# NousResearch/hermes-agent · External dirs skills provenance and write guard fix

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These members address a bug where skills using external_dirs were misclassified as agent-owned ('learned') rather than external, and lacked proper guards preventing in-place writes or patches to those directories.

## TL;DR

- 4 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 1 merged PR(s), 2 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #128387. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #128387 (and any competing PRs below) before filing. Confirm the merged change covers your symptom.

## 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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 `0.50`: 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.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #108032: \[Bug/Security\]: external_dirs skills misclassified as "learned" (agent-owned) with absent write/patch permission guard

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#128387: feat(skills): external mounts get an 'external' provenance tier (#108032)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `agent/learning_graph.py`, `apps/desktop/src/app/capabilities/catalog/skill-catalog.tsx`, `apps/desktop/src/app/capabilities/skills/skill-detail.tsx`, `apps/desktop/src/app/capabilities/skills/skill-provenance.test.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/app/capabilities/skills/skill-provenance.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/types/hermes.ts`, `hermes_cli/curator.py`, `hermes_cli/web_routers/skills.py`, `tests/tools/test_skill_provenance_external.py`, `tools/skill_usage.py`
- **#108040: fix(skills): classify external_dirs as external and default-deny in-place writes**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `8c8fc6c1ec`, `#128387`, `#17512`
- **#108767: fix(skills): external_dirs distinct provenance and read-only guard (#108032)**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `duplicate_of`; implication `duplicate`; refs `#108040`, `#108032`, `#17512`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #128387 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-10-01`.