the update when it closes.
• The mark beside the settings. An icon in the sidebar, without a word: it
  turns while it looks, a ring walks with the download, a dot pulses when a
  version was seen, and pings when the new version is on the disk.
• What GitHub has published. Settings → Updates reads the page of the
  project too: the versions before this one, row by row, with their dates, and
  each row opens where its release lives. The shell asks GitHub — the screen
  touches no network of its own.
• A build for both Macs. The release now carries arm64 and x64, each
  as a .dmg and a .zip, named Hermes-Bot-1.1.0-<arch>.<ext>.

What changed

• The connection is two panels side by side — this Mac, or another machine —
  and each is a click. On this Mac there is nothing to fill in, and the key is
  read where it lives; on another machine, the hosts the SSH config already
  names are listed, and one click writes the connection down and opens the
  tunnel.
• Nothing on the host changes to install this version: the bots, the groups
  and the conversations are still read from Hermes, and the connection you
  already stored keeps working.
• The chrome carries no violet any more: light gray, smoke and slate, and the
  light a new bot starts under is the palette's blue. The colour a bot wears
  keeps being its own.
• The settings pane scrolls with the wheel instead of dragging the window
  sideways.
• A command that never ran now says what went wrong instead of throwing, and
  a version check that fails quietly keeps the version it has.

Installing

Download Hermes-Bot-1.1.0-arm64.dmg on Apple silicon, or
Hermes-Bot-1.1.0-x64.dmg on an Intel Mac; drag Hermes Bot into
Applications and open it.

The app is not signed with a Developer ID, so macOS will not trust it the
first time: right click → Open → Open, once.

Or, from a terminal, once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Hermes Bot.app"

Then walk the setup the app opens: say where Hermes runs — this Mac, or another
machine — and it reads the key where it lives.

Updating from 1.0.0

Open Settings → Updates and click the button beside the version: 1.1.0 is
downloaded in front of you, and the app restarts as it.

More

The README in the repository tells the whole story, and CHANGELOG.md keeps
the list version by version.

Hermes Bot 1.0.0

⚠️ Version 1.1.0 is out — install that one instead

1.1.0 sets itself up on the first run, updates itself from inside the
app, and talks to a Hermes on this Mac as easily as one behind SSH.

→ Get Hermes Bot 1.1.0

This page stays for the record. The build below still works, and the app
finds 1.1.0 by itself — but a fresh install should start from 1.1.0.

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The first release of Hermes Bot — a native Mac window onto the Hermes agents
you already have.

What it does

• Talks to a Hermes host over SSH. The bots, the groups and the conversations
  live there; nothing about a conversation is written on your machine.
• Reads a conversation back from the server when you open it, so closing the
  app, wiping it or reinstalling it costs you nothing.
• Groups of bots: every member is asked at the same time, a bot that has
  nothing to say says so with a tapback, and a bot that names another hands it
  the floor.
• A file you attach is copied to the server, where the bot can read it.
• The microphone dictates: Hermes transcribes it on your own host.

Installing

Download the .dmg, drag Hermes Bot into Applications and open it.
This build is for Apple silicon (arm64).

The app is not signed with a Developer ID, so macOS will not trust it the
first time: right click → Open → Open, once.

Or, from a terminal, once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Hermes Bot.app"

Then, in Settings, say where Hermes runs (the SSH host) and let the app
import the API key from that host.

More

The README in the repository tells the whole story.