# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Session write-lock contention causing turn failures

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

A bug where sibling processes holding the state.db write lock for a few seconds could abort turns with session persistence failures. Fixes introduce time-based lock patience with backoff jitter to tolerate brief lock contention.

## TL;DR

- 4 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 2 merged PR(s), 1 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #75885. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #75885 (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-74480`. 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #74478: \[Bug\]: Turn aborted as session_persistence_failed / SessionDB init disabled when a sibling process holds the state.db write lock for a few seconds

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#74480: fix(state): time-based write-lock patience so busy sibling processes can't destroy turns**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `hermes_state.py`, `tests/state/test_write_lock_patience.py`
- **#75885: fix(config): refuse writes over corrupt YAML; fix same-URL provider extra_headers shadowing**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `hermes_cli/config.py`, `tests/hermes_cli/test_custom_provider_extra_headers.py`, `tests/hermes_cli/test_set_config_value.py`
- **#74503: fix(sessiondb): time-based lock patience with backoff jitter (#74478)**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `8da8a7887d`, `#74480`, `#75885`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #75885 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-08-01`.
- Subsystem: `hermes_cli`