Dashboard

The Dashboard is the default landing view of every window. It answers four questions at a glance: Is Hermes running? What's it cost me? What did it just do? Is anything broken?

Layout

A scrolling stack of cards, refreshed automatically when ~/.hermes/state.db, config.yaml, or the logs change (HermesFileWatcher handles the reload).

Card	Source	What it shows
Hermes Process	`pgrep` (local) or `ssh host pgrep` (remote)	Running / stopped, PID, uptime. Start/stop/restart buttons.
Token Usage	`state.db` aggregations across all sessions	Input + output + cache + reasoning tokens; period selector (7/30/90 days / all).
Cost Tracking	Per-session `actual_cost_usd` (v0.7+) or `estimated_cost_usd`	Total spend in the period, broken down by model when available.
Recent Sessions	`sessions` table, ordered by `started_at DESC`	Last N sessions with title, source platform, message count, duration. Click to drill into Sessions.
Active Platforms	Parsed from `config.yaml`	Which messaging platforms are configured and their connection status.
Status	`lastOpenError` from `HermesDataService`	Surfaced when the database can't be read (missing `sqlite3` on remote, permission denied, etc.). Links to Health for diagnostics.

Live refresh

Local windows watch ~/.hermes/ with FSEvents (DispatchSourceFileSystemObject). Remote windows poll mtimes every 3 seconds over the SSH ControlMaster. Either way, the Dashboard updates without needing a manual refresh — open it on a second monitor and watch sessions tick by as Hermes works.

Project dashboards (v2.7+)

Per-project dashboards (the Projects sidebar item, separate from this system Dashboard) refresh on a project-wide watch: any change anywhere under <project>/.scarf/ triggers a reload, not just dashboard.json itself. So a markdown_file widget pointing at reports/weekly.md (placed under .scarf/reports/) refreshes automatically when the cron job rewrites it. The same coverage applies on remote SSH-attached projects via 3-second mtime polling on each project's .scarf/ directory. Limitation: in-place appends to an existing file (>> file.log) don't tick the watcher — write atomically (write-temp + rename) or touch dashboard.json after each cron run.

Every Scarf window has a connection pill in the toolbar showing the bound server and its state:

Local — green dot, "Local" label.
Remote (healthy) — green dot, server name.
Remote (degraded) — yellow dot, "Can't read Hermes state" — opens a diagnostics sheet that runs 14 checks in one SSH session (connectivity, sqlite3 presence, read access on config.yaml/state.db, effective non-login $PATH).
Remote (failed) — red dot, error message.

When something looks wrong

"Hermes not running" — start Hermes from a terminal, or click the Start button.
Empty cards — ~/.hermes/state.db is missing or unreadable. See First Run.
Token/cost are zero but you've used Hermes — the schema may predate v0.7. Update Hermes; Scarf detects the new columns automatically.
Yellow "Can't read Hermes state" pill on remote — open Manage Servers → Run Diagnostics. Each failed check explains why and how to fix.

ScarfGo Dashboard (iOS, v2.5+)

ScarfGo's Dashboard is a slimmer take: a stats grid (Sessions / Messages / Tool Calls / Tokens) over a recent-sessions card, plus a Sessions sub-tab with a project filter Menu. Swipe the row to resume a session. The Hermes Process / Gateway / Active Platforms cards are Mac-only — they read state Hermes doesn't yet expose remotely in a phone-friendly way. See Platform Differences for the full Mac vs iOS feature matrix.

A Switch server button in the iOS Dashboard's top-right corner (added v2.5) returns you to the Servers list without first navigating to the System tab — handy when you have multiple Hermes hosts configured.

Insights & Activity for deeper analytics.
Chat for talking to the running Hermes.
Servers & Remote for adding remote hosts and the diagnostics flow.
ScarfGo for the iOS Dashboard tour.

Last updated: 2026-05-04 — Scarf v2.7 (project-wide auto-refresh on .scarf/ directory)

Getting Started

ScarfGo (iOS)

User Guide

Architecture

Developer Guide

Reference

Troubleshooting

Slow Chat Startup

Contributing

Release History

Legal & Support

Wiki edited via the local .wiki-worktree/ clone. See Wiki Maintenance for the workflow. Last sync: 2026-04-20.