Use Hermes Focus View Without Losing Runtime Evidence

Focus view is a display-only mode for Hermes CLI and TUI. It pins tool-progress display to off, keeps a visible focus badge, and ends each completed turn with a dim line reporting how many tool lines were hidden.

/focus on
/focus off

Turning focus on saves the prior tool-progress mode. Turning it off restores that exact mode, so a deliberately verbose setup survives the round trip.

Know what focus view does not change

Focus view does not edit:

• conversation history;
• system prompts or tool schemas;
• provider request payloads;
• prompt-cache behavior;
• the actual tools the agent may use.

The detail is suppressed on screen, not discarded. This makes focus view suitable when an operator wants the deliverable without a long play-by-play but still needs the session to retain its evidence.

Coordinate focus and verbose modes

Focus view is built on the same tool-progress machinery as verbose display. Cycling the verbose mode while focus is active hands control back to verbose and clears the focus badge. Use one display intent at a time:

• focus for calm routine operation;
• normal progress for balanced visibility;
• verbose output for active diagnosis.

Operator checklist

• The status bar shows that focus is active.
• Hidden-line recovery text appears after a tool-using turn.
• The prior tool-progress mode returns after /focus off.
• Important external evidence is still captured in the deliverable.
• Diagnostic sessions leave focus mode before deep troubleshooting.

Common pitfalls

• Assuming hidden output is missing from history. The mode changes display only.
• Forgetting the mode is active. Use the persistent badge and recovery line.
• Using focus during incident response. Restore progress or verbose output when diagnosing live failures.
• Equating a clean screen with a completed task. Verification evidence still determines completion.

Verification

Start with a known tool-progress mode, enable focus, and run a harmless tool-using request. Confirm tool chatter is suppressed and the recovery line reports hidden lines. Disable focus and verify the previous progress mode returns. Inspect the session history or resume the session to confirm context was preserved.

Official reference: Hermes display configuration.