Hermes Loop Master

╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  0101  SPEC  →  SLICE  →  VERIFY  →  REVIEW  →  HANDOFF  1010   ║
║                                                                    ║
║           _____   _____   _____       _______ _______              ║
║    |     |     | |     | |_____]      |  |  | |_____|              ║
║    |____ |_____| |_____| |            |  |  | |     |              ║
║                                                                    ║
║              M A T R I X   L O O P   F O R   H E R M E S          ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

A Hermes-native skill for systematic coding loops, real verification, and clean agent handoffs.

Current release: v1.4.0

🇬🇧 English

What is it?

Hermes Loop Master is a coding-agent discipline skill. It stops an agent from jumping straight into code and calling work done too early.

It forces a simple loop:

SPEC → ONE SLICE → REAL TEST → ADVERSARIAL REVIEW → CLEAN HANDOFF

Why use it?

Use it when a coding task is:

🐞 a real bug fix,
🚀 a multi-step feature,
🔐 security/auth/payment/data sensitive,
🧹 a refactor with scope-creep risk,
🌍 public/open-source work,
🧠 likely to continue across multiple sessions.

Core features

Feature	What it does
🧾 Spec-first	Writes Goal, Done When, Non-goals, Never Touch, Stop If before editing.
⚙️ Adaptive modes	Uses Tiny, Standard, or Critical discipline instead of paying full-loop cost for every task.
✂️ One-slice work	Implements only one small, testable change at a time.
✅ Behavioral verification	Proves positive, negative, preservation, and failure paths with RED/GREEN evidence.
🧭 Independent Oracle	Uses an authoritative second runtime or contract for Critical tasks when available.
🕵️ Adversarial review	Checks for fake-done patterns, weak tests, scope creep, and secret leaks.
🔁 Clean handoff	Creates resumable state for the next agent/session.
🧼 Repo hygiene	Catches generated files, local paths, and unsafe public artifacts.

Install

git clone https://github.com/s0heyl/hermes-loop-master.git
cd hermes-loop-master
bash install.sh --dry-run
bash install.sh

Use --target DIR for an exact install directory. Replacing an existing recognized install requires --force; the installer stages and validates the new copy, keeps a timestamped backup, and rolls back on failure.

Windows PowerShell:

.\install.ps1 -DryRun
.\install.ps1

Then start a fresh Hermes session and ask:

Use Hermes Loop Master.
Create LOOP.md, keep one slice active at a time, verify and review it,
then repeat until Done When passes or a real blocker requires a handoff.

Project files

.hermes-loop/
├── LOOP.md      # Goal, Done When, plan, evidence log
├── REVIEW.md    # Fake-done / secret / scope review
└── HANDOFF.md   # What changed, evidence, risks, next step

🇮🇷 فارسی

این چیه؟

Hermes Loop Master یک اسکیل برای کدنویسی سیستماتیک با Hermes است. کاری می‌کند Agent قبل از کدنویسی، هدف و معیار Done را واضح کند، فقط یک بخش کوچک را تغییر دهد، تست واقعی بگیرد، diff را بدبینانه بررسی کند و در پایان handoff تمیز بنویسد.

حلقه اصلی:

مشخصات کار → یک تغییر کوچک → تست واقعی → بازبینی بدبینانه → تحویل تمیز

کی استفاده کنیم؟

برای این کارها عالی است:

🐞 باگ واقعی که باید reproduce شود؛
🚀 فیچر چندمرحله‌ای؛
🔐 تغییرات حساس مثل auth، payment، data، migration؛
🧹 refactorهایی که ممکن است از کنترل خارج شوند؛
🌍 ریپوهای public یا PRهای قابل بررسی؛
🧠 کارهایی که ممکن است چند session طول بکشند.

ویژگی‌ها

ویژگی	کاربرد
🧾 Spec-first	قبل از تغییر کد، Goal و Done When و Non-goals نوشته می‌شود.
⚙️ حالت تطبیقی	بسته به ریسک از Tiny، Standard یا Critical استفاده می‌کند.
✂️ One-slice	هر بار فقط یک تغییر کوچک و قابل تست انجام می‌شود.
✅ تست رفتاری	مسیر مثبت، منفی، حفظ رفتار و خطا را با شواهد RED/GREEN ثابت می‌کند.
🧭 Independent Oracle	برای کار Critical از یک runtime یا قرارداد مستقل کمک می‌گیرد.
🕵️ Review بدبینانه	Done الکی، تست ضعیف، scope creep و secret leak بررسی می‌شود.
🔁 Handoff تمیز	session بعدی بدون حدس‌زدن ادامه می‌دهد.
🧼 بهداشت ریپو	فایل generated، مسیر لوکال و چیزهای private کمتر وارد commit می‌شوند.

پرامپت آماده

با Hermes Loop Master این تسک را انجام بده.
اول .hermes-loop/LOOP.md را کامل کن.
هر بار فقط یک slice فعال داشته باش؛ بعد از تست و Review،
slice بعدی را تا تکمیل Done When یا رسیدن به blocker واقعی ادامه بده.
در پایان REVIEW.md و HANDOFF.md را کامل کن.

🧪 Real test results

Built-in fixture check

python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
python scripts/validate_skill.py SKILL.md
python scripts/harness_check.py --strict --mode standard examples/good-loop
python scripts/harness_check.py --strict --mode critical examples/critical-loop
! python scripts/harness_check.py --strict examples/bad-loop

Observed result:

Unit suite: 36/36 pass
SKILL.md: valid without PyYAML
STANDARD: 35/35 (100%, structured RED/GREEN)
CRITICAL: 39/39 (100%, 7/7 behavioral gates)
BAD: 9/34 (26%), rejected as expected

Fixture	Result	Meaning
✅ `good-loop`	`35/35`	Complete Standard loop with structured RED/GREEN evidence.
✅ `critical-loop`	`39/39`	Runnable Critical fixture plus seven behavioral evidence gates.
❌ `bad-loop`	`9/34`	Missing contract, evidence, review checks, and handoff fields.

Real bug-fix smoke test

Buggy code accepted only exact coupon text:

def final_price(price, coupon=None):
    if coupon == "SAVE10":
        return price * 0.9
    return price

Expected:

final_price(100, " save10 ") == 90

Before fix:

1 failed, 2 passed
AssertionError: assert 100 == 90

After one-slice fix:

normalized_coupon = coupon.strip().upper() if isinstance(coupon, str) else coupon

Final evidence:

Historical v1.3 smoke evidence:

3 passed in 0.09s
git diff --check → ok
legacy harness → Score: 27/27 (100%)

Bonus signal: the loop also caught accidentally tracked __pycache__ files and cleaned them from git.

📦 Repository contents

.
├── SKILL.md
├── install.sh
├── install.ps1
├── templates/
│   ├── LOOP.md
│   ├── REVIEW.md
│   ├── HANDOFF.md
│   └── FEATURES.json
├── scripts/
│   ├── artifact_contract.py
│   ├── security_patterns.py
│   ├── validate_skill.py
│   ├── harness_check.py
│   └── compare_benchmarks.py
├── references/
│   └── behavioral-verification.md
├── examples/
│   ├── good-loop/
│   ├── critical-loop/
│   └── bad-loop/
├── tests/
├── .github/workflows/quality.yml
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── SECURITY.md
└── LICENSE

🔐 Safety

Hermes Loop Master:

does not need API keys;
does not install MCP servers;
does not grant extra permissions;
does not replace CI, code review, or human judgment;
does not make destructive commands safe automatically.

Keep public contributions generic: no private paths, customer data, credentials, private chat logs, or proprietary prompts.

🛠️ Roadmap

GitHub Actions CI for skill + fixture validation
Adaptive Tiny / Standard / Critical modes
Strict behavioral harness and benchmark comparison
Safer installer with --dry-run, --force, and --target
Python / Node / Flutter / Go / Rust verification recipes
Better diff classifier for generated files and weakened tests
More real examples: API, UI state, authz negative test, migration dry run

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Keep changes public-safe and evidence-backed.

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Hermes Loop Master

README

Hermes Loop Master

🇬🇧 English

What is it?

Why use it?

Core features

Install

Project files

🇮🇷 فارسی

این چیه؟

کی استفاده کنیم؟

ویژگی‌ها

پرامپت آماده

🧪 Real test results

Built-in fixture check

Real bug-fix smoke test

📦 Repository contents

🔐 Safety

🛠️ Roadmap

🤝 Contributing

📄 License

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