Hermes internal wake traffic can starve a human interruption

In a reported Hermes deployment, background process wakes competed in the same bounded queue as user-originated inputs. The operator recorded extended delays and queue-cap warnings while scheduled and delegated work continued. This matters for agent safety because a human stop, correction or new instruction can become less timely than routine autonomous triggers.

The issue describes a proposed reservation of queue slots for human traffic. Such a patch can reduce dropping under bursts but does not alone prove fair priority, bound delays or verified acceptance of user corrections. These are observations from one installation, not a measured fleet-wide defect rate.

The reporter observed 212 internal wake events over about 70 minutes, a full shared queue and repeated drop warnings. The report states that the observed dropped events were wake events; human follow-ups were vulnerable to the same shared cap and scheduling path, not counted as a proven set of discarded human messages. A reservation of eight slots for human traffic reduces one capacity collision, but does not itself prove bounded interrupt latency or durable acknowledgment.