# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Windows path handling bugs in approval artifact cleanup

## Open now

- 1 issue, 2 PRs open on GitHub.
- #95456: approval: verification-artifact rm exemption can never match on Windows (shlex posix=True eats backslashes; os.path.join separator mismatch)
- PR #95461: fix(approval): let the verification-artifact rm exemption match on Windows
- PR #106198: fix(approval): make temp-artifact exemption work on Windows

These issues and pull requests address a bug where artifact removal exemptions in the approval workflow never trigger on Windows, due to backslash handling by shlex (posix=True) and path separator mismatches from os.path.join.

## TL;DR

- 5 member(s): 1 open issue(s), 0 closed issue(s), 2 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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 `0.40`: 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.

## Open related issues

- #95456: approval: verification-artifact rm exemption can never match on Windows (shlex posix=True eats backslashes; os.path.join separator mismatch)

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#95461: fix(approval): let the verification-artifact rm exemption match on Windows**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `#95463`, `#70797`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_approval.py`, `tools/approval.py`
- **#95463: fix(approval): make the temp-artifact rm exemption reachable on Windows**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `#95461`, `#95456`
- **#103561: fix(approval): verification-artifact cleanup exemption never fires on Windows**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `duplicate_of`; implication `duplicate`; refs `#95456`
- **#106198: fix(approval): make temp-artifact exemption work on Windows**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `wontfix_bydesign`; implication `wontfix`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_approval.py`, `tools/approval_detection.py`

## Fix status

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