diff --git a/src/main/hermes/hook-service.test.ts b/src/main/hermes/hook-service.test.ts
index 33218042b46..df1d95a077f 100644
--- a/src/main/hermes/hook-service.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/hermes/hook-service.test.ts
@@ -224,4 +224,46 @@ describe('HermesHookService', () => {
       }
     })
   })
+
+  it('bounds generated plugin payload normalization before JSON encoding', () => {
+    const pythonAvailable = spawnSync('python3', ['--version'], { encoding: 'utf-8' }).status === 0
+    if (!pythonAvailable) {
+      return
+    }
+    new HermesHookService().install()
+
+    const initPath = join(homeDir, 'plugins', _internals.HERMES_PLUGIN_NAME, '__init__.py')
+    const script = [
+      'import importlib.util, json',
+      `spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("orca_status", ${JSON.stringify(initPath)})`,
+      'mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)',
+      'spec.loader.exec_module(mod)',
+      'payload = mod._payload_for_event("post_tool_call", {',
+      '    "session_id": "sess-1",',
+      '    "tool_name": "BigTool",',
+      '    "args": {"long": "x" * 9000, "items": list(range(200))},',
+      '    "result": {"text": "y" * 9000, "nested": [{"value": i} for i in range(200)]},',
+      '    "duration_ms": 12,',
+      '})',
+      'print(json.dumps(payload))'
+    ].join('\n')
+
+    const output = execFileSync('python3', ['-c', script], {
+      encoding: 'utf-8',
+      timeout: 15_000
+    })
+    const payload = JSON.parse(output) as {
+      args: { long: string; items: unknown[] }
+      result: { text: string; nested: unknown[] }
+      tool_input: { items: unknown[] }
+    }
+
+    expect(payload.args.long).toHaveLength(8192 + '...[truncated]'.length)
+    expect(payload.args.long.endsWith('...[truncated]')).toBe(true)
+    expect(payload.args.items).toHaveLength(51)
+    expect(payload.args.items.at(-1)).toBe('...[truncated]')
+    expect(payload.result.text.endsWith('...[truncated]')).toBe(true)
+    expect(payload.result.nested).toHaveLength(51)
+    expect(payload.tool_input.items).toHaveLength(51)
+  })
 })
diff --git a/src/main/hermes/hook-service.ts b/src/main/hermes/hook-service.ts
index 0f3e9bbd890..2c9ea3f498c 100644
--- a/src/main/hermes/hook-service.ts
+++ b/src/main/hermes/hook-service.ts
@@ -289,9 +289,16 @@ import json
 import os
 import urllib.error
 import urllib.request
-from typing import Any, Callable
+from typing import Any, Callable, Optional
 
 EVENTS = ${JSON.stringify(HERMES_EVENTS)}
+# Why: hook args/results can include full tool payloads. Bound traversal before
+# JSON encoding so status hooks stay best-effort and cheap.
+MAX_JSONABLE_DEPTH = 5
+MAX_JSONABLE_ITEMS = 50
+MAX_JSONABLE_NODES = 500
+MAX_JSONABLE_STRING = 8192
+TRUNCATED = "...[truncated]"
 SELECTED_KEYS = {
     "on_session_start": ("session_id", "model", "platform"),
     "pre_llm_call": ("session_id", "user_message", "is_first_turn", "model", "platform", "sender_id"),
@@ -306,16 +313,41 @@ SELECTED_KEYS = {
 }
 
 
-def _jsonable(value: Any, depth: int = 0) -> Any:
-    if depth > 5:
-        return repr(value)
-    if value is None or isinstance(value, (str, int, float, bool)):
+def _truncate_string(value: str) -> str:
+    if len(value) <= MAX_JSONABLE_STRING:
         return value
+    return value[:MAX_JSONABLE_STRING] + TRUNCATED
+
+
+def _jsonable(value: Any, depth: int = 0, budget: Optional[list[int]] = None) -> Any:
+    if budget is None:
+        budget = [MAX_JSONABLE_NODES]
+    if budget[0] <= 0:
+        return TRUNCATED
+    budget[0] -= 1
+    if depth > MAX_JSONABLE_DEPTH:
+        return _truncate_string(repr(value))
+    if value is None or isinstance(value, (int, float, bool)):
+        return value
+    if isinstance(value, str):
+        return _truncate_string(value)
     if isinstance(value, dict):
-        return {str(k): _jsonable(v, depth + 1) for k, v in value.items()}
+        out: dict[str, Any] = {}
+        for index, (k, v) in enumerate(value.items()):
+            if index >= MAX_JSONABLE_ITEMS:
+                out[TRUNCATED] = True
+                break
+            out[_truncate_string(str(k))] = _jsonable(v, depth + 1, budget)
+        return out
     if isinstance(value, (list, tuple, set)):
-        return [_jsonable(v, depth + 1) for v in value]
-    return repr(value)
+        out = []
+        for index, item in enumerate(value):
+            if index >= MAX_JSONABLE_ITEMS:
+                out.append(TRUNCATED)
+                break
+            out.append(_jsonable(item, depth + 1, budget))
+        return out
+    return _truncate_string(repr(value))
 
 
 def _endpoint_env() -> dict[str, str]: