# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Explain why approval prompts escalate to a human

## Open now

- 1 issue, 2 PRs open on GitHub.
- #135802: Smart approvals: infra failures are indistinguishable from genuine ESCALATE — thread the failure reason through to the prompt
- PR #135832: fix(approval): tell fail-closed escalates from genuine guardian ESCALATEs
- PR #136674: fix(approvals): announce why a human is being asked - guardian failure, manual mode, or a fallback-route verdict

The three members all concern approval flows that ask a human for input, focusing on making the reason clear. They discuss distinguishing guardian or infrastructure failures, fail-closed escalations, manual mode, and fallback-route verdicts from genuine guardian ESCALATE outcomes by passing the reason through to the prompt.

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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #135802: Smart approvals: infra failures are indistinguishable from genuine ESCALATE — thread the failure reason through to the prompt

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#135832: fix(approval): tell fail-closed escalates from genuine guardian ESCALATEs**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `silent_close`; implication `active`
  - files: `locales/en.yaml`, `tests/tools/test_smart_approval_escalate_reason.py`, `tools/approval.py`, `tools/approval_prompt.py`, `tools/approval_smart.py`
- **#136674: fix(approvals): announce why a human is being asked - guardian failure, manual mode, or a fallback-route verdict**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `silent_close`; implication `active`
  - files: `apps/desktop/src/app/session/hooks/use-message-stream/gateway-event/server-requests.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/app/session/hooks/use-session-actions/restore-pending-approval.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/tool/approval.test.tsx`, `apps/desktop/src/components/assistant-ui/tool/approval.tsx`, `apps/desktop/src/i18n/de.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/i18n/es.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/i18n/fr.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/i18n/types.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/lib/chat-messages/types.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/store/prompts.test.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/store/prompts.ts`, `apps/desktop/src/types/hermes.ts`, `apps/shared/src/gateway-contract.generated.ts`, `apps/shared/src/gateway-contract.openrpc.json`, `gateway/platforms/base.py`, `gateway/run.py`, `gateway/run_turn_runner.py`, `tests/gateway/test_exec_approval_template.py`, `tests/tools/test_smart_approval_degraded_notice.py` (+7 more)

## Fix status

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