* feat(auth): Nous free tier core: anonymous identity minted on first use, welcome inference, shared-store scoping
A fresh install with no provider sets up a free Nous identity (anonymous auth method of the nous
provider) instead of forcing the setup wizard. The identity is persisted through the same path a
real login uses, so the resolver ladder is unchanged. Two seams differ: token acquisition
re-exchanges the anon credential (no refresh token), and routing pins the welcome host's single
model nous/welcome. One identity per shared store; nous.guest: false turns the free tier off.
* test(auth): free tier core contracts: lifecycle, resolver precedence, exchange seam, model pin
* docs(user-guide): free tier and signing in
New page explaining what a fresh install gets before any key or sign-in
(free inference on nous/welcome plus connectors), how the free tier
coexists with a user's own API key, how to sign in with hermes auth
upgrade and keep connectors, how to turn the free tier off with
nous.guest, what hermes logout does in each state, a troubleshooting
table, and a plain privacy note. Wired into the Using Hermes sidebar.
* fix(auth): logout leaves the free tier alone and clears the shared store for a real Nous account
Logging out of the free tier is a no-op: it is not a login, so nothing is cleared and the user
is told they were never signed in. Logging out of a real Nous account now also clears the
cross-profile store, so a profile logout is not silently re-adopted on the next boot.
* fix(model): switching off the free tier points at signing in, never hops providers
* Name the free tier in the gateway startup notice and tell explicit-provider installs about it once
* Render the Nous free tier as free tier on auth status, auth list, hermes status and portal info, short-circuit billing copy for it, and skip the keepalive when there is no refresh token
* fix(auth): free tier is set up where nothing is configured: resolver last rung and first-run check
Both the provider resolver's terminal rung and the CLI first-run check now try to set up the free
tier before declaring nothing configured. On a fresh install the first command lands in chat on
nous/welcome; a failed setup still falls through to the existing guidance.
* Add hermes auth upgrade: sign the free tier into a Nous account while keeping its connectors
The device-code flow runs as usual, with a promotion intent registered on the portal between the
code request and the token poll so the account that approves the code inherits the free tier's
connectors. The promotion status decides the outcome: only a completed one is followed by the
token grant, which is persisted over the free-tier singleton and the shared store. Declined,
superseded, retired and busy outcomes each print their own plain copy, and a retired identity is
cleared so the next use sets up a fresh one. User-facing text never names the free tier's internals.
* Show the Nous free tier as one picker row with nous/welcome and hide it when nous.guest is off
* fix(auth): upgrade opens the consent page for this sign-in; one mint attempt per process; forced free tier wins the first-run check
The browser leg of hermes auth upgrade now prints and opens the promotion claim URL with the
claim code, not the generic device page. A failed mint is attempted once per process so several
bootstrap sites cannot hit a closed gate or a 429 twice; a retired credential resets that so
re-minting still happens. HERMES_FORCE_GUEST is honoured ahead of the first-run provider check.
* fix(auth): pin the welcome model on the selected route, not on profile state; background setup retries after a failure
A credential-pool entry can select a paid Nous key while the profile singleton is still the free
tier. The model pin now keys on the resolved endpoint (welcome host) in agent init and /model, and
the pin in model normalization is removed since it had no route to look at. A failed background
identity setup releases its latch so a later attempt in the same process can try again.
* fix(auth): decide the Nous model together with the route on every credential-pool swap
The credential pool can move a Nous agent between the welcome host and the portal host after
init. One helper, pin_model_for_route, now runs at init and inside every pool swap, so the
welcome host always carries nous/welcome and a paid endpoint always keeps the caller's model.
* fix(auth): apply the route model policy on every wire mode during a pool swap; release the setup latch if the thread cannot start
* fix(auth): free-tier lifecycle takes profile then shared lock, reconciles with the shared store, persists the mint before exchanging, and clears only the identity that died
The shared store is the identity of record for a Hermes root: a profile holding a stale free-tier
identity adopts a sibling's newer sign-in instead of keeping the guest, and never overwrites the
shared account. Locks are taken in the documented order (profile, then shared). A minted credential
is stored as soon as create succeeds, so a rate-limited or timed-out exchange does not lose it and
trigger a second mint. Retiring a dead credential removes only that credential from both stores.
Guest exchange uses the resolver's canonical portal URL.
* fix(auth): a credential rotation never rewrites the conversation model; connectors honour the off switch and replace a retired free-tier credential
The welcome host serves one model, so a rotation onto it is refused for any conversation on another
model instead of silently switching that conversation to nous/welcome (the model pin applies only
when a route is first chosen). The connector token path now treats the free tier as absent when
nous.guest is false, including cached tokens, and shares the one dead-credential rule with
inference: a retired identity is replaced once rather than returning its stale token.
* fix(auth): plain login never imports the free tier as OAuth credentials; the gateway startup line reads persisted state only
A free-tier identity in the shared store is not an OAuth credential to offer for import; a real
sign-in replaces it. The gateway's startup notice now answers provider precedence from persisted
state (no token refresh at boot), so an expired free-tier token cannot stall the online message.
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