# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Fix early return for reasoning-only clean stops

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These issues and PRs concern a bug where reasoning-only clean stop responses unnecessarily traverse the full empty-response retry ladder before returning. The fix aims to surface the result after a single API call instead.

## 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 #110227. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #110227 (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: `resolved` · deciding PR(s): `pr-110227`. 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #109205: Reasoning-only clean stop walks the whole empty-response ladder before surfacing the answer

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#110227: Reasoning-only clean stop is returned after one API call instead of walking the empty-response ladder (#109205, salvage #109216)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `agent/chat_completion_helpers.py`, `agent/turn_final_response.py`, `tests/agent/test_empty_terminal_reasoning_surface.py`, `tests/agent/test_partial_stream_finish_reason.py`, `tests/agent/test_run_agent.py`, `tests/agent/test_thinking_prefill_trailing_turn.py`
- **#109214: fix(agent): return clean-stop reasoning without costly retries**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `a8843ab98597`, `#110227`
- **#109216: fix(agent): return reasoning-only clean stops**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `a8843ab98597`, `#110227`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #110227 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-09-13`.