v2026.4.23 — The Interface Release

Released: April 23, 2026 Theme: Interface and underlying transport layer fully rebuilt Breaking Changes: None

This release rolls up roughly two weeks of work (1,500+ commits) and folds in everything deferred from v0.10.0.

Core Highlights

1. New Ink-based TUI

hermes --tui is now a full React/Ink rewrite of the interactive CLI, with a Python JSON-RPC backend. What you’ll feel:

Sticky composer pinned to the bottom — the input no longer jumps as you scroll
Smooth live streaming with cross-SSH copy support (OSC-52 clipboard)
Status bar with per-turn stopwatch and current git branch
/clear now confirms before wiping history
Built-in light theme for white-background terminals
Subagent spawn observability overlay so you can watch what spawned workers are doing

2. Transport ABC + Native AWS Bedrock

The code that talks to each model provider used to live in one giant file. This release splits it into a clean agent/transports/ layer with one module per provider:

AnthropicTransport (Anthropic Messages API)
ChatCompletionsTransport (OpenAI-compatible default)
ResponsesApiTransport (OpenAI Responses API + Codex)
BedrockTransport (AWS Bedrock Converse API)

For you: native AWS Bedrock support. Previously Bedrock had to go through an OpenAI-compatible shim — now Vi speaks Bedrock’s own dialect for better performance and feature parity.

3. Five New Inference Paths

NVIDIA NIM native support
Arcee AI direct provider
Step Plan
Google Gemini CLI OAuth (use your existing Gemini CLI login)
Vercel ai-gateway with pricing and dynamic model discovery

Plus Gemini now routes through the native AI Studio API for better performance.

4. GPT-5.5 via Codex OAuth

OpenAI’s new GPT-5.5 reasoning model is available through your ChatGPT Codex OAuth login. Live model discovery is wired into the model picker, so future OpenAI releases will show up without a Vi update.

5. QQBot — 17th Messaging Platform

New QQBot adapter via QQ Official API v2:

QR scan-to-configure setup wizard
Streaming cursor and emoji reactions
DM and group policy gating you can configure separately, matching WeCom/Weixin parity

6. Expanded Plugin Surface

Third-party plugins can now do a lot more:

Capability	What it does
`register_command`	Plugins can register their own slash commands
`dispatch_tool`	Invoke tools directly from plugin code
`pre_tool_call` veto	Block tool execution from a hook
`transform_tool_result`	Rewrite tool results
`transform_terminal_output`	Rewrite terminal output
Custom dashboard tabs	Add your own pages to the Web Dashboard
`image_gen` backends	Plug in your own image generation provider

7. `/steer` — Mid-run Agent Nudges

Type /steer <prompt> mid-conversation to inject a note that the running agent sees after its next tool call — no interruption, no prompt-cache breakage. For when Vi is heading the wrong way and you want to course-correct without restarting.

8. Shell Hooks

Wiring custom logic into Vi’s lifecycle (e.g., “before every tool call, do X”) used to require writing a Python plugin. Now you can drop in a shell script and bind it to any lifecycle event (pre_tool_call, post_tool_call, on_session_start, etc.).

9. Webhook Direct-Delivery Mode

Webhook subscriptions can now bypass the agent and forward payloads straight to a chat platform. Perfect for alerts, uptime checks, and event streams where you don’t need AI interpretation — just a notification. Saves tokens and is faster.

10. Smarter Subagent Delegation

Subagents now have an explicit orchestrator role that can spawn their own workers. Spawn depth is configurable (default: flat — orchestrators don’t spawn grandchildren by default). Concurrent subagents share filesystem state through a coordination layer so they don’t clobber each other’s edits.

11. Web Dashboard Upgrade

i18n (English + Chinese)
Live theme switching — colors, fonts, layout, density all hot-swap without a reload
Plugin system — third-party tabs, widgets, and views without forking
Mobile-responsive layout
Real per-session API call tracking (previously estimated)
One-click “update + restart gateway” buttons

Upgrade Recommendations

Try hermes --tui and watch for the git branch and stopwatch in the status bar
Use /steer mid-conversation when Vi drifts — no more interrupt-and-restart
AWS users: switch a model to Bedrock and check the latency
Open the Dashboard and play with theme switching
QQBot users: re-run the new wizard to enjoy the streaming cursor and reactions

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