Problem or Use Case

English is not my first language, so apologies if this reads a bit ChatGPT-ish. I will try to keep the request concrete.

Hermes currently creates hermes_state.SessionDB() directly in several runtime paths. That works for the default SQLite implementation, but it also means there is no single construction boundary for session-state reliability work or future backend extension.

The immediate change I am suggesting is small: centralize SessionDB construction behind one helper/provider boundary while keeping the existing SQLite SessionDB behavior unchanged.

The longer-term motivation is to make external DB-backed session state possible without scattering backend-specific logic across CLI, gateway, MCP, dashboard, cron, and plugin code paths.

Related storage/reliability issues include #5563, #2914, #8042, and #19816.

Proposed Solution

Add a small SessionDB construction boundary.

For the first PR, this could be intentionally minimal:

def create_session_db():
    from hermes_state import SessionDB
    return SessionDB()

Then route one high-value path, such as CLI startup/resume, through it:

self._session_db = create_session_db()

This first step would not add a new backend, new dependency, or new user-facing config. It would only make the construction point explicit.

If the boundary proves useful, follow-up work could discuss a provider/adapter shape for external DB-backed implementations.

Alternatives Considered

Keeping direct SessionDB() construction everywhere preserves current behavior, but any external storage experiment has to patch many unrelated call sites.

Adding a specific DB backend directly to Hermes would be a bigger product and maintenance decision. A construction boundary seems like a smaller first step.

A plugin hook may be useful later, but session state is needed early across CLI/gateway/MCP flows, so starting with a small core helper seems lower-risk.

Feature Type

Performance / reliability

Scope

Small for the first PR.

Contribution

I can submit a focused PR that only adds the construction helper, routes the CLI path through it, and tests that the default SQLite behavior is unchanged.