Every bot-to-bot DM is a fresh `hermes -p <bot> chat -Q` process, so it
pays agent startup on each hop. Profiling one hop showed the single
largest controllable cost was a live GET /models against the provider on
EVERY launch (0.3-0.6s normally, up to the 15s probe timeout on a slow
endpoint) — the in-memory endpoint-metadata cache is per process and the
Nous persistent context cache is bypassed by design so the portal stays
authoritative.
- model_metadata: memoize successful remote /models probes on disk
(cache/endpoint_model_metadata.json) with the SAME 300s TTL as the
in-memory cache, so authority semantics are unchanged (reconciliation
still lands within 5 minutes) but the answer is shared across
processes. Local endpoints are never memoized (LM Studio reloads).
- bot_relay: the cross-machine reply waiter polls the reply file every
250ms instead of every 2s — up to 2s of dead air on every relayed reply.
Nothing here changes turn ordering: DMs and group rounds stay serial.
Live (polis-hermes bot, spawn -> first API request, cold, 5-6 runs):
main median 1.23s (one 20.8s outlier = probe stall) -> 0.96s, no stalls.
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