# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Dedupe identical skill candidates to fix worker spawn

## Open now

- 1 issue, 2 PRs open on GitHub.
- #100715: Kanban: worker spawn fails with "Unknown skill(s)" when --skill names a builtin skill
- PR #100718: fix(skills): fold byte-identical skill_view candidates instead of refusing
- PR #100719: fix(tools): dedupe byte-identical skill_view candidates instead of refusing

These items address a bug where byte-identical skill_view candidates caused failures instead of being folded or deduplicated. The specific symptom is worker spawn failing with an 'Unknown skill(s)' error when a builtin skill is named via --skill.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 1 open issue(s), 0 closed issue(s), 2 open PR(s), 0 merged PR(s), 0 PR(s) closed without merging.
- No fix has been merged to main; one or more PRs were attempted (see below).
- **Recommended:** review the prior/competing PR(s) below. A fix was attempted but not merged; your case may extend or revive that work.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `unresolved`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.
- Pairwise link density `0.67`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Open related issues

- #100715: Kanban: worker spawn fails with "Unknown skill(s)" when --skill names a builtin skill

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#100718: fix(skills): fold byte-identical skill_view candidates instead of refusing**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `uncategorized`; implication `needs_llm`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_skills_tool.py`, `tools/skills_tool.py`
- **#100719: fix(tools): dedupe byte-identical skill_view candidates instead of refusing**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `duplicate_of`; implication `duplicate`; refs `e3e285032`
  - files: `tests/agent/test_external_skills.py`, `tests/tools/test_skills_tool.py`, `tools/skills_tool.py`

## Fix status

- No merged fix on record.
- Subsystem: `skills`