hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix Gateway: /stop and /interrupt are fed to agent as steer text instead of interrupting it

Bug

When the gateway's busy-input mode is steer (or queue), sending /stop or /interrupt to an actively running agent from a gateway platform (Slack, Telegram, Discord, etc.) does not interrupt the agent. Instead, the slash command text is fed into running_agent.steer() and the agent receives /stop as a mid-turn user instruction — which it just incorporates as more context.

Repro

1. Set gateway busy_input_mode: steer (the recommended default for active-conversation platforms).
2. From Slack/Telegram/Discord, send a prompt that triggers a long-running turn (lots of tool calls).
3. Mid-turn, send /stop (or !stop on Slack via the bang-rewrite path, since native slashes don't fire in Slack threads).
4. Observe: agent keeps running. agent.log shows e.g.:

   Delivered /steer to agent after tool batch (N chars): /stop

Expected

/stop and /interrupt should always interrupt the running agent, regardless of busy_input_mode. They're control commands, not user input.

Root cause

gateway/run.py::_handle_active_session_busy_message reads effective_mode = self._busy_input_mode and then branches into steer/queue/interrupt without first checking whether event.text is one of the known gateway control commands. So in steer mode, /stop text gets passed to running_agent.steer("/stop") and the agent treats it as text.

Suggested fix

Before the steer/queue branching block, parse the first token of event.text. If it resolves to stop or interrupt (using the existing is_gateway_known_command helper or a small allowlist), override effective_mode = "interrupt" so the existing interrupt branch fires.

Sketch:

effective_mode = self._busy_input_mode
_text = (event.text or "").lstrip()
if _text.startswith("/"):
    first = _text.split(maxsplit=1)[0][1:].split("@", 1)[0].lower()
    if first in ("stop", "interrupt"):
        effective_mode = "interrupt"

(Locally patched in gateway/run.py ~line 2547. Happy to send a PR — opening this issue first to confirm direction.)

Why this hurts on Slack specifically

Slack blocks native slash commands inside threads. The existing !cmd rewrite path (gateway/platforms/slack.py ~line 1814) gracefully converts !stop → /stop, so users in threads already have a working command path — except this bug means it doesn't actually stop the agent. End result: from a Slack thread, there is no working way to interrupt an in-flight agent, since both native /stop and !stop get steered as text.

Environment

• Hermes Agent installed via hermes update workflow
• macOS 26.4.1
• Default busy_input_mode: steer (configured)
• Slack gateway in Socket Mode