diff --git a/plugin-hook-example/README.md b/plugin-hook-example/README.md
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+# plugin-hook-example
+
+Reference plugin showing the `transform_llm_output` lifecycle hook.
+Redacts SSN, Luhn-valid credit-card numbers, and common API-key
+shapes from assistant output before it leaves the agent loop. Emits
+one structured audit log line per scan so operators can see what
+was caught without re-reading the text.
+
+## What it does
+
+Declares the `transform_llm_output` hook in `plugin.yaml`:
+
+```yaml
+hooks:
+  - transform_llm_output
+```
+
+Wires it in `register(ctx)`:
+
+```python
+def register(ctx):
+    ctx.register_hook(
+        name="transform_llm_output",
+        handler=_make_hook(ctx),
+        description="Redact SSN, Luhn-valid credit cards, and API-key shapes from assistant output.",
+    )
+```
+
+The hook receives the assistant's outbound text and returns the same
+text with each match replaced by `[REDACTED:<kind>]`:
+
+| Pattern | Example | Replacement |
+|---|---|---|
+| US SSN | `123-45-6789` | `[REDACTED:ssn]` |
+| Credit card (Luhn-valid, 13-19 digits) | `4111 1111 1111 1111` | `[REDACTED:credit_card]` |
+| OpenAI key | `sk-abc...` | `[REDACTED:openai_key]` |
+| OpenAI project key | `sk-proj-...` | `[REDACTED:openai_project_key]` |
+| Anthropic key | `sk-ant-...` | `[REDACTED:anthropic_key]` |
+| AWS access key | `AKIA...`, `ASIA...` | `[REDACTED:aws_access_key]` |
+| GitHub token | `ghp_...`, `gho_...`, etc. | `[REDACTED:github_token]` |
+
+## Why this shape
+
+The plugin is intentionally policy-only:
+
+* No blocking, retry, or escalation - returning the redacted string is
+  the whole contract.
+* Patterns favour high precision over high recall. SSN refuses the
+  invalid SSA blocks; credit cards must pass a Luhn check; each API
+  key prefix is specific enough that a match is overwhelmingly real.
+* Pure-function redaction logic in `redact.py` is unit-testable
+  without any `ctx` fixture.
+
+That keeps the example focused on the **hook lifecycle** itself
+(declare, register, return transformed text) rather than the
+redaction strategy, which a real deployment would replace with
+Microsoft Presidio, regex catalogs, or a dedicated DLP service.
+
+## How it works
+
+The host calls the hook with the assistant's outbound text:
+
+```python
+def hook(text, **metadata):
+    redacted, audit = redact(text)
+    if not audit:
+        return text
+    logger.info(
+        "plugin-hook-example: redacted %d span(s) from %d-char output [%s]",
+        len(audit), len(text), summary,
+    )
+    return redacted
+```
+
+The host then sends the redacted text on to whatever channel the
+user is connected through (CLI, Telegram, Discord, web UI).
+
+Cold-path note: if the input has no matches, the hook returns the
+original string unchanged and writes no log entry - so the steady
+state has zero overhead.
+
+## Audit output
+
+A scan produces one structured log line on the standard `logging`
+hierarchy:
+
+```
+INFO plugin_hook_example: redacted 2 span(s) from 1284-char output [openai_key=1, ssn=1]
+```
+
+Real audit pipelines route this through `ctx.audit.emit` or a
+dedicated sink; the reference plugin keeps it on the standard
+logger so it shows up in the host's log stream without any extra
+wiring.
+
+## Try it
+
+Clone this repo (or download just this directory), drop it into
+your user-plugins folder, and enable it:
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-example-plugins.git
+cp -r hermes-example-plugins/plugin-hook-example ~/.hermes/plugins/
+hermes plugins enable plugin-hook-example
+```
+
+Then in a Hermes session, ask the assistant to read a file or
+output that happens to contain a secret shape. The redaction
+fires and the audit line shows up in the host log.
+
+## License
+
+MIT, same as hermes-agent.
diff --git a/plugin-hook-example/__init__.py b/plugin-hook-example/__init__.py
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+"""plugin-hook-example - reference plugin for the ``transform_llm_output`` hook.
+
+Companion to the
+`Plugin Hooks <https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/plugin-hooks>`_
+docs page. Demonstrates the lifecycle-hook surface:
+
+* declares ``transform_llm_output`` in ``plugin.yaml``,
+* registers a single hook that redacts SSN, Luhn-valid credit cards,
+  and common API-key shapes from assistant output,
+* emits one ``logger.info`` audit record per scan with the count and
+  kinds of redactions so operators can see what was caught without
+  re-reading the text.
+
+The plugin is intentionally policy-only: it does not block, retry, or
+escalate. The host can chain additional hooks (rate limiting, content
+classification, summarisation) downstream of this one.
+
+The trust gate stays at the default: hooks run for every assistant
+turn unless the operator disables this plugin in ``config.yaml``.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import logging
+from typing import Any
+
+from .redact import Redaction, redact
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def _make_hook(ctx: Any):
+    """Build the ``transform_llm_output`` hook bound to this plugin's ctx."""
+
+    plugin_name = "plugin-hook-example"
+
+    def hook(text: str, **_metadata: Any) -> str:
+        redacted, audit = redact(text)
+        if not audit:
+            return text
+        _log_audit(plugin_name, audit, original_len=len(text))
+        return redacted
+
+    return hook
+
+
+def _log_audit(plugin_name: str, audit: list[Redaction], *, original_len: int) -> None:
+    """Emit a single structured log line summarising one scan.
+
+    Real audit pipelines would route this through ``ctx.audit.emit`` or
+    a dedicated sink; for the reference plugin we keep it on the
+    standard logger so it shows up in the host's log stream without
+    any extra wiring.
+    """
+
+    kinds: dict[str, int] = {}
+    for entry in audit:
+        kinds[entry.kind] = kinds.get(entry.kind, 0) + 1
+    summary = ", ".join(f"{k}={v}" for k, v in sorted(kinds.items()))
+    logger.info(
+        "%s: redacted %d span(s) from %d-char output [%s]",
+        plugin_name,
+        len(audit),
+        original_len,
+        summary,
+    )
+
+
+def register(ctx: Any) -> None:
+    """Plugin entry point - wires the lifecycle hook."""
+    ctx.register_hook(
+        name="transform_llm_output",
+        handler=_make_hook(ctx),
+        description="Redact SSN, Luhn-valid credit cards, and API-key shapes from assistant output.",
+    )
+    logger.debug("plugin-hook-example: registered transform_llm_output hook")
diff --git a/plugin-hook-example/plugin.yaml b/plugin-hook-example/plugin.yaml
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+++ b/plugin-hook-example/plugin.yaml
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+name: plugin-hook-example
+version: 1.0.0
+description: "Reference plugin showing the transform_llm_output lifecycle hook. Redacts SSN, Luhn-valid credit card numbers, and common API-key shapes (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, GitHub) from assistant output before it leaves the agent loop, and emits a structured audit log line per redaction so operators can see what was caught."
+author: NousResearch
+hooks:
+  - transform_llm_output
+provides:
+  commands: []
diff --git a/plugin-hook-example/redact.py b/plugin-hook-example/redact.py
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+++ b/plugin-hook-example/redact.py
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+"""Pure-function redaction helpers for ``plugin-hook-example``.
+
+The patterns are deliberately conservative: each one targets a shape
+that has near-zero false-positive risk in normal prose. The cost of a
+miss (a real SSN leaking) is much higher than the cost of a false
+negative (a near-miss the regex didn't catch), so the patterns favour
+high precision over high recall.
+
+Callers receive the redacted text plus an audit list naming each match
+(kind + offset), so the hook can emit a structured log entry without
+re-scanning the text.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import re
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class Redaction:
+    kind: str
+    start: int
+    end: int
+
+
+# US SSN (digit-only, ###-##-####). Refuses the well-known invalid blocks
+# (000, 666, 9##) per SSA convention to cut false positives.
+_SSN = re.compile(
+    r"\b(?!000|666|9\d{2})\d{3}-(?!00)\d{2}-(?!0000)\d{4}\b"
+)
+
+# 13-19 digit numbers with optional spaces or single hyphens. We Luhn-check
+# in the second pass; the regex's job is to narrow the candidate set.
+_CC_CANDIDATE = re.compile(r"\b(?:\d[ \-]?){12,18}\d\b")
+
+# Common API-key shapes. Each prefix is well-defined enough that a match
+# is overwhelmingly an actual key, not a coincidental string.
+_API_KEYS: list[tuple[str, re.Pattern[str]]] = [
+    ("openai_key", re.compile(r"\bsk-[A-Za-z0-9]{20,}\b")),
+    ("openai_project_key", re.compile(r"\bsk-proj-[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}\b")),
+    ("anthropic_key", re.compile(r"\bsk-ant-[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}\b")),
+    ("aws_access_key", re.compile(r"\b(?:AKIA|ASIA)[0-9A-Z]{16}\b")),
+    ("github_token", re.compile(r"\b(?:ghp|gho|ghu|ghs|ghr)_[A-Za-z0-9]{36,}\b")),
+]
+
+
+def _luhn_valid(digits: str) -> bool:
+    total = 0
+    parity = len(digits) % 2
+    for index, ch in enumerate(digits):
+        d = ord(ch) - 48
+        if index % 2 == parity:
+            d *= 2
+            if d > 9:
+                d -= 9
+        total += d
+    return total % 10 == 0
+
+
+def redact(text: str) -> tuple[str, list[Redaction]]:
+    """Return ``(redacted_text, audit_entries)``.
+
+    The audit list records each match in left-to-right order. The
+    returned text replaces each match with ``[REDACTED:<kind>]``.
+    """
+
+    if not text:
+        return text, []
+
+    matches: list[tuple[int, int, str]] = []
+
+    for match in _SSN.finditer(text):
+        matches.append((match.start(), match.end(), "ssn"))
+
+    for match in _CC_CANDIDATE.finditer(text):
+        candidate = match.group(0)
+        digits_only = re.sub(r"[ \-]", "", candidate)
+        if 13 <= len(digits_only) <= 19 and _luhn_valid(digits_only):
+            matches.append((match.start(), match.end(), "credit_card"))
+
+    for kind, pattern in _API_KEYS:
+        for match in pattern.finditer(text):
+            matches.append((match.start(), match.end(), kind))
+
+    if not matches:
+        return text, []
+
+    # Resolve overlaps: prefer the earlier match, then the longer one.
+    matches.sort(key=lambda item: (item[0], -(item[1] - item[0])))
+    resolved: list[tuple[int, int, str]] = []
+    cursor = 0
+    for start, end, kind in matches:
+        if start < cursor:
+            continue
+        resolved.append((start, end, kind))
+        cursor = end
+
+    pieces: list[str] = []
+    audit: list[Redaction] = []
+    last = 0
+    for start, end, kind in resolved:
+        pieces.append(text[last:start])
+        pieces.append(f"[REDACTED:{kind}]")
+        audit.append(Redaction(kind=kind, start=start, end=end))
+        last = end
+    pieces.append(text[last:])
+    return "".join(pieces), audit