hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug] Hindsight memory provider re-initialized repeatedly, causing retain_every_n_turns counter to reset [1 pull requests]

Description

The Hindsight memory provider plugin is being re-initialized dozens of times during a single CLI session, which resets _turn_counter to 0 each time. This makes retain_every_n_turns > 1 practically unusable — the counter never reaches the configured threshold.

Evidence

• Hindsight plugin initialized 124 times in one session (logged at INFO level)
• Multiple agent_init events on the same MainThread within seconds of each other
• "Unclosed client session" errors for each orphaned aiohttp session
• With retain_every_n_turns=3, retain never fires because counter resets before reaching 3

Root Cause

Each agent_init creates a new AIAgent instance via run_agent.py, which in turn creates a new MemoryManager and loads a fresh HindsightMemoryProvider. The _turn_counter (used for retain_every_n_turns modulus check) is initialized to 0 in __init__ and has no persistence mechanism, so every re-initialization loses accumulated turns.

The code in the Hindsight plugin at sync_turn() actually handles accumulation correctly — it appends each turn to _session_turns and sends all accumulated turns on the Nth trigger — but the counter reset prevents it from ever reaching N.

Log snippet:

15:10:10 → Hindsight initialized
15:10:10 → Hindsight initialized  (0.14s later!)
15:10:42 → agent_init
15:10:51 → Hindsight initialized
15:10:51 → Hindsight initialized  (0.14s later again)

Expected Behavior

• _turn_counter should persist across agent re-initializations within the same session, OR
• The provider should not be re-created unless the session actually changes, OR
• The counter should be persisted to disk (e.g. ~/.hermes/hindsight/counter.json)

Environment

• Hermes Agent: latest (git install)
• Hindsight plugin: 0.7.1 client / 0.6.2 API
• Mode: local_external (Docker-hosted Hindsight)
• Platform: CLI (also reproduces on Feishu gateway)
• OS: WSL2 Ubuntu 22.04

Related

• #15497 Hindsight provider can submit retain work during interpreter shutdown
• #6672 Notify memory providers on in-chat session switches