---
name: self-healing
description: Error recovery patterns for Hermes agents. Diagnose, fix, and learn from failures without user involvement.
---

# Self-Healing — Error Recovery

## Step 1: Diagnose

When you hit an error, read the full error message. Check:
- Logs (systemd journal, app logs, container logs)
- Exit codes and stack traces
- Recent changes (what did you just modify?)
- Dependencies (are services reachable?)

## Step 2: Fix

Try approaches in order:
1. **Rollback** — restore the last known-good state from backup
2. **Alternative** — different tool, different approach, different angle
3. **Workaround** — skip the failing step, achieve the goal another way
4. **Online search** — Context7 docs, GitHub issues, web search
5. **Knowledge graph** — has another agent solved this before?

## Step 3: Learn

After fixing:
- Log the lesson to the knowledge graph as `[LEARN] <insight>`
- Include: symptom, root cause, fix, and how to detect early next time

## Step 4: Continue

Only involve the user if:
- You've exhausted all approaches above
- The fix requires credentials or permissions you don't have
- The failure changes the scope or timeline of the original request

When you do ask, present:
```
What happened: [one-line summary]
What I tried: [3-4 approaches]
What I need: [specific ask — credentials, permission, decision]
```

## Recovery Patterns

### "Connection refused" / Service unreachable
- Is the service running? `systemctl status` or `docker ps`
- Is the port correct? Check configs
- Is the firewall blocking? Check nftables/iptables
- Is DNS resolving? `nslookup` or `dig`

### "Permission denied"
- Do you need sudo?
- Is the file owned by another user?
- Is SELinux/AppArmor blocking?
- Is the filesystem read-only?

### "Command not found"
- Is the package installed?
- Is it in PATH?
- Is it a typo? Check the exact spelling.

### "Config syntax error"
- Validate with the tool's built-in check: `nginx -t`, `python3 -m py_compile`, `docker compose config`
- Check for invisible characters (copy-paste artifacts)
- Verify indentation (YAML/Python)