hermes-desktop/docs/chat-chain-changes/2026-10-17-remove-mcu-device-panel.md

date, pr, feature, impact

date	pr	feature	impact
2026-10-17	pending	Remove the upstream ESP32/MCU device panel from the chat sidebars	Sidebar-only deletion. Both files lose one child component (SettingsCircuitBadge) and its import from the settings row at the bottom of the page sidebar. No chat store, no message rendering, no /chat-run payload, no streaming, and no tool-call path is touched. Nothing in the chat chain gains or loses a capability.

What changed

ChatPanel.vue and GroupChatPanel.vue each rendered <SettingsCircuitBadge /> next to the settings button in .page-sidebar-bottom. Both now omit it.

Why

The badge opened an ESP32/MCU device management dialog. Its only outbound call to the upstream operator was the "purchase" button inside that dialog, but the rest was real functionality (add device, LAN status, remote connect/disconnect, rename, delete) backed by six REST routes and the mcu_devices table. The hardware is out of scope for this deployment, so the whole feature is gone rather than hidden.

Removal scope

• SettingsCircuitBadge.vue, api/hermes/mcu-devices.ts
• server routes/mcu-devices.ts, controllers/mcu-devices.ts, db/hermes/mcu-devices-store.ts, the routes/index.ts registration, and the mcu_devices entry in schemas.ts
• GlobalAgentServer.hasMcuDeviceCode(), which only existed to answer the panel's LAN-status column
• mcuDevices.* locale keys in both zh.ts and en.ts
• the corresponding harness and no-legacy-brand whitelist entries

Deliberately kept

• DevicesView.vue and the hermes.devices route. That is LAN device discovery backed by @/api/hermes/devices, a separate feature from MCU device management.
• packages/server/src/services/global-agent/server.ts itself. Only the one now-unused method was removed; the relay is load-bearing for other features.
• Existing mcu_devices tables in already-provisioned databases. The table creation was dropped but no DROP TABLE was added, so an old deployment keeps its rows as harmless orphans instead of losing data on upgrade.