Nerve

What Nerve does

Nerve is a System-1 supervisory layer for Hermes Agent. It acts as a watchdog and forecaster, while the main Hermes orchestrator or reviewer keeps final stop or continue authority. For a Kanban worker with Nerve enabled, a claimed card is bound to a locked definition of done and a default 70k token budget, and the worker starts with zero Jev tool schemas. Token usage and evidence are recorded through Hermes hooks.

Completion fails closed. Deterministic evidence proves mechanical criteria locally, a model judges only the unresolved semantic criteria, and a passing verdict closes the card through the native kanban_complete tool. A non-pass verdict leaves the card running and returns the missing criteria. The decision backend is chosen with reflex_backend: jev, laya, openjev, or shadow, which keeps Jev authoritative while logging Laya decisions. The core plugin has no dependencies, and model runtimes run in separate sidecar processes.

Key features

• Typed System One decisions and ranking
• Locked definition of done and a token budget per Kanban card
• Deterministic completion gate that fails closed
• Opt-in, ask-only Action Gate for tool calls
• Selectable decision backends: jev, laya, openjev and shadow
• Model runtimes kept in sidecars, with a dependency-free core plugin

When to use it

• Supervise Kanban workers so a card closes only when its definition of done is proven
• Cap token spend per Kanban task
• Compare two decision backends side by side in shadow mode

Who it is for: Advanced Hermes users who run Kanban workers and want automated oversight and verifiable task completion.

How it fits with Hermes Agent

Built for Hermes Agent as a plugin that hooks into Kanban cards, tool calls and token accounting, and ships through the Hermes catalog.

Note: The main branch is a development line (0.3.2.dev0), the latest stable release is v0.3.1, and Hermes catalog installs use reviewed commit-SHA pins that can lag main.

FAQ