Hermes Athena image provider

Hermes backend plugin for the OpenAI-compatible image API exposed by the Athena profile router. The router starts the local FLUX worker on demand, unloads the active LLM and Qwen3-TTS, and restores both after generation.

Reference-image requests use FLUX for creative edits. No second Hermes provider or desktop installation is required.

There is deliberately no photo-restoration model or restoration skill in this provider. The former HYPIR experiment was removed after it redrew and smoothed details instead of preserving the source faithfully. See docs/IMAGE_RESTORATION.md for the recorded decision and the isolated SeedVR2 comparison.

Gateway installation

Install this directory on the Hermes gateway, not on each Desktop client:

$HERMES_HOME/plugins/image_gen/athena-local/
  __init__.py
  plugin.yaml

Set these secrets or environment variables on the gateway:

ATHENA_IMAGE_BASE_URL=http://192.168.1.212:8081/v1
ATHENA_IMAGE_API_KEY=<same API key accepted by the Athena router>

Then enable and select the provider:

plugins:
  enabled:
    - image_gen/athena-local

image_gen:
  provider: athena-local
  model: FLUX.2-klein-9B-fp8-beta
  max_parallel_requests: 1

Restart the Hermes gateway after changing plugin files or configuration. A second computer connected to the same gateway needs no plugin installation.

Optional overrides:

ATHENA_IMAGE_MODEL defaults to FLUX.2-klein-9B-fp8-beta.
ROUTER_API_KEY is accepted as a migration fallback.
An existing HERMES_CUSTOM_192_168_1_212_8081_API_KEY is accepted as the final fallback, so an existing Athena chat-provider setup needs no duplicate secret.