hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix Direct provider models (e.g. MiniMax highspeed) not selectable via /model when live catalog only lists openrouter/nous providers

Summary

When Hermes is configured to use a direct provider (e.g. MiniMax via model.provider: minimax and a custom base_url), the model works correctly as the configured default and responds normally. However, the /model selector does not list that provider's full model set — only models available through OpenRouter appear.

Environment

• Hermes version: latest (ghcr.io/hostinger/hvps-hermes-agent:latest, image dated 2026-05-17)
• Deployment: Docker on Ubuntu 24.04 VPS
• Primary model: MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed (direct MiniMax API, not via OpenRouter)

Configuration

```yaml model: default: MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed provider: minimax base_url: https://api.minimax.io/anthropic/v1 ```

Steps to Reproduce

1. Configure Hermes with a direct MiniMax provider (above config)
2. Start Hermes — it correctly loads MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed and the model functions normally
3. Run /model in the TUI
4. Select the MiniMax provider

Expected: All MiniMax models from the local catalog cache are listed, including MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed and MiniMax-M2.5-highspeed

Actual: Only 4 non-highspeed MiniMax models are shown. The highspeed variants are absent.

Root Cause (Investigated)

The live model catalog at https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/api/model-catalog.json has been restructured and now only contains openrouter and nous as top-level providers. Direct providers (minimax, anthropic, etc.) are no longer present in the live catalog.

The local models_dev_cache.json (populated from an older catalog fetch) correctly contains MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed and MiniMax-M2.5-highspeed. The /model UI appears to use the live catalog rather than the local cache, resulting in the highspeed variants being invisible to the user even though they work perfectly when set in config.yaml.

Workaround applied: Set model_catalog.ttl_hours: 87600 to pin the local cache indefinitely and prevent a live refresh.

Expected Behavior

One or more of the following:

1. The live catalog should continue to include direct provider model lists (not just openrouter/nous), or
2. The /model selector should fall back to the local cache for providers configured directly in config.yaml, or
3. Models set as model.default in config.yaml should always appear as a selectable option in /model regardless of catalog state

Impact

Users with direct provider API accounts (MiniMax, etc.) who have access to premium/highspeed model variants cannot select those variants via /model after switching away, even though the models function correctly when configured as the default. This creates a confusing experience where the model works on startup but cannot be re-selected interactively.