hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix `hermes skills install` crashes with OSError when install destination is a symlink

Summary

hermes skills install fails with an unhandled OSError when the install destination at ~/.hermes/skills/<skill-name> already exists as a symbolic link. install_from_quarantine calls shutil.rmtree(install_dir) without first checking whether install_dir is a symlink, and Python's shutil.rmtree refuses to operate on symlinks by design.

Environment

• Hermes version: v0.13.0 (2026.5.7)
• Python: 3.9.6
• OS: macOS (Apple Intel: MacBook Pro 2019)
• Install path: ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/

Steps to reproduce

1. Attempt to install a hub skill (any skill, any source) where the install destination already exists as a symlink rather than a directory: hermes skills install skills-sh/browserbase/skills/autobrowse --force
2. The fetch and security scan complete successfully.
3. install_from_quarantine then attempts to clean the destination and crashes.

*Note: may have impacted the installation: hermes skills install skills-sh/firecrawl/cli/firecrawl --force and added symlink globally

Actual behavior

Unhandled exception bubbles up to the user. Skill is not installed. Quarantine state is left behind: File "/Users/<user>/.hermes/hermes-agent/hermes_cli/main.py", line 10926, in main args.func(args) File "/Users/<user>/.hermes/hermes-agent/hermes_cli/main.py", line 9723, in cmd_skills skills_command(args) File "/Users/<user>/.hermes/hermes-agent/hermes_cli/skills_hub.py", line 1325, in skills_command do_install(args.identifier, category=args.category, force=args.force, ...) File "/Users/<user>/.hermes/hermes-agent/hermes_cli/skills_hub.py", line 603, in do_install install_dir = install_from_quarantine(q_path, bundle.name, category, bundle, result) File "/Users/<user>/.hermes/hermes-agent/tools/skills_hub.py", line 2739, in install_from_quarantine shutil.rmtree(install_dir) File ".../python3.11/shutil.py", line 767, in rmtree raise OSError("Cannot call rmtree on a symbolic link") OSError: Cannot call rmtree on a symbolic link

Expected behavior

Either:

• Install proceeds successfully by detecting and unlinking the symlink before placing the new directory, or
• A clear, user-facing error message explains the symlink at <path> is blocking installation and suggests rm <path> to resolve, instead of an unhandled traceback.

Workaround

Manually remove the symlink, then retry: rm -f ~/.hermes/skills/<skill-name> hermes skills install <identifier> --force

Suggested fix

In tools/skills_hub.py at the install_from_quarantine function, around line 2739, replace the unconditional shutil.rmtree(install_dir) with a symlink-aware cleanup:

import os, shutil

if os.path.islink(install_dir):
    os.unlink(install_dir)
elif os.path.isdir(install_dir):
    shutil.rmtree(install_dir)

This handles both the directory case (current behavior) and the symlink case (currently crashes), and is the standard Python idiom for "remove whatever is at this path."

Severity

P3 / Low. Workaround is straightforward once the symlink is identified, but the unhandled traceback presents poorly to new users and obscures the actual cause. Fix is a 4-line change.