fix(cli): try bundled TUI before requiring ui-tui workspace (#67116)

_make_tui_argv() called _ensure_tui_workspace(tui_dir) unconditionally
before checking for a prebuilt bundle. That function sys.exit(1)s when
ui-tui/ doesn't exist, which it never does on a pip/pipx install — the
wheel ships hermes_cli/tui_dist/entry.js but never ships ui-tui/ at all
(that directory only exists in a git checkout).

Every dashboard Chat tab connection on a pip/pipx install therefore
hard-exited before ever reaching _find_bundled_tui(), surfacing as the
unhelpful "Chat unavailable: 1" banner despite having a fully valid
bundled entry.js on disk.

Move the bundled-wheel/HERMES_TUI_DIR shortcut ahead of the workspace
check. --dev is unaffected (it never uses the bundled path and still
requires the workspace), and the checkout-without-bundle path is
unaffected (bundled lookup returns None, falls through to the existing
git-restore/npm-install/build flow).

Adds a contributors/emails mapping for the original author.

Fixes #56665

Co-authored-by: lucaskvasirr <lucaskvasir@duck.com>

contributors/emails/lucaskvasir@duck.com

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+lucaskvasirr
+# PR #56672 salvage (fix(cli): try bundled TUI before requiring ui-tui workspace; #56665)

hermes_cli/main.py

@@ -1766,10 +1766,14 @@ def _make_tui_argv(tui_dir: Path, tui_dev: bool) -> tuple[list[str], Path]:
         )
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    if not ext_dir:
-        _ensure_tui_workspace(tui_dir)
-
     # 1. Prebuilt bundle (nix / packaged release): just run it.
+    #
+    # This must run BEFORE _ensure_tui_workspace() below. A pip/pipx install
+    # ships hermes_cli/tui_dist/entry.js in the wheel but never ships ui-tui/
+    # at all (that directory only exists in a git checkout) — so requiring
+    # the workspace to exist first made every pip/pipx dashboard Chat tab
+    # connection hard-exit before it ever got a chance to try the bundled
+    # entry.js it already has. See #56665.
     if not tui_dev:
         if ext_dir:
             p = Path(ext_dir)
@@ -1783,6 +1787,11 @@ def _make_tui_argv(tui_dir: Path, tui_dev: bool) -> tuple[list[str], Path]:
             node = _node_bin("node")
             return [node, "--expose-gc", str(bundled)], bundled.parent
 
+    # No prebuilt bundle available (or --dev, which never uses one) — we're
+    # about to npm install/build from source, so the workspace must exist.
+    if not ext_dir:
+        _ensure_tui_workspace(tui_dir)
+
     # 2. Normal flow: npm install if needed, always esbuild, then node dist/entry.js.
     #    --dev flow: npm install if needed, then tsx src/entry.tsx.
     #    Existing desktop behaviour runs npm from the workspace root.  Termux

tests/hermes_cli/test_tui_npm_install.py

@@ -361,6 +361,79 @@ def test_make_tui_argv_decodes_dev_prebuild_with_utf8_replace(
     _assert_utf8_replace_capture(calls[0][1])
 
 
+def test_make_tui_argv_uses_bundled_tui_when_workspace_missing(
+    tmp_path: Path, main_mod, monkeypatch
+) -> None:
+    """pip/pipx install regression (#56665): the wheel ships
+    hermes_cli/tui_dist/entry.js but never ships ui-tui/ (that directory only
+    exists in a git checkout). Before this fix, _make_tui_argv called
+    _ensure_tui_workspace() unconditionally before checking for the bundled
+    entry.js, so every pip/pipx dashboard Chat tab connection hard-exited
+    with `sys.exit(1)` — surfaced to the user as the unhelpful "Chat
+    unavailable: 1" — despite having a perfectly runnable bundled TUI on
+    disk. The bundled-wheel shortcut must be tried first and succeed without
+    ever touching the (missing) ui-tui workspace or git.
+    """
+    monkeypatch.delenv("HERMES_TUI_DIR", raising=False)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod, "_ensure_tui_node", lambda: None)
+
+    bundled_entry = tmp_path / "bundled" / "entry.js"
+    bundled_entry.parent.mkdir(parents=True)
+    bundled_entry.write_text("// bundled TUI")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod, "_find_bundled_tui", lambda: bundled_entry)
+
+    def which(name: str) -> str | None:
+        if name == "node":
+            return "/usr/bin/node"
+        raise AssertionError(f"unexpected shutil.which({name!r}) call — bundled path must not need npm/git")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod.shutil, "which", which)
+
+    def fail_run(*_args, **_kwargs):
+        raise AssertionError("bundled TUI path must not spawn any subprocess (no npm install/build, no git restore)")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod.subprocess, "run", fail_run)
+
+    # ui-tui/ deliberately does not exist under tmp_path, and there is no
+    # .git either — this mirrors a pip/pipx install exactly.
+    tui_dir = tmp_path / "ui-tui"
+    assert not tui_dir.exists()
+
+    argv, cwd = main_mod._make_tui_argv(tui_dir, tui_dev=False)
+
+    assert argv == ["/usr/bin/node", "--expose-gc", str(bundled_entry)]
+    assert cwd == bundled_entry.parent
+
+
+def test_make_tui_argv_dev_mode_still_requires_workspace_even_with_bundle(
+    tmp_path: Path, main_mod, monkeypatch, capsys
+) -> None:
+    """--dev never uses the prebuilt bundle (there's no source to hot-reload
+    from a bundled entry.js), so it must still hit the workspace guard when
+    ui-tui/ is missing — the bundled-first reordering must not weaken --dev.
+    """
+    monkeypatch.delenv("HERMES_TUI_DIR", raising=False)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod, "_ensure_tui_node", lambda: None)
+
+    bundled_entry = tmp_path / "bundled" / "entry.js"
+    bundled_entry.parent.mkdir(parents=True)
+    bundled_entry.write_text("// bundled TUI")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod, "_find_bundled_tui", lambda: bundled_entry)
+
+    def which(name: str) -> str | None:
+        if name == "git":
+            return "/usr/bin/git"
+        raise AssertionError("node/npm lookup must not run when ui-tui is missing")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(main_mod.shutil, "which", which)
+
+    with pytest.raises(SystemExit) as exc:
+        main_mod._make_tui_argv(tmp_path / "ui-tui", tui_dev=True)
+
+    assert exc.value.code == 1
+    assert "TUI workspace is missing" in capsys.readouterr().err
+
+
 def test_make_tui_argv_exits_with_recovery_hint_when_workspace_unrecoverable(
     tmp_path: Path, main_mod, monkeypatch, capsys
 ) -> None: