hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix Make non-core bundled skills optional and keep the default install minimal [3 comments, 2 participants]

Problem or Use Case

Hermes currently ships a large set of bundled skills directly into each profile's skills directory via bundled-skill sync. That makes updates heavier, expands the default install footprint, and creates an ongoing maintenance burden for content that many users will never use.

A concrete example is the Apple/macOS skill set (apple-notes, apple-reminders, findmy, imessage). These are valid skills, but on non-macOS systems they still exist as bundled content and can resurface through sync/update behavior even though they are platform-specific and irrelevant for most installs.

This creates a few problems:

• The default install is not minimal; it includes many non-core skills by default.
• Bundled skill sync can reintroduce content users intentionally removed.
• Every bundled SKILL.md becomes part of the long-term maintenance surface and can drift from reality.
• Platform-specific or niche skills feel like product defaults instead of opt-in extensions.

The current model makes sense for a very small core set of universally useful skills, but it scales poorly as the catalog grows.

Proposed Solution

I think Hermes should distinguish between core bundled skills and optional official skills much more aggressively.

Suggested approach:

1. Define a small core set of bundled-by-default skills

   • Only keep skills that are broadly useful across platforms/workflows.
   • Everything else should move to optional-skills/ or another official opt-in channel.

2. Make non-core bundled skills install-on-demand

   • hermes skills install <official-skill> should be the normal path for niche/platform-specific skills.
   • Official optional skills can still be first-party and trusted; they just should not be seeded into every profile automatically.

3. Treat Apple skills as optional, not default-bundled

   • apple-notes, apple-reminders, findmy, and imessage are good candidates for opt-in official skills.
   • They could remain discoverable in the Skills Hub and/or an official optional-skills catalog.

4. Add an explicit allowlist for what gets seeded by sync_skills()

   • Instead of syncing every repo-bundled skill into every profile, seed only an approved core list.
   • Everything outside that allowlist is discoverable/installable but not auto-seeded.

5. Consider a migration path

   • Existing installs can keep already-synced skills unless the user removes them.
   • New installs and new profiles should get the slimmer default set.

This would preserve discoverability while making Hermes feel more modular and reducing the amount of bundled content that silently propagates across profiles.

Alternatives Considered

Alternatives considered:

• Keep all skills bundled, but improve deletion/sync semantics.

  • This helps with the symptom (skills reappearing) but not the bigger issue that too many non-core skills are seeded by default.

• Keep the current model, but mark platform-specific skills with metadata only.

  • Helpful for prompt loading, but they still remain bundled content and still participate in sync/update behavior.

• Move only Apple skills to optional.

  • This would solve one obvious pain point, but I think the broader design question is whether many bundled skills should be optional by default unless they are clearly core.

I think the best long-term approach is: keep a small core bundle, move the rest to official optional skills, and treat platform-specific skills as opt-in.

Feature Type

New bundled skill

Scope

Medium (few files, < 300 lines)

Contribution

• I'd like to implement this myself and submit a PR

Debug Report (optional)