# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Browser tool subprocess output decoding on non-UTF-8 Windows locales

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

One bug report describes a UnicodeDecodeError in browser_tool.py on Windows systems using non-UTF-8 encodings such as GBK. Two pull requests propose making subprocess output decoding more tolerant, one of them using errors=replace. The titles alone do not show whether these changes were merged or resolve the issue.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 0 merged PR(s), 2 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #47456: \[Bug\]: browser_tool.py UnicodeDecodeError on Windows with non-UTF-8 system encoding (GBK/CJK)

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#47463: fix(browser): decode subprocess output resiliently on non-UTF-8 locales**. closed without merge · fix tier `suggested`
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `f39414d5b`
  - _suggested-tier fix detail withheld; re-request with `?tier=all` to include it._
- **#47516: fix(tools): use errors=replace for browser subprocess output reads (#47456)**. closed without merge · fix tier `suggested`
  - maintainer direction: category `uncategorized`; implication `needs_llm`
  - _suggested-tier fix detail withheld; re-request with `?tier=all` to include it._

## Fix status

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