Hermes

Hermes dashboard "Chat unavailable: 1"

Last checked

The error

Chat unavailable: 1

The bare exit code older dashboards printed when the chat terminal failed to start (described in PR #92296). Current builds say: "Chat could not start: Hermes needs Node.js to run the terminal chat. Install Node 18+ (for example from nodejs.org) and reopen this tab."

The dashboard's Chat tab runs a Node.js terminal app (hermes --tui). When it cannot start, older builds printed the raw exit code, and 1 usually meant Node.js or npm was not found on the dashboard's PATH. Install Node 18 or newer where the dashboard can see it, restart hermes dashboard, and reopen the tab. Current builds say this in plain words.

Why it happens

The dashboard spawns the chat terminal as a child process. If the launcher exits before the terminal connects, its readable error goes to the server log and only the exit code reached the browser.

  1. Node.js or npm is missing, or missing from the PATH of the service or shell that runs hermes dashboard.
  2. Too many chat terminals are open in other tabs.
  3. In Docker images from before June 2026, /opt/hermes/ui-tui was owned by root while the dashboard ran as the hermes user (issue #20500).
  4. On Windows, the embedded terminal needs a POSIX PTY, so the dashboard shows Chat unavailable: the embedded terminal requires a POSIX PTY instead.

The fix

  1. 1 Install Node.js 18 or newer.
  2. 2 Make sure the shell or service that starts hermes dashboard has node on its PATH, then restart it.
  3. 3 Close other chat tabs and click Start new session.
  4. 4 In Docker, pull a current image, or run docker exec -u root <container> chown -R hermes:hermes /opt/hermes/ui-tui.
node --version

Still failing?

  • Read the terminal where hermes dashboard runs; the real error is printed there.
  • Run hermes chat in a terminal on the same machine. If that works, only the dashboard's chat launcher is failing.

Related errors

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Frequently asked questions

Is my agent broken?

Usually not. The agent and gateway can be fine while only the dashboard's embedded chat terminal fails to start.

Why does Hermes need Node.js for chat?

The dashboard's Chat tab embeds the Hermes terminal UI, which is a Node.js app.

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