feat(cli): add restart-based profile switching to /profile

[stephenschoettler]

Summary

• extend the interactive /profile slash command to support listing and switching profiles
• switch profiles with a restart-based re-exec instead of unsafe in-process HERMES_HOME mutation
• add focused CLI tests covering no-arg display, list, switch, same-profile no-op, and error handling
• document the new interactive CLI /profile behaviors in the slash-command reference and profiles guide

Why

• /profile already existed but only exposed status, leaving a clear UX gap for people using multiple Hermes profiles
• restart-based switching is the safe implementation because profile selection affects import-time config, paths, dotenv loading, and state initialization

Existing work checked

• searched open PRs for overlapping work before finalizing the PR updates
• searched open issues for matching feature requests / duplicates
• no overlapping open PR or clearly matching existing issue found for interactive /profile switching

How to test

• run: python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_commands.py tests/hermes_cli/test_profiles.py tests/test_cli_profile_command.py -q -o addopts=''
• launch Hermes and exercise:
  • /profile
  • /profile list
  • /profile use <name>
  • /profile <name>
  • /profile <current-profile>
  • /profile use
  • /profile list extra

Details

• /profile now shows the active profile using profile helpers instead of inferring from path shape alone
• /profile list prints available profiles and marks the active one
• /profile use <name> and /profile <name> set the sticky profile, then restart Hermes with --profile <name>
• same-profile requests are treated as a no-op and do not restart
• shared slash-command registry metadata was intentionally left unchanged to avoid advertising CLI-only semantics in gateway/help/menu surfaces
• docs now cover the new CLI-only /profile list/switch flows and note restart-on-switch behavior

Platforms tested

• Linux (Arch)
• Python 3.14.3

Checklist

Code

• I've read the Contributing Guide
• My commit messages follow Conventional Commits (feat(cli): ..., docs(cli): ...)
• I searched for existing PRs to make sure this isn't a duplicate
• My PR contains only changes related to this feature
• I've run pytest tests/ -q and all tests pass
• I've run targeted pytest coverage for the changed area: python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_commands.py tests/hermes_cli/test_profiles.py tests/test_cli_profile_command.py -q -o addopts=''
• I've added tests for my changes
• I've manually tested the interactive CLI behavior
• I've tested on my platform: Arch Linux

Documentation & Housekeeping

• I've updated relevant documentation (website/docs/reference/slash-commands.md, website/docs/user-guide/profiles.md)
• I've updated cli-config.yaml.example if needed — N/A
• I've updated CONTRIBUTING.md or AGENTS.md if needed — N/A
• I've considered cross-platform impact (Windows, macOS) per the compatibility guide
• I've updated tool descriptions/schemas if needed — N/A

Scope notes

• CLI-only. Gateway /profile switching remains out of scope.
• The current conversation remains in the old profile state store; the restarted CLI starts a fresh session in the new profile.
• Cross-platform impact was considered because this touches process restart behavior, but the implementation intentionally uses Python-level re-exec logic rather than shell-specific behavior.

[stephenschoettler]

Manual verification is now complete.

Confirmed in the interactive Hermes CLI:

• /profile shows the correct active profile
• /profile list marks the active profile correctly
• /profile <current-profile> is a no-op
• /profile use shows usage
• /profile list extra shows usage
• /profile <different-profile> switches profiles and restarts cleanly

So the focused pytest coverage and a real interactive smoke test are both green.

[stephenschoettler]

Ran the full test suite locally with python -m pytest tests/ -q. It is not green in this environment.

Result:

• 8707 passed
• 68 failed
• 6 errors
• 62 skipped

The failures appear to be pre-existing / unrelated to this /profile change and cluster in other areas, including:

• ACP tests (ModuleNotFoundError: acp)
• Matrix gateway tests
• delegate tool tests
• transcription / managed media gateway tests
• logging / provider-resolution / env-loader tests

The targeted tests for this PR still pass, and manual interactive verification of /profile behavior is complete.

[stephenschoettler]

Follow-up: I found the branch had picked up unrelated context-engine commits in its history. I cleaned the PR branch and force-updated it so the diff is now limited to the intended files only:

• cli.py
• tests/test_cli_profile_command.py
• website/docs/reference/slash-commands.md
• website/docs/user-guide/profiles.md

Targeted verification after cleanup:

• pytest -q tests/test_cli_profile_command.py tests/hermes_cli/test_commands.py tests/hermes_cli/test_profiles.py -o addopts=''
• result: 186 passed

Given the cleaned diff, the unrelated full-suite failures do not appear to come from this /profile work.

[stephenschoettler]

Closing this as shelved cleanup. The branch still represents restart-based interactive /profile switching, but that is feature scope rather than a current bugfix, and current main has moved a lot around profile/home handling.

If we decide we still want CLI profile switching, it should be rebuilt fresh against current startup/profile semantics rather than keeping this old branch open.