hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix web_tools.py: missing _ensure_plugins_discovered() at search/extract/crawl dispatch sites causes web tools to silently fail

Summary

Two related defects prevent web search, extract, and crawl from working out of the box on a fresh Hermes install. Both stem from the plugin system not being initialised before the web registry is consulted.

Environment

• Hermes Agent v0.13.0 (2026.5.7)
• Python 3.12.3
• Platform: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (Linux, amd64)
• Config: web.backend: ddgs, ddgs package installed

Defect 1: web_tools.py missing _ensure_plugins_discovered() at three registry dispatch sites

Affected functions

What happens

Each site calls get_provider() or get_active_*_provider() from agent.web_search_registry. If _ensure_plugins_discovered() has not been called first, the registry is empty and every lookup returns None. The result is a silent fallback or a "provider not configured" error even when the correct backend is installed and configured.

Comparison with other tools

image_generation_tool.py and video_generation_tool.py both correctly call _ensure_plugins_discovered() before using their respective registries. web_tools.py does not.

Minimal reproduction

from agent.web_search_registry import get_provider
p = get_provider("ddgs")
print(p)  # None -- registry was never populated

vs.

from hermes_cli.plugins import _ensure_plugins_discovered
_ensure_plugins_discovered()
from agent.web_search_registry import get_provider
p = get_provider("ddgs")
print(p)  # <DDGSWebSearchProvider> -- works

Fix

Add _ensure_plugins_discovered() before each registry lookup in web_tools.py:

# search dispatch site (same pattern needed at extract and crawl sites)
from hermes_cli.plugins import _ensure_plugins_discovered as _epp_web_search
_epp_web_search()
from agent.web_search_registry import (
    get_active_search_provider,
    get_provider as _wsp_get_provider,
)

Defect 2: Web provider plugin directories missing plugin.yaml manifests

Affected directories

All 7 web provider plugin directories ship without a plugin.yaml (or plugin.yml) file:

plugins/web/ddgs/
plugins/web/brave_free/
plugins/web/searxng/
plugins/web/exa/
plugins/web/tavily/
plugins/web/firecrawl/
plugins/web/parallel/

What happens

The Hermes plugin scanner (_scan_directory_level) requires a plugin.yaml or plugin.yml manifest to recognise a directory as a plugin. Without the manifest the directory is skipped at the depth cap and the provider is never registered -- even after Defect 1 is fixed.

Fix

Add a plugin.yaml to each directory. Minimal working example for ddgs:

name: ddgs
kind: backend
description: DuckDuckGo search backend via the ddgs Python package -- no API key required
version: "1.0"

kind: backend triggers auto-loading as a bundled backend without requiring an entry in plugins.enabled.

Impact

Both defects must be fixed together for web search to work. With only Defect 1 fixed, _ensure_plugins_discovered() runs but finds nothing to register. With only Defect 2 fixed, the manifests exist but the registry is still empty at call time.

Workaround

We are running a post-install patch script as ExecStartPre in our systemd unit that re-applies both fixes after every hermes update. Happy to share the script if useful.