The /steer 📝slash command in 📝Hermes Agent injects a mid-run note that the running agent receives after its next tool call, without interrupting the turn or starting a new user turn.
Per the Hermes slash-command reference, the text of /steer <prompt> is appended to the content of the last tool result once the current tool completes, giving the agent new context without breaking its tool-calling loop. Its example use is nudging direction mid-task, such as asking the agent to focus on the auth module while it runs tests.
/steer works in both the CLI and the messaging 📝gateway. The related /busy command controls what happens when a user messages while Hermes is working, with steering mid-turn as one option alongside queueing the message or interrupting immediately. The command registry, hermes_cli/commands.py, defines steer in the Session category with the alias s and a dispatch busy policy, which the file counts as explicit mid-run handling.
In the 📝Hermes Terminal UI, an approval prompt's "No, and tell Hermes what to do instead" option denies the command and steers the typed instruction into the running turn as /steer would, and the Ctrl+T agents roster offers e to steer a selected worker.
📝Nous Research introduced /steer in release v2026.4.23 (April 23, 2026), noting that the nudge does not break prompt cache. Release v2026.5.7 (May 7, 2026) brought it to ACP, for directing the in-flight agent from Zed, VS Code or JetBrains, and v0.22.0 (October 14, 2026) added /s as shorthand for /steer.