# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Empty voice record key crashes or errors on startup

## Open now

- 0 issues, 2 PRs open on GitHub.
- PR #19929: Fix empty voice.record_key in CLI VAD mode
- PR #19945: fix: harden voice key and custom provider parsing

An empty string for voice.record_key causes a crash or 'Invalid key' error at REPL startup in CLI VAD mode. These members address hardening the parsing of that key and related custom provider configuration to handle empty or invalid values gracefully.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #19915: voice.record_key: empty string crashes REPL startup with 'Invalid key'

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#19929: Fix empty voice.record_key in CLI VAD mode**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `uncategorized`; implication `needs_llm`; refs `#19927`, `#19915`
  - files: `cli.py`, `tests/cli/test_voice_record_key.py`
- **#19945: fix: harden voice key and custom provider parsing**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`
  - files: `cli.py`, `hermes_cli/config.py`, `tests/cli/test_voice_record_key_config.py`, `tests/hermes_cli/test_custom_provider_context_length.py`, `tests/hermes_cli/test_provider_config_validation.py`

## Fix status

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