# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Fix test suite encoding failures on Windows

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These items address UnicodeDecodeError and related encoding issues that cause the test suite to fail on Windows, specifically around reading and writing files as UTF-8 and handling Windows drive-letter paths.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 1 merged PR(s), 1 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #81965. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #81965 (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-81965`. 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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

- #80894: \[Bug\]: test_plugins_cmd fails on Windows with UnicodeDecodeError reading run_agent.py

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#81965: fix(tests): Windows-safe encoding in test suite + runner drive-letter path split**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `apps/desktop/src/app/settings/billing/index.test.tsx`, `apps/desktop/src/lib/time.test.ts`, `contributors/emails/[redacted:email]`, `contributors/emails/[redacted:email]`, `scripts/run_tests_parallel.py`, `tests/conftest.py`, `tests/hermes_cli/test_plugins_cmd.py`, `tests/scripts/test_contributor_map.py`, `tests/stress/test_atypical_scenarios.py`, `tests/test_atomic_replace_symlinks.py`, `tests/test_hermes_constants.py`, `tests/test_run_tests_parallel.py`, `tests/tools/test_web_tools_truncate.py`
- **#80895: fix(tests): read and write test files as UTF-8 so the suite runs on Windows**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `merged_via`; implication `superseded`; refs `#81965`, `#80894`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #81965 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-08-08`.