# Background Review Watch: Hermes Agent plugin

> Status-bar chips for the background self-improvement review and batch context compaction: review running/done/stale with live elapsed time, a turn-countdown fill bar to the next nudge, an always-visible compaction chip…

Canonical: https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins/background-review-watch  
Tier: Community  
Official page (Nous Research): https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/background-review-watch  
Last updated in catalog: 2026-10-20

Status-bar chips for the background self-improvement review and batch context compaction: review running/done/stale with live elapsed time, a turn-countdown fill bar to the next nudge, an always-visible compaction chip (compacting/done/failed/stale with committed reduction or failure class), reply-guard recovery and review-overlap diagnostics, and a Settings page that tunes both orphan ceilings.

## Good to know before installing

Renderer-only; polls filtered read-only tails of agent.log via host.logs to parse lifecycle markers; listens for review.summary/message.start/message.complete events; stores three small plugin-storage records (settings + last compaction + last review); no network calls beyond the local gateway, no credential access, no self-update.

From the plugin's catalog listing.

## How to install

1. Install it. Hermes asks for any API keys it needs, then asks whether to turn it on.

```bash
hermes plugins install background-review-watch
```

2. Said no? Turn it on later:

```bash
hermes plugins enable background-review-watch
```

3. Restart Hermes so it loads the plugin.

Some plugins also need a sign-in or settings: see the official page. Memory plugins ask whether to become your memory provider instead. Steps follow the official plugins guide: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/plugins

## Facts

- Category: Security & privacy, Hermes Desktop add-ons
- Maintained by: vectorforge22 (Community)
- Needs: No API keys declared
- Requires Hermes: `>=0.21.5`
- Version: 0.5.0
- In the catalog since: 2026-10-20

## Links

- [Full setup and settings (official page)](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/background-review-watch)
- [Source code](https://github.com/vectorforge22/background-review-watch)
- [All plugins](https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins.md)

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