NousResearch/hermes-agent · error

no install root

Error message

no install root

What it means

Terminal ValueError from the schedule parser in cron/jobs.py (parse_schedule): every supported format — 'every ...' interval, cron expression, ISO timestamp, and plain duration — failed to match. The message enumerates the four accepted forms, so the input matched none of them. Nothing is persisted; this is pure input validation.

Source

Thrown at apps/bootstrap-installer/src/store.ts:354

  $route.set('progress')
  await invoke('start_update')
}

export async function cancelInstall(): Promise<void> {
  if (fakeMode()) {
    fakeCancelled = true

    return
  }

  await invoke('cancel_bootstrap')
}

export async function launchHermesDesktop(): Promise<void> {
  if (fakeMode()) {throw new Error('Preview mode — launching is disabled.')}
  const installRoot = $bootstrap.get().installRoot

  if (!installRoot) {throw new Error('no install root')}
  await invoke('launch_hermes_desktop', { installRoot })
}

export async function openLogDir(): Promise<void> {
  if (fakeMode()) {return}
  await invoke('open_log_dir')
}

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Dev-only isolated preview ("fake boot")
//
// Synthesises the manifest + stage/log events Rust normally streams, so the
// whole reskin can be reviewed in a plain browser (`npm run dev`):
//   ?fake=install   welcome → [ INSTALL ] → success
//   ?fake=update    auto-runs the granular update flow
//   ?fake=failure   install that fails partway
// Gated on import.meta.env.DEV → stripped from the shipped Tauri bundle.
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

View on GitHub (pinned to c896c09c42)

Solutions

  1. Use one of the four documented forms: duration '30m'/'2h'/'1d', interval 'every 30m'/'every monday 9am', 5-field cron '0 9 * * *', or ISO timestamp '2026-02-03T14:00:00'.
  2. Check for stray whitespace/quotes around the string before submitting.
  3. Verify cron expressions have exactly 5 space-separated fields.
  4. If generating schedules from model output, pre-validate against the four patterns and re-ask on failure.

Example fix

# before
create_job(prompt="digest", schedule="every day at 9")

# after
create_job(prompt="digest", schedule="every day 9am")  # or "0 9 * * *"
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import re
from datetime import datetime

def looks_like_valid_schedule(s: str) -> bool:
    s = s.strip()
    if re.fullmatch(r"\d+[mhd]", s): return True                    # duration
    if s.lower().startswith("every "): return True                  # interval
    if len(s.split()) == 5 and re.fullmatch(r"[\d*/,-]+( [\d*/,-]+){4}", s): return True  # cron
    try:
        datetime.fromisoformat(s); return True                      # timestamp
    except ValueError:
        return False

Try / catch

try:
    job = create_job(prompt=p, schedule=schedule)
except ValueError as e:
    if "Invalid schedule" in str(e):
        # show the four accepted formats to the caller/model and retry once
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling create_job / update_job / `hermes cron add` with strings like 'tomorrow', 'every monday at nine', '30 min' (space inside duration), '9am daily', or an empty/garbage schedule. Also cron strings with the wrong field count fall through to here.

Common situations: Natural-language schedules from an LLM that were never normalized, duration strings with units the parser doesn't know ('1w', '30s' if unsupported), or a user assuming a 6-field cron expression is accepted.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of NousResearch/hermes-agent@c896c09c42 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0ea577420a254cdc. Report an issue: GitHub.