# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Inverted stdio child liveness check in MCP

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These issues and PRs concern a bug where the \`_stdio_children_dead()\` function has inverted logic, causing live stdio child processes to be reported as dead and MCP calls to fail immediately. Multiple fix attempts address correcting this inversion.

## 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 #94339. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #94339 (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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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 `0.67`: 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

- #95668: _stdio_children_dead() inverted since 95668f5e: live stdio child reported as dead, every stdio MCP call fast-fails

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#94339: fix(mcp): un-invert the stdio children liveness check**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_mcp_stdio_children_dead.py`, `tools/mcp_tool.py`
- **#95696: fix(mcp): correct inverted liveness logic in _stdio_children_dead()**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `#94339`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #94339 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-08-27`.