# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Skill update failures in background review fork

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These issues and fixes center on a bug where the background review fork cannot update skills, caused by conflicts between read-before-write guards and skill_view dedup stubs. Several related patches address seeding context and removing or correcting the dedup stub behavior in the fork.

## TL;DR

- 5 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 2 merged PR(s), 2 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #115299. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #115299 (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-115299`. 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evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.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.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #95976: Background review fork fails to update skills 100% of the time — read-before-write guard conflicts with skill_view repeat-view dedup

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#112196: fix(curator): consolidation pass can patch skills again (#111604, salvage #111605)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `agent/curator.py`, `tests/agent/test_curator.py`
- **#115299: Background review fork can update skills again: no dedup stub in the fork (#95976, salvage #95975)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `contributors/emails/[redacted:email]`, `tests/tools/test_file_read_guards.py`, `tests/tools/test_skill_view_dedup.py`, `tools/file_tools.py`, `tools/skills_tool.py`
- **#95993: fix(skills): the dedup stub must mark the read for the review fork guard**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `#115299`, `#95976`, `#95975`
- **#107734: fix(curator): seed the review read-mark store in the fork's context**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `8b5856261462`, `#112196`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #115299 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-09-18`.