# Hermes Gateway systemd Service Troubleshooting — Reference Detail

## Common Crash Loop: "Changing to the requested working directory failed"

**Symptom:** Service restarts every 5 seconds, logs show:
```
hermes-gateway.service: Changing to the requested working directory failed: No such file or directory
hermes-gateway.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=200/CHDIR
```

**Root Cause:** `WorkingDirectory` in service file points to a path that doesn't exist for the configured `User`.

**Typical Scenario:**
- Config lives in `/root/.hermes` (installed as root)
- Service file has `User=mehlzoerwer` and `WorkingDirectory=/home/mehlzoerwer/.hermes`
- But `/home/mehlzoerwer/.hermes` doesn't exist

**Fix:** Align `User`, `WorkingDirectory`, `HOME`, `HERMES_HOME` to where config actually lives.

```ini
# If config is in /root/.hermes:
User=root
Group=root
WorkingDirectory=/root/.hermes
Environment="HOME=/root"
Environment="HERMES_HOME=/root/.hermes"

# If config is in /home/user/.hermes:
User=user
Group=user
WorkingDirectory=/home/user/.hermes
Environment="HOME=/home/user"
Environment="HERMES_HOME=/home/user/.hermes"
```

Then:
```bash
systemctl daemon-reload
pkill -9 -f 'hermes_cli.main gateway run'  # kill crash loop
systemctl start hermes-gateway
systemctl status hermes-gateway --no-pager
```

---

## Cannot Restart from Inside Gateway Session

**Problem:** Running `systemctl restart hermes-gateway` (or `pkill`/`kill`) from within an active Hermes gateway session fails with:
```text
Blocked: cannot restart or stop the gateway from inside the gateway process.
The gateway would kill this command before it could complete (SIGTERM propagates to child processes).
Run `hermes gateway restart` from a separate shell outside the running gateway.
```

**Reason:** Hermes detects it's running inside its own gateway process and blocks process termination commands to prevent self-kill.

**Workarounds:**
1. **Run commands from a separate shell** (new SSH session, tmux pane, or `at` job)
2. **Use `hermes gateway restart`** from within the gateway (if gateway is responsive)
3. **Kill via PID directly from outside**: `ssh root@host 'pkill -9 -f hermes_cli.main'`
4. **Schedule restart**: `echo 'systemctl restart hermes-gateway' | at now + 1 minute`

---

## Telegram Polling Conflict (409 Error)

**Symptom:** When starting the gateway, logs show:
```text
WARNING hermes_plugins.telegram_platform.adapter: [Telegram] Telegram polling conflict (1/5) — previous session still held open on Telegram's servers. Waiting 20s for it to expire. Error: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request; make sure that only one bot instance is running
INFO hermes_plugins.telegram_platform.adapter: [Telegram] Telegram polling resumed after conflict retry 1/5
```

**Cause:** A previous gateway instance (or another process) still holds an active Long Polling connection to Telegram. Telegram only allows ONE active `getUpdates` connection per bot token.

**Built-in Resolution:** Hermes Gateway (since recent versions) automatically retries up to 5 times with exponential backoff (20s, 40s, 60s, 80s, 100s). The old connection expires on Telegram's side after ~30-60 seconds of inactivity.

**When to Act:**
- If conflict persists after all 5 retries → another process is actively polling (check for duplicate gateway services, cron jobs, or manual runs)
- Fix: `pkill -9 -f 'hermes_cli.main gateway run'` then restart cleanly

**Verification:**
```bash
# Check for duplicate gateway processes
ps aux | grep 'hermes_cli.main gateway run'

# Should only show ONE process (the systemd one)
```

---

## Gateway Startup Notification

**Behavior:** On successful Telegram connection, the gateway automatically sends a startup notification to the configured `TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL` (from `.env` or config).

**Log entry:**
```text
INFO gateway.run: Sent home-channel startup notification to telegram:6417835766
```

**If notification not received:**
1. Verify `TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL` and `TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS` in `.env` match your chat ID
2. Check bot has permission to message that chat (not blocked, not a channel without bot admin)
3. Check gateway logs for delivery errors after "Sent home-channel startup notification"

---

## Diagnostic Checklist

```bash
# 1. Check service file
systemctl cat hermes-gateway

# 2. Verify paths exist for the configured User
ls -la /home/user/.hermes   # or /root/.hermes

# 3. Check current crash loop
journalctl -u hermes-gateway -n 20 --no-pager

# 4. Verify Hermes config location
cat /root/.hermes/config.yaml | head -5
# or
cat /home/user/.hermes/config.yaml | head -5

# 5. Check which user owns the config
ls -la /root/.hermes/config.yaml
ls -la /home/user/.hermes/config.yaml 2>/dev/null
```

---

## Service File Template (Root Install)

```ini
[Unit]
Description=Hermes Agent Gateway - Messaging Platform Integration
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
Group=root
ExecStart=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv/bin/python -m hermes_cli.main gateway run
WorkingDirectory=/root/.hermes
Environment="HOME=/root"
Environment="USER=root"
Environment="LOGNAME=root"
Environment="PATH=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
Environment="VIRTUAL_ENV=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv"
Environment="HERMES_HOME=/root/.hermes"
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
RestartForceExitStatus=75
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGTERM
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR1 $MAINPID
TimeoutStopSec=210
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

---

## Service File Template (User Install)

```ini
[Unit]
Description=Hermes Agent Gateway - Messaging Platform Integration
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
User=<username>
Group=<username>
ExecStart=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv/bin/python -m hermes_cli.main gateway run
WorkingDirectory=/home/<username>/.hermes
Environment="HOME=/home/<username>"
Environment="USER=<username>"
Environment="LOGNAME=<username>"
Environment="PATH=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
Environment="VIRTUAL_ENV=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv"
Environment="HERMES_HOME=/home/<username>/.hermes"
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
RestartForceExitStatus=75
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGTERM
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR1 $MAINPID
TimeoutStopSec=210
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```