hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Image generation (and perhaps other Python-dependent tools) broken when Hermes Agent installed via Nix [1 pull requests]

Bug Description

When Hermes Agent is installed via the documented Nix installation path on macOS, all tools that depend on pip-installable Python packages fail with the same root cause: the Nix store's Python 3.12 environment has no working pip, and attempts to install packages (by the agent or the tool runtime) fail because ensurepip returns non-zero exit status.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run hermes --tui.
2. Attempt to generate an image.
3. Search for the logs of the session.

Expected Behavior

This should work without issues out of the box as it did in earlier versions.

Actual Behavior

Image generation fails without a clear reason (without checking the logs). Hermes will try to work around the issues (e.g. if uv is not available on the system, the Nix Python environment being immutable) by reaching out to the system-level Python which might mess with the global environment in hard to track ways. The image generation does not work in all cases due to Nix's python being the default for all calls.

I also noticed a weird behaviour in which trying to change the Hermes configs via hermes tools or hermes setup for image generation defaulted to use direct FAL on its own though I am a Nous subscriber and attempt to use the gateway. Only deleting ~/.hermes/config and running hermes setup would cause the config to be set to what was intended (though I don't know the schema so there might have been some errors in the YAML earlier, didn't edit it manually myself though).

Affected Component

Tools (terminal, file ops, web, code execution, etc.)

Messaging Platform (if gateway-related)

No response

Debug Report

Report       https://paste.rs/KeGuk
agent.log    https://paste.rs/NsxEk
gateway.log  https://paste.rs/jqsFY

Operating System

macOS 26.3.1

Python Version

3.12.13

Hermes Version

0.14.0 (2026.5.16)

Additional Logs / Traceback (optional)

Root Cause Analysis (optional)

No response

Proposed Fix (optional)

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR for this?

• I'd like to fix this myself and submit a PR