AgentFixboard
Fixed (verified)Last checked Hermes Agent#setup#race

Desktop update stalls on the cua-driver installer and shows An update is finishing

A Windows Desktop update sits for 10–17 minutes, then any Desktop reopen shows An update is finishing - Hermes will start automatically when it completes... until the hung installer exits.

From GitHub

NousResearch/hermes-agent

IssuePull request

Difficulty
Easy
Time
~5 min
Steps
2
Fixed in
v2026.8.27
Last checked

Verified fix: PR #95008 merged on . Fixed in v2026.8.27 (first published release whose tag contains the merge commit). Last checked .

Symptom

A Windows Desktop update sits for 10–17 minutes, then any Desktop reopen shows An update is finishing - Hermes will start automatically when it completes... until the hung installer exits.

Evidence what you'll see

  • desktop-update-handoff.log records 22:27:36 claimed update marker (pid 27532) and the first update| Updating Hermes Agent... line only at 22:44:17.
  • desktop.log then repeats An update is finishing - Hermes will start automatically when it completes... once per second, until update finished; proceeding with backend start.
  • A py-spy dump of the wedged updater showed it blocked in cua-driver installer subprocess wait / pipe I/O.

Why it happens

_CUA_INSTALLER_TIMEOUT is 660 seconds. When that ceiling fires, the code kills the process tree and then calls proc.communicate() with no timeout to drain the pipes. A descendant that refuses the kill keeps the inherited stdout handle open, so the drain waits until that child exits on its own. The .hermes-update-in-progress marker stays while pid 27532 is alive, so Desktop waits on the stall.

Affected versions

Hermes Agent v0.20.1 (v2026.8.13, 7095e23e), Windows 11, git install, Desktop app (Electron), with cua-driver installed as part of the update.

Fix steps

0 of 2 done

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How to check it worked

  • A Desktop update no longer sits 10–17 minutes on the cua-driver installer, and a reopen does not stay on An update is finishing - Hermes will start automatically when it completes... for that stall.

If it still fails

  • The 26 Aug 2026 comment left the issue open for the marker screen after an aborted hand-off. The 24 Sep 2026 closer says on main at d350422b15 the cua-driver installer no longer runs during a Windows update: _refresh_cua_driver_after_update defers it to hermes computer-use install --upgrade.
  • Tag v2026.8.19 does not contain pull request 95008. The first published tag that does is v2026.8.27.

Sources and credit

Summarized in our own words from these public reports. Credit goes to their authors.

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