hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix fix(dashboard): systemd service crash-loop when web_dist exists but npm unavailable

Summary

hermes-dashboard.service crashes 393+ times in a row when started via systemd on a server where npm is not in PATH. The web UI is already built (web_dist/ exists), but the dashboard fails with:

Web UI frontend not built and npm is not available.
Install Node.js, then run: cd web && npm install && npm run build

The systemd unit file (/etc/systemd/user/hermes-dashboard.service) does not pass --skip-build, even though the frontend was pre-built.

Environment

• Hermes Agent v0.14.0 (2026.5.16)
• Ubuntu 24.04, systemd user unit
• web_dist/ present from prior 'cd web && npm run build'
• npm not installed on production server

Steps to Reproduce

1. cd web && npm run build (build frontend once)
2. systemctl --user enable hermes-dashboard
3. systemctl --user start hermes-dashboard
4. Service enters crash-loop: exit-code=1, restart counter climbs indefinitely

Root Cause

The hermes-dashboard.service ExecStart line runs 'hermes dashboard' without --skip-build. The dashboard binary checks for web_dist/ but still requires npm to validate the build, and exits with status 1 when npm isn't available.

Fix

Add --skip-build to the ExecStart line in the generated unit file, or make the binary auto-detect that web_dist/ exists and skip build automatically.

Workaround

Manually start with --skip-build flag, or kill systemd service and run background process:

hermes dashboard --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 --insecure --tui --skip-build