The AI Toolchain — issue -003, August 16, 2026

The agent that grows with you

Hermes v2026.8.16 adds key_cmd credential source, lean compaction mode, SDK plugin exports, and per-turn wall-clock timing.

$ git clone --branch v2026.8.16 https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v2026.8.16

providers:
  my-gateway:
    base_url: https://gateway.internal.example.com/v1
    api_mode: chat_completions
    key_cmd: my-auth-cli print-token --profile prod

• ›Adds key_cmd credential source in the providers config block, letting Hermes run an arbitrary command to mint short-lived bearer tokens instead of storing static keys — output can be a bare token or JSON with access_token / expires_in fields; tokens are cached until near expiry.
• ›Exports McpTab, ToolsetConfigPanel, and HermesGateway type from @hermes/plugin-sdk, plus host.getGateway() returning the live $gateway instance, so desktop plugins can render full credential/OAuth/MCP configuration panels identical to Settings → Capabilities.
• ›Adds per-turn wall-clock duration display in the desktop transcript.
• ›Adds user-facing authorization flow for cua-driver browser attachment in computer-use mode.
• ›Adds multi-source agent support in the desktop app (sockets, roster, SDK, fan-out updates).

OpenAI Agents SDK v0.21.1 adds model call timeouts, run-scoped sandbox working directories, Docker networking controls, and Modal resource options.

$ git clone --branch v0.21.1 https://github.com/openai/openai-agents-python.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v0.21.1

• ›Adds model call timeouts to the core runner, letting callers bound how long a single model invocation can block.
• ›Adds run-scoped sandbox working directories so each run gets an isolated filesystem context inside the sandbox.
• ›Allows Docker sandboxes to disable networking, enabling air-gapped sandbox execution for sensitive workloads.
• ›Adds Modal sandbox resource options, exposing resource configuration (CPU, memory, GPU, etc.) for Modal-backed sandboxes.

browser-use 0.13.8 defaults ChatBrowserUse to bu-2-0-mini-preview and adds first-party OpenClaw skill support

$ git clone --branch 0.13.8 https://github.com/browser-use/browser-use.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 0.13.8

• ›Defaults ChatBrowserUse to the bu-2-0-mini-preview model.
• ›Adds first-party OpenClaw skill support to the agent.

KoboldCpp v1.119 adds video generation with Minimax H3, I2V, image editing API, and expands LoRA and attachment limits.

$ git clone --branch v1.119 https://github.com/LostRuins/koboldcpp.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v1.119

• ›Adds support for the OpenAI Image editing API at /v1/images/edits, enabling image-to-image editing workflows through the OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
• ›Adds video generation and image-to-video (I2V) support via Minimax H3 (requires 4 model files; a .kcppt quick-setup template is available on HuggingFace).
• ›Adds support for DSpark and Dflash speculative decoding backends.
• ›Adds support for Mistral reasoning budget control.
• ›Adds image generation progress previews so users can monitor generation in real time.

Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

Codex CLI gains disk-space diagnostics in codex doctor, MCP tool handler hooks, and live hook refresh after plugin changes.

$ git clone --branch rust-v0.148.0-alpha.20 https://github.com/openai/codex.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout rust-v0.148.0-alpha.20

• ›Adds storage diagnostics to codex doctor, reporting free space for both CODEX_HOME and the worktree with warning (5 GiB) and failure (1 GiB) thresholds; on Windows, also checks Dev Drive health.
• ›Propagates W3C traceparent and tracestate trace context through exec-server relay frames, including fragmented encrypted Noise-protocol requests.
• ›Supports pending environment attachment configuration so threads start immediately without blocking while attachment configuration is not yet available, with a new failed-attachment state that recovers on a ready update.
• ›Uses paginated history for persistent exec threads to keep memory usage bounded across long sessions.
• ›Shows resume and fork status indicators during TUI startup.