Summary

Image understanding in Hermes can fail with a generic message like:

"There was a problem with the request and the image could not be analyzed."

In practice this leaves the agent unable to inspect user-sent images, even when the rest of the system is otherwise working.

Why this matters

For chat/gateway use, image handling is not optional. If a user sends an image, Hermes should either:

• analyze it successfully, or
• degrade gracefully with a useful fallback path

A generic failure with no retry/fallback makes image support feel unreliable.

Observed behavior

• User sends image in chat
• vision_analyze can fail with a generic request error
• browser_vision may also be unavailable or fail depending on runtime
• Agent is left without a reliable way to inspect the image

Expected behavior

When primary image analysis fails, Hermes should have a clear recovery path, for example:

1. retry with auxiliary vision client
2. fall back to another available vision backend/tool
3. surface a precise error (missing dependency / backend unavailable / unsupported image path)
4. avoid vague "could not be analyzed" messaging when the failure reason is knowable

Requested improvement

• Add robust fallback/retry behavior for image analysis
• Improve diagnostics so the agent can tell whether the issue is backend, dependency, path, or provider support
• Prefer graceful degradation over generic vision failure

User impact

This is especially visible on messaging platforms like Telegram, where image understanding is a core expectation. Hermes should be able to reliably inspect user-sent images or fail in a much more actionable way.