# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Add backoff/jitter to empty-response retry logic

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These items address the lack of delay between empty-response retries, proposing a backoff (with optional jitter) to avoid wasteful immediate API calls. They represent a performance/cost enhancement to retry behavior.

## 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 #77608. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #77608 (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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #35230: \[Enhancement\] Empty response retries have no backoff delay — immediate retry wastes API calls

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#77608: fix(agent): jittered backoff for empty-response retries (#35296 salvage)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `agent/conversation_loop.py`, `tests/run_agent/test_run_agent.py`
- **#35296: fix(agent): add jittered backoff to empty-response retries**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `#77608`
- **#38002: perf: add backoff delay to empty response retries (#35230)**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `duplicate_of`; implication `duplicate`; refs `#35296`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #77608 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-08-03`.
- Subsystem: `agent`