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-
-# Connecting Desktop to Many Hermes Instances
-
-Register every Hermes backend you own — the local runtime, remote gateways on
-your LAN or VPS, SSH hosts, and Hermes Cloud instances — in one desktop app,
-and use the agents on all of them side by side. Connections are persistent:
-each registered gateway dials its own backends and WebSockets on demand, and
-background agents keep streaming while you look at another gateway.
-
-This is the desktop-side complement to
-[Running Many Gateways at Once](./multi-profile-gateways.md): that page is
-about hosting several gateways on one machine; this one is about one desktop
-app talking to several machines.
-
-## Where to find it
-
-Everything lives on the unified **Settings → Gateways** page (older builds had
-separate **Gateway** and **Connections** pages; legacy Connections deep links
-redirect there). Three doors lead to it:
-
-- **Settings → Gateways** — the page itself (**Cmd/Ctrl+,**, then
-  **Gateways** in the settings nav). The connections registry is a section
-  of that page, below the machine-level connection-mode controls.
-- **The sidebar profile rail** — the plug button at the right end of the rail
-  (tooltip: **"Connect another Hermes gateway…"**) deep-links straight to
-  the Gateways page. It is always visible, even before you have created
-  a second profile or a second connection.
-- **The command palette** — **Cmd/Ctrl+K**, then type *Gateways* (also
-  matches *connections*, *add gateway*, *remote*, *ssh*, *instances*).
-
-## The gateway registry
-
-The **Registered gateways** section of **Settings → Gateways** manages a named
-list of Hermes gateways. Its intro says it plainly: *"Manage this device and
-every Hermes gateway it can reach through remote, SSH, or Cloud connections."*
-Each entry is a *connection*:
-
-| Kind | What it is | Auth |
-|---|---|---|
-| **Local** | "The Hermes runtime managed by this app." | automatic |
-| **Remote gateway** | "A Hermes gateway reachable over HTTP(S) — LAN, Tailscale, or the internet." | session token or OAuth |
-| **SSH** | "A Hermes install reached over SSH." The app opens the tunnel and starts the dashboard for you | SSH key + adopted token |
-| **Hermes Cloud** | "A hosted instance discovered through your Hermes Cloud account." | portal sign-in |
-
-Rules worth knowing:
-
-- **Every connection needs a unique device name** ("Homelab", "Work laptop").
-  The name shows up everywhere the instance appears — roster badges, handles,
-  update results. Uniqueness is case-insensitive, so `Homelab` and `homelab`
-  cannot coexist.
-- The **local** entry is managed by the app (it wears an **App-managed** pill)
-  and cannot be removed. Removing any other connection tears down its live
-  backends and tunnels; the instance itself is untouched.
-- One connection is always the **Primary** (pill on its row): it is the
-  registry fallback for multi-gateway calls that do not name a gateway.
-  **Make primary** does not switch the current Sessions workspace; removing
-  the primary falls back to the local entry.
-- **At startup, return to Sessions on the last-used gateway** controls which
-  gateway Sessions opens after a full app restart. It is off by default, so
-  Sessions opens on **Primary**. Turn it on to resume the most recent gateway
-  that connected successfully. A failed switch is never remembered, and a
-  removed or unavailable saved gateway falls back to Primary.
-- **Test** probes the connection's own HTTP *and* WebSocket legs, so a pass
-  (the *"Reachable"* toast) means chat will actually work — not just that the
-  host pinged.
-- **Duplicates are rejected when you save**: there is only ever one **local**
-  entry; **remote** and **cloud** entries are deduplicated on the normalized
-  URL (trimmed, trailing slashes stripped, lowercased — and across both
-  kinds, so a cloud entry and a remote entry can't point at the same URL);
-  **SSH** entries are deduplicated on the normalized `user@host:port` plus
-  remote profile.
-- Cloud entries normally come from the Hermes Cloud sign-in/discovery flow at
-  the top of the Gateways page — the **Hermes Cloud** kind in the add-connection
-  editor points you there.
-
-Switch gateways from the **Sessions** sidebar. Profiles, chats, messaging, and
-cron stay scoped to that gateway; the app-managed window backend is still chosen
-by the connection-mode controls above. **Primary** is the registry fallback and
-does not switch the current workspace.
-
-## Organizing session groups
-
-In the Sessions sidebar's view menu, choose **Gateway & profile** while viewing
-all profiles. Each gateway gets its own collapsible section, with profile
-subsections containing their sessions. Two gateways with a `default` profile
-stay separate. Gateway headers start with the saved connection name; profile
-headers show the profile name.
-
-Use a gateway or profile section's menu to **Rename group**, **Reset name**, **Move up**, or
-**Move down**. Renaming changes only the sidebar label, not the gateway or profile.
-Gateways reorder as complete sections, and profiles reorder within their own gateway.
-Drag the section header anywhere (its icon, its name, or the empty space) to
-reorder it, or focus the header and use Space, arrow keys, then Space to place
-it. Names, order, and collapsed sections
-are remembered on this desktop. Collapsing a gateway preserves its profiles'
-individual collapse states. Each profile's new-session action targets that
-profile on its owning gateway.
-
-The Hermes Cloud panel also lists **Saved Cloud gateways** when portal discovery
-is signed out. **Use gateway** selects an existing saved connection without
-changing the default gateway; **Active in this window** identifies the current
-one. Adding a new instance uses its friendly Cloud name, while existing custom
-connection names are preserved. Saved connections still need valid gateway
-authentication; manage sign-in from the registered connection controls.
-
-## Adding a connection, step by step
-
-1. Open **Settings → Gateways** and scroll to the connections registry (or
-   click the plug in the profile rail).
-2. Click **Add connection**.
-3. Pick the kind: **Local**, **Hermes Cloud**, **Remote gateway**, or **SSH**.
-   (**Local** is disabled while the app-managed local entry exists — which is
-   almost always; **Hermes Cloud** directs you to the cloud sign-in/discovery
-   flow above.)
-4. Fill the fields:
-   - **Name** — required, unique; the "device name" shown everywhere this
-     instance appears (placeholder: `Homelab`). Max 64 characters.
-   - *Remote gateway only:*
-     - **Gateway URL** — the base URL of a running `hermes serve` backend,
-       e.g. `http://homelab.lan:9119`. Reverse-proxy path prefixes work.
-     - **Authentication** — choose **Session token** or **OAuth**:
-       - **Session token** — paste the dashboard session token from the
-         remote gateway. When editing, *"Leave blank to keep the saved
-         token."*
-       - **OAuth** — sign in through the Nous Portal browser flow; no token
-         to paste.
-   - *SSH only:*
-     - **SSH host** — one composite field in `user@host:22` form (user and
-       port optional). Your SSH key is used; the app adopts a dashboard
-       token over the tunnel. Remote probes run under the account's login
-       shell; on a `zsh` login shell the probe watchdog cannot kill the whole
-       process group, so a hung probe's grandchildren may linger on the remote
-       (bash/sh remotes reap them).
-5. Click **Save connection** (or **Cancel**).
-6. Click **Test** on the new row and wait for *"Reachable"*.
-
-Edit any non-local entry later with the pencil button, or remove it with the
-trash button — removal asks for confirmation and reminds you that *"The
-instance itself is not touched — you can add it again any time."*
-
-:::info The remote backend is a running `hermes serve` process
-Nothing here works unless the backend is actually up and reachable on the
-other machine. The desktop app attaches to it; it does not start it for you
-(except for SSH connections, where the app starts the dashboard over the
-tunnel on demand). See
-[Connecting to a remote backend](./desktop.md#connecting-to-a-remote-backend)
-for backend-side setup — auth providers, binding to a non-loopback address,
-and Tailscale guidance.
-:::
-
-### Migrating from the single-connection settings
-
-The first launch of a registry-capable build imports your existing settings
-automatically: the global connection mode and any legacy per-profile
-overrides from Settings → Gateway become named registry entries (deduplicated
-by URL/host). (Newer builds no longer offer per-profile overrides in the
-Gateways settings page — gateway connections are machine-level, and profiles
-are discovered from the gateways you connect.)
-The legacy settings file is left untouched, so older builds on the same
-machine keep working. If a migrated name collided, it was suffixed
-(`Homelab 2`).
-
-## Agents across gateways
-
-Every [profile](./profiles.md) on every registered connection is an *agent*.
-The union roster is what multi-gateway surfaces (and the built-in
-[Bot Mode](./bot-mode.md) roster) render:
-
-- When the same profile name exists on several gateways, handles disambiguate
-  as **`@name-device`** — `research` on your Homelab renders as
-  `@research-homelab`, while a profile unique across all gateways keeps its
-  bare name.
-- Enumeration is eager but sockets are lazy: the app lists agents over REST
-  without dialing every gateway's WebSocket. An unreachable gateway reports
-  per-row instead of breaking the roster; SSH connections stay connect-on-demand
-  until you first open an agent on them (no surprise tunnels).
-- Opening an agent dials **its own gateway** — chats, sessions, and memory
-  live on the machine that owns the profile, exactly as if you were using
-  that instance directly.
-
-Each `(connection, profile)` pair gets its own backend and socket, pooled
-with the same idle-reaping as local per-profile backends — background agents
-keep streaming while you look at another gateway.
-
-Approval buttons route back to the session's owning backend, not whichever
-profile is currently selected. For a local secondary profile, Desktop can use
-the socket that delivered the request even when the cached session binding is
-missing. Saved session ownership still takes precedence, and deleting or
-renaming that local profile clears this temporary route rather than reconnecting
-an obsolete backend.
-
-### Switching and scoping
-
-The sidebar foot follows one hierarchy: **gateway → profile → sessions**.
-Gateways are machines or hosted backends; profiles are isolated Hermes agents
-that live on one gateway.
-
-- With one registered gateway, no gateway control is added. Local-only Desktop
-  keeps the same profile rail and keyboard flow as before.
-- With several gateways, the sidebar shows one named gateway selector. Its device,
-  cloud, network, or terminal icon identifies the connection type; profile
-  avatars remain a separate control after the divider. The same selector scales
-  from two gateways to a larger fleet without turning backends into profile-like
-  glyphs or crowding profile actions out of the rail.
-- Selecting a gateway restores the last profile used there. The home pill
-  returns to its default profile and the layers pill shows **All profiles on
-  this gateway**. **Cmd/Ctrl+1–9** continue to switch profiles within the
-  active gateway.
-- With several gateways the profile rail is a **fleet rail**: every registered
-  gateway's profiles sit on the one strip, each group headed by that gateway's
-  kind glyph (device, network, terminal, cloud) — the same glyph the gateway
-  selector uses. The active gateway's squares look exactly as they do on a
-  single-gateway Desktop; the other gateways' squares are dimmed ("at rest").
-  Hovering an at-rest square names its machine (`omer · This device`), so two
-  same-named profiles on different machines never read alike.
-- Clicking an at-rest square performs the same switch as the gateway selector,
-  landing on that exact `(gateway, profile)`: the square spins while the
-  target is dialed, the previous gateway stays painted until the target
-  answers, and a dead target fails the click with a message rather than
-  leaving the window half-switched. Groups keep registry order whichever
-  gateway is active, so a square never moves under the pointer that clicked
-  it. Right-click on an at-rest square offers **Switch to**, **Color**,
-  **Rename**, **Edit SOUL.md** and **Delete**, all executed on the square's
-  own gateway; the delete confirmation names the machine.
-- A gateway the last enumeration could not reach keeps its squares, marked
-  with an amber dot on its glyph — a sleeping box is still yours. Two
-  registrations of one backend collapse to a single group. Past thirteen
-  squares across the fleet, the strip condenses into one menu sectioned by
-  gateway.
-- The selected gateway survives a quit and relaunch only when **Settings →
-  Gateways → At startup, return to Sessions on the last-used gateway** is on.
-  The preference and gateway id live in the app's user-data registry, so
-  replacing or updating the application bundle does not reset them.
-- With more than thirteen profiles on the active gateway, their avatar strip
-  condenses into a named profile selector. Large gateway and profile sets can
-  therefore coexist without changing the **gateway → profile → sessions** model.
-- **This device** remains a first-class gateway even when a remote connection is
-  Primary. It can keep local sessions available during a remote outage, but the
-  app does not call it "offline mode": the selected model or tools may still
-  require internet access.
-- The session list, messaging channels, cron jobs, settings, files, and memory
-  are all scoped to the active `(gateway, profile)`. Switching from a Telegram
-  gateway to a Signal gateway cannot leave the previous gateway's channel groups
-  or sessions in the sidebar.
-- Merely displaying the switcher reads Electron's local connection registry.
-  Remote gateways are opened only when selected; there is no periodic fleet
-  polling.
-- Hovering an agent pre-warms its backend so the switch doesn't pay a cold
-  boot.
-- The **Capabilities** page (Skills / Tools / MCP) has a matching scope: its
-  **Configuring** selector lists every `(profile, device)` agent from the
-  union roster, and picking one reads and writes **that machine's** skills,
-  toolsets, and MCP servers without switching the Sessions workspace. Hub
-  installs, env keys, and MCP setup all land on the selected agent's backend.
-  The MCP tab's *hot-reload into a live session* button appears only for agents
-  on the gateway the window is connected to; edits on other machines apply on
-  their next session.
-
-Add, test, rename, or remove gateways in **Settings → Gateways**. The plug
-button beside the profile actions is a shortcut to that single management
-home, not a second add flow.
-
-### Sessions and Bot Mode
-
-Sessions intentionally show one active gateway at a time: this keeps files,
-tools, channels, cron, and session history in one understandable execution
-context. The fleet profile rail widens only the *picker* — the workspace still
-lives on exactly one `(gateway, profile)` after every click. Bot Mode serves a
-different job and may present the union roster, grouped by gateway, so a user
-can open one agent on a NAS and another on a VPS from one surface. Opening a
-bot still activates its exact `(gateway, profile)` route.
-
-Direct bot mentions and delegation remain gateway-local by default. Crossing a
-backend boundary changes filesystem, credentials, tools, and trust context, so
-cross-gateway execution should be an explicit bridge rather than an accidental
-side effect of sharing one Desktop window.
-
-## Updating every instance at once
-
-**Settings → Gateways → Update all instances** (shown once more than one
-connection is registered) dispatches `hermes update` to every eligible
-connection in parallel:
-
-- **Local** updates through the app's own update pipeline (the same flow as
-  Settings → Updates).
-- **Remote and SSH** connections are told to update themselves via their own
-  backend — the update runs on *that* machine.
-- **Hermes Cloud** instances are skipped with a *"Managed by Hermes Cloud"*
-  note: the platform manages their versions.
-
-Each instance reports independently, so one unreachable box never wedges the
-batch. Backends that manage updates externally (Docker, Nix) refuse politely
-with their own message, per row.
-
-You rarely need the Settings button, though: once more than one update target
-exists, the app's regular update affordances (**Update now** on the About
-panel, ⌘K **Update Hermes**, the update-ready toast) run the same fan-out
-automatically — active backend first, then every other eligible gateway, then
-the desktop app itself last. See
-[Updating](./desktop.md#updating) in the desktop guide.
-
-## Security notes
-
-- **Where tokens live.** Remote-gateway session tokens (and native sign-in
-  OAuth tokens, keyed by gateway base URL) are stored in the app's user-data
-  directory as owner-only (0600) files, in the Electron main process; the
-  renderer and plugins never see token bytes.
-- **Optional keychain encryption.** By default the tokens are **not** run
-  through the OS keychain — on macOS in particular, Electron's `safeStorage`
-  parks a per-app key in the login keychain, and a locked or broken keychain
-  turns that into a password prompt on every launch. If you want at-rest
-  encryption on top of the file permissions, turn on **Settings → Gateway →
-  "Encrypt saved secrets with the OS keychain"**; existing stored secrets are
-  re-encrypted in place (Keychain on macOS, DPAPI on Windows, the session
-  keyring backend on Linux). Turning it back off decrypts them again.
-- **The registry file** (`connections.json` under the app's user-data
-  directory) holds labels, URLs, and hosts — secrets only ever appear inside
-  encrypted envelopes.
-- The plugin SDK's `host.connections()` deliberately returns labels, kinds,
-  and the primary id — never token material.
-
-## For plugin authors
-
-The Desktop [plugin SDK](../developer-guide/desktop-plugin-sdk.md) exposes the
-multi-gateway surface directly:
-
-- `host.connections()` — the registered connection list (labels, kinds,
-  primary; never token bytes).
-- `host.agents()` — the union roster: one row per `(gateway, profile)` with
-  the precomputed `@name-device` handle.
-- `host.ensureAgent(connectionId, profile)` — activate an agent's gateway so
-  subsequent `host.request` calls hit its backend.
-- `host.warmAgent(connectionId, profile)` — fire-and-forget socket pre-warm
-  (hover-intent).
-
-All four are feature-detected: on an older Desktop build they're absent and a
-plugin should fall back to the single-gateway `profiles.list` flow. Bot Mode's
-multi-gateway roster is the reference consumer.
-
-## Troubleshooting
-
-- **"Connection test failed"** — the backend isn't reachable at that URL from
-  this machine. Check that `hermes serve` is running on the remote host, the
-  port is open, and (for token auth) the token is current. Re-run **Test**
-  after fixing.
-- **An agent shows but won't open** — run **Test** on its connection. The
-  WebSocket leg failing while HTTP passes usually means a proxy, firewall, or
-  gateway auth/origin guard is blocking `/api/ws`.
-- **A remote gateway is missing from the roster** — its backend is down or
-  unreachable; the roster lists it under gateways with the error. SSH connections
-  show *connect-on-demand* until first use — that's by design, not a failure.
-- **"Update Hermes Desktop to chat with agents on other connections"** — the
-  app predates the multi-connection stack; update the desktop app itself.
-- **Duplicate device names** — not possible; names are enforced unique at
-  save time. If a migrated name collided, it was suffixed (`Homelab 2`).
-- **"Could not save the connection"** — most commonly a missing **Name**, a
-  name already in use, or a malformed **Gateway URL** / **SSH host**; the
-  error message names the exact violation.