hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix Workspace UI: Context alert modal points to non-existent "Settings → Config" [1 participants]

Bug Report

Severity: Medium — User confusion, no functional breakage but misleading guidance

Component: Hermes Workspace (Web UI)

What the user sees

In the Workspace chat interface, when context usage reaches ~35%, a warning modal appears with this recommendation:

🗜️ Enable auto-compaction in Settings → Config to automatically manage context

The "Settings → Config" link is clickable ( /settings ) and leads to the Settings page.

Actual behavior (current code)

The Settings page (src/routes/settings/index.tsx) sidebar shows these sections:

Connection
Model & Provider
Agent Behavior
Smart Routing
Voice
Display
Appearance
Chat
Notifications
MCP Servers
Language

There is no "Config" section — the sidebar item is SETTINGS_NAV_ITEMS and does not include "Config".

Expected behavior

The modal should direct users to the correct location, OR auto-compaction should be controllable from the Settings UI, OR the message should be updated to reflect that auto-compaction is controlled via ~/.hermes/config.yaml.

Current state of auto-compaction

Auto-compaction exists and works — it's configured via compression: section in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

compression:
  enabled: true
  threshold: 0.5
  target_ratio: 0.2
  protect_last_n: 20

There is no Workspace UI toggle for this feature. The modal message is a holdover from an earlier design where compaction settings lived in a "Config" section.

Recommended fix (choose one)

Option A (minimal): Update the modal message to say:

"Auto-compaction is configured via ~/.hermes/config.yaml under the compression: section. Edit the config file directly to adjust threshold, target ratio, or disable it."

Option B (UI feature): Add a "Compression" or "Advanced" section to Settings that exposes the compression: config keys (enabled, threshold, target_ratio, protect_last_n, summary_model) as form controls that write to config.yaml via the /api/hermes-config endpoint.

Option C (merge): Change the link destination to point directly to the "Agent Behavior" section (since compression is an agent-level config) and add a note that it's configured in the config file.

Reproduction steps

1. Open Hermes Workspace (port 3000)
2. Have a long conversation that uses >35% of context window
3. Observe the context alert modal
4. Note the "Settings → Config" recommendation
5. Navigate to Settings — observe no "Config" tab exists
6. Auto-compaction itself does work (based on config.yaml), but users cannot manage it via UI

Environment

• Hermes Agent version: v0.8.0 (from /home/ubuntu/.hermes/hermes-agent directory)
• Workspace version: current outsourc-e/hermes-workspace (latest)
• Browser: Any
• Platform: Linux (WSL2)

Attaching: Screenshot of the modal + Settings sidebar would normally be included.

Reported by: Frank Cona (user) Date: 2026-04-25