Hermes

Hermes "Something went wrong and I couldn't finish this reply. Use /retry to try again"

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The error

⚠️ Something went wrong and I couldn't finish this reply. Use /retry to try again, or /new to start a fresh conversation. Technical details are in the gateway log (`hermes logs`).

gateway.errors.generic_failed in locales/en.yaml. A variant inserts one sentence after "reply" when Hermes knows the reason (expired sign-in, empty balance, overload, rate limit).

A turn failed inside the Hermes gateway, and Hermes kept the raw error out of the chat. Send /retry once, since many causes are temporary. If it fails again, run hermes logs on the host and find the line starting Agent turn failed; reply sanitized for chat. Detail: which names the real problem. /new starts a fresh conversation if the session itself is broken.

Why it happens

On Telegram, Discord, Slack and other chat surfaces, Hermes replaces failed turns with this sanitized message and writes the exception to the gateway log.

  1. A provider error that is not one of the specifically worded cases (overload, rate limit, context overflow and so on).
  2. A host-side failure with no credential problem, such as a CA bundle deleted under a long-running gateway or a file Hermes cannot read (issue #140344). /login cannot fix these.
  3. A broken or corrupted session.
  4. Before v0.23.0, /retry itself could fail on multi-profile gateways; v0.23.0 fixed it.

The fix

  1. 1 Send /retry once.
  2. 2 On the host, run hermes logs and search for Agent turn failed to read the Detail.
  3. 3 Fix what the Detail names: the provider key, the model id, the network or the host file.
  4. 4 If the session is the problem, send /new.
  5. 5 Update Hermes if you are on a release before v0.23.0.
hermes logs

Still failing?

  • Run hermes doctor on the host.
  • Try the same prompt in hermes chat on the host to see the error unsanitized.

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Frequently asked questions

Does /new delete my memory?

No. It starts a new conversation; memory files and settings stay in place.

Why can't the bot tell me the real error?

Raw exceptions can contain URLs, keys or account details, so Hermes keeps them in the gateway log and sends a safe summary to the chat.

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