Quickstart

Install Mandate, observe a Hermes cron job, propose a policy, approve it, and enforce it.

Requires Hermes Agent v0.23.0 or later. Mandate is a standalone plugin. It has no runtime dependencies beyond the Python standard library.

1. Install and enable

   hermes plugins install https://github.com/JoeProAI/mandate
   hermes plugins enable mandate
   
2. Observe

   Start recording a job. Observe mode never blocks.

   hermes mandate watch nightly-triage
   

   watch accepts a cron job name or id. If you pass a name that has not run yet, Mandate stores a placeholder (name:nightly-triage) and the first cron run of a job with that name adopts it.

   Let the job run at least three times. propose will compile with fewer runs, but it prints a warning: 3 or more give a more reliable mandate. MIN_RUNS in the compiler is 3.

   By default, observe_all_cron is true, so Mandate also records call shapes for cron jobs you have not watched yet. You can still propose those from hermes mandate list. If you turn observe_all_cron off, only watched jobs are recorded.

3. Propose

   hermes mandate propose nightly-triage
   

   This compiles the observed runs into a pending mandate and prints it, with an evidence count (# seen Nx) on every rule. Nothing is enforced yet. If the compiled YAML is byte-identical to the current pending or active mandate, it prints the text and says it is unchanged.

4. Approve

   hermes mandate approve nightly-triage
   

   Mandate shows a unified diff of the active mandate (or empty) against the pending one, then asks y/N. Approval needs a TTY, or you must pass --yes. After you approve, the job switches to enforce unless you also pass --observe, which stores the approval but keeps recording without blocking.

   hermes mandate approve nightly-triage --yes
   hermes mandate approve nightly-triage --yes --observe
   
5. Enforce and inspect

   hermes mandate status nightly-triage
   

   That prints the Leash Line. If you approved with --observe, switch later with hermes mandate enforce nightly-triage. You can go back with hermes mandate observe nightly-triage.

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What happens on the next run

In enforce mode, a call inside the approved mandate runs as usual. A call outside it is blocked in pre_tool_call, before the tool runs, and a drift record is stored. The block message names the failed rule, the drift id, and the exact widen command.

hermes mandate drift nightly-triage
hermes mandate widen nightly-triage 4
hermes mandate approve nightly-triage

Widen only proposes a new pending version. The active mandate does not change until you approve again.

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Uninstall

hermes plugins disable mandate
hermes plugins remove mandate
rm -rf ~/.hermes/plugin-data/mandate   # observations, mandates, drift (use your HERMES_HOME)

Disabling leaves no residual effect. Mandate changes no Hermes config and wraps nothing.