Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Nous Research that runs in your terminal, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It belongs to the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Hermes works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.

What makes Hermes different:

• Self-improving through skills — Hermes learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.
• Persistent memory across sessions — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.
• Multi-platform gateway — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, and 10+ other platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
• Provider-agnostic — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
• Profiles — run multiple independent Hermes instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
• Extensible — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.

People use Hermes for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.

This skill helps you work with Hermes Agent effectively — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.

Docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/

Quick Start

# Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Interactive chat (default)
hermes

# Single query
hermes chat -q "What is the capital of France?"

# Setup wizard
hermes setup

# Change model/provider
hermes model

# Check health
hermes doctor

CLI Reference

Global Flags

hermes [flags] [command]

  --version, -V             Show version
  --resume, -r SESSION      Resume session by ID or title
  --continue, -c [NAME]     Resume by name, or most recent session
  --worktree, -w            Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)
  --skills, -s SKILL        Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)
  --profile, -p NAME        Use a named profile
  --yolo                    Skip dangerous command approval
  --pass-session-id         Include session ID in system prompt

No subcommand defaults to

chat

Chat

hermes chat [flags]
  -q, --query TEXT          Single query, non-interactive
  -m, --model MODEL         Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
  -t, --toolsets LIST       Comma-separated toolsets
  --provider PROVIDER       Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, nous, etc.)
  -v, --verbose             Verbose output
  -Q, --quiet               Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews
  --checkpoints             Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)
  --source TAG              Session source tag (default: cli)

Configuration

hermes setup [section]      Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
hermes model                Interactive model/provider picker
hermes config               View current config
hermes config edit          Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
hermes config set KEY VAL   Set a config value
hermes config path          Print config.yaml path
hermes config env-path      Print .env path
hermes config check         Check for missing/outdated config
hermes config migrate       Update config with new options
hermes login [--provider P] OAuth login (nous, openai-codex)
hermes logout               Clear stored auth
hermes doctor [--fix]       Check dependencies and config
hermes status [--all]       Show component status

Tools & Skills

hermes tools                Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)
hermes tools list           Show all tools and status
hermes tools enable NAME    Enable a toolset
hermes tools disable NAME   Disable a toolset

hermes skills list          List installed skills
hermes skills search QUERY  Search the skills hub
hermes skills install ID    Install a skill
hermes skills inspect ID    Preview without installing
hermes skills config        Enable/disable skills per platform
hermes skills check         Check for updates
hermes skills update        Update outdated skills
hermes skills uninstall N   Remove a hub skill
hermes skills publish PATH  Publish to registry
hermes skills browse        Browse all available skills
hermes skills tap add REPO  Add a GitHub repo as skill source

MCP Servers

hermes mcp serve            Run Hermes as an MCP server
hermes mcp add NAME         Add an MCP server (--url or --command)
hermes mcp remove NAME      Remove an MCP server
hermes mcp list             List configured servers
hermes mcp test NAME        Test connection
hermes mcp configure NAME   Toggle tool selection

Gateway (Messaging Platforms)

hermes gateway run          Start gateway foreground
hermes gateway install      Install as background service
hermes gateway start/stop   Control the service
hermes gateway restart      Restart the service
hermes gateway status       Check status
hermes gateway setup        Configure platforms

Supported platforms: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, BlueBubbles (iMessage), Weixin (WeChat), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter.

Platform docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/

Sessions

hermes sessions list        List recent sessions
hermes sessions browse      Interactive picker
hermes sessions export OUT  Export to JSONL
hermes sessions rename ID T Rename a session
hermes sessions delete ID   Delete a session
hermes sessions prune       Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)
hermes sessions stats       Session store statistics

Cron Jobs

hermes cron list            List jobs (--all for disabled)
hermes cron create SCHED    Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'
hermes cron edit ID         Edit schedule, prompt, delivery
hermes cron pause/resume ID Control job state
hermes cron run ID          Trigger on next tick
hermes cron remove ID       Delete a job
hermes cron status          Scheduler status

Webhooks

hermes webhook subscribe N  Create route at /webhooks/<name>
hermes webhook list         List subscriptions
hermes webhook remove NAME  Remove a subscription
hermes webhook test NAME    Send a test POST

Profiles

hermes profile list         List all profiles
hermes profile create NAME  Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)
hermes profile use NAME     Set sticky default
hermes profile delete NAME  Delete a profile
hermes profile show NAME    Show details
hermes profile alias NAME   Manage wrapper scripts
hermes profile rename A B   Rename a profile
hermes profile export NAME  Export to tar.gz
hermes profile import FILE  Import from archive

Credential Pools

hermes auth add             Interactive credential wizard
hermes auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials
hermes auth remove P INDEX  Remove by provider + index
hermes auth reset PROVIDER  Clear exhaustion status

Other

hermes insights [--days N]  Usage analytics
hermes update               Update to latest version
hermes pairing list/approve/revoke  DM authorization
hermes plugins list/install/remove  Plugin management
hermes honcho setup/status  Honcho memory integration (requires honcho plugin)
hermes memory setup/status/off  Memory provider config
hermes completion bash|zsh  Shell completions
hermes acp                  ACP server (IDE integration)
hermes claw migrate         Migrate from OpenClaw
hermes uninstall            Uninstall Hermes

Slash Commands (In-Session)

Type these during an interactive chat session.

Session Control

/new (/reset)        Fresh session
/clear               Clear screen + new session (CLI)
/retry               Resend last message
/undo                Remove last exchange
/title [name]        Name the session
/compress            Manually compress context
/stop                Kill background processes
/rollback [N]        Restore filesystem checkpoint
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt>      Queue for next turn
/resume [name]       Resume a named session

Configuration

/config              Show config (CLI)
/model [name]        Show or change model
/provider            Show provider info
/personality [name]  Set personality
/reasoning [level]   Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|show|hide)
/verbose             Cycle: off → new → all → verbose
/voice [on|off|tts]  Voice mode
/yolo                Toggle approval bypass
/skin [name]         Change theme (CLI)
/statusbar           Toggle status bar (CLI)

Tools & Skills

/tools               Manage tools (CLI)
/toolsets            List toolsets (CLI)
/skills              Search/install skills (CLI)
/skill <name>        Load a skill into session
/cron                Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/reload-mcp          Reload MCP servers
/plugins             List plugins (CLI)

Gateway

/approve             Approve a pending command (gateway)
/deny                Deny a pending command (gateway)
/restart             Restart gateway (gateway)
/sethome             Set current chat as home channel (gateway)
/update              Update Hermes to latest (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)

Utility

/branch (/fork)      Branch the current session
/btw                 Ephemeral side question (doesn't interrupt main task)
/fast                Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser             Open CDP browser connection
/history             Show conversation history (CLI)
/save                Save conversation to file (CLI)
/paste               Attach clipboard image (CLI)
/image               Attach local image file (CLI)

Info

/help                Show commands
/commands [page]     Browse all commands (gateway)
/usage               Token usage
/insights [days]     Usage analytics
/status              Session info (gateway)
/profile             Active profile info

Exit

/quit (/exit, /q)    Exit CLI

Key Paths & Config

~/.hermes/config.yaml       Main configuration
~/.hermes/.env              API keys and secrets
$HERMES_HOME/skills/        Installed skills
~/.hermes/sessions/         Session transcripts
~/.hermes/logs/             Gateway and error logs
~/.hermes/auth.json         OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.hermes/hermes-agent/     Source code (if git-installed)

Profiles use

~/.hermes/profiles/<name>/

Config Sections

Edit with

hermes config edit

hermes config set section.key value

model

default

provider

base_url

api_key

context_length

agent

max_turns

tool_use_enforcement

terminal

backend

cwd

timeout

compression

enabled

threshold

target_ratio

display

skin

tool_progress

show_reasoning

show_cost

stt

enabled

provider

tts

provider

memory

memory_enabled

user_profile_enabled

provider

security

tirith_enabled

website_blocklist

delegation

model

provider

base_url

api_key

max_iterations

reasoning_effort

checkpoints

enabled

max_snapshots

Full config reference: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration

Providers

20+ providers supported. Set via

hermes model

hermes setup

OPENROUTER_API_KEY

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

hermes auth

hermes auth

COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN

GOOGLE_API_KEY

GEMINI_API_KEY

DEEPSEEK_API_KEY

XAI_API_KEY

HF_TOKEN

GLM_API_KEY

MINIMAX_API_KEY

MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY

KIMI_API_KEY

DASHSCOPE_API_KEY

XIAOMI_API_KEY

KILOCODE_API_KEY

AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY

OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY

OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY

hermes login --provider qwen-oauth

model.base_url

model.api_key

COPILOT_CLI_PATH

Full provider docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers

Toolsets

Enable/disable via

hermes tools

hermes tools enable/disable NAME

web

browser

terminal

file

code_execution

vision

image_gen

tts

skills

memory

session_search

delegation

cronjob

clarify

messaging

search

web

todo

rl

moa

homeassistant

Tool changes take effect on

/reset

Voice & Transcription

STT (Voice → Text)

Voice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.

Provider priority (auto-detected):

1. Local faster-whisper — free, no API key:

   pip install faster-whisper

2. Groq Whisper — free tier: set

   GROQ_API_KEY

3. OpenAI Whisper — paid: set

   VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY

4. Mistral Voxtral — set

   MISTRAL_API_KEY

Config:

stt:
  enabled: true
  provider: local        # local, groq, openai, mistral
  local:
    model: base          # tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3

TTS (Text → Voice)

ELEVENLABS_API_KEY

VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY

MINIMAX_API_KEY

MISTRAL_API_KEY

pip install neutts[all]

espeak-ng

Voice commands:

/voice on

/voice tts

/voice off

Spawning Additional Hermes Instances

Run additional Hermes processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.

When to Use This vs delegate_task

delegate_task

hermes

One-Shot Mode

terminal(command="hermes chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)

# Background for long tasks:
terminal(command="hermes chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'", background=true)

Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)

Hermes uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:

# Start
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'hermes'", timeout=10)

# Wait for startup, then send a message
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter", timeout=15)

# Read output
terminal(command="sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p", timeout=5)

# Send follow-up
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter", timeout=5)

# Exit
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1", timeout=10)

Multi-Agent Coordination

# Agent A: backend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'hermes -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Agent B: frontend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'hermes -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Check progress, relay context between them
terminal(command="tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30", timeout=5)
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter", timeout=5)

Session Resume

# Resume most recent session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hermes --continue'", timeout=10)

# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hermes --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'", timeout=10)

Tips

• Prefer

  delegate_task

  for quick subtasks — less overhead than spawning a full process
• Use

  -w

  (worktree mode) when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts
• Set timeouts for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes
• Use

  hermes chat -q

  for fire-and-forget — no PTY needed
• Use tmux for interactive sessions — raw PTY mode has

  \r

  vs

  \n

  issues with prompt_toolkit
• For scheduled tasks, use the

  cronjob

  tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry

Troubleshooting

Voice not working

1. Check

   stt.enabled: true

   in config.yaml
2. Verify provider:

   pip install faster-whisper

   or set API key
3. In gateway:

   /restart

   . In CLI: exit and relaunch.

Tool not available

1. hermes tools

   — check if toolset is enabled for your platform
2. Some tools need env vars (check

   .env

   )

3. /reset

   after enabling tools

Model/provider issues

1. hermes doctor

   — check config and dependencies

2. hermes login

   — re-authenticate OAuth providers
3. Check

   .env

   has the right API key
4. Copilot 403:

   gh auth login

   tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via

   hermes model

   → GitHub Copilot.

Changes not taking effect

• Tools/skills:

  /reset

  starts a new session with updated toolset
• Config changes: In gateway:

  /restart

  . In CLI: exit and relaunch.
• Code changes: Restart the CLI or gateway process

Skills not showing

1. hermes skills list

   — verify installed

2. hermes skills config

   — check platform enablement
3. Load explicitly:

   /skill name

   or

   hermes -s name

Gateway issues

Check logs first:

grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.hermes/logs/gateway.log | tail -20

Common gateway problems:

• Gateway dies on SSH logout: Enable linger:

  sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER

• Gateway dies on WSL2 close: WSL2 requires

  systemd=true

  in

  /etc/wsl.conf

  for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to

  nohup

  (dies when session closes).
• Gateway crash loop: Reset the failed state:

  systemctl --user reset-failed hermes-gateway

Platform-specific issues

• Discord bot silent: Must enable Message Content Intent in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.
• Slack bot only works in DMs: Must subscribe to

  message.channels

  event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.
• Windows HTTP 400 "No models provided": Config file encoding issue (BOM). Ensure

  config.yaml

  is saved as UTF-8 without BOM.

Auxiliary models not working

If

auxiliary

auto

OPENROUTER_API_KEY

GOOGLE_API_KEY

hermes config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
hermes config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>

Where to Find Things

hermes config edit

hermes tools list

/help

hermes skills browse

hermes model

hermes gateway setup

hermes mcp list

hermes profile list

hermes cron list

hermes memory status

hermes config env-path

hermes --help

~/.hermes/logs/gateway.log

~/.hermes/sessions/

hermes sessions browse

~/.hermes/hermes-agent/

Contributor Quick Reference

For occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/

Project Layout

hermes-agent/
├── run_agent.py          # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py        # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py           # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py                # Interactive CLI (HermesCLI)
├── hermes_state.py       # SQLite session store
├── agent/                # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── hermes_cli/           # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands
│   ├── commands.py       # Slash command registry (CommandDef)
│   ├── config.py         # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions
│   └── main.py           # CLI entry point and argparse
├── tools/                # One file per tool
│   └── registry.py       # Central tool registry
├── gateway/              # Messaging gateway
│   └── platforms/        # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)
├── cron/                 # Job scheduler
├── tests/                # ~3000 pytest tests
└── website/              # Docusaurus docs site

Config:

~/.hermes/config.yaml

~/.hermes/.env

Adding a Tool (3 files)

1. Create

tools/your_tool.py

import json, os
from tools.registry import registry

def check_requirements() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("EXAMPLE_API_KEY"))

def example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:
    return json.dumps({"success": True, "data": "..."})

registry.register(
    name="example_tool",
    toolset="example",
    schema={"name": "example_tool", "description": "...", "parameters": {...}},
    handler=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(
        param=args.get("param", ""), task_id=kw.get("task_id")),
    check_fn=check_requirements,
    requires_env=["EXAMPLE_API_KEY"],
)

2. Add to

toolsets.py

_HERMES_CORE_TOOLS

Auto-discovery: any

tools/*.py

registry.register()

All handlers must return JSON strings. Use

get_hermes_home()

~/.hermes

Adding a Slash Command

1. Add

   CommandDef

   to

   COMMAND_REGISTRY

   in

   hermes_cli/commands.py

2. Add handler in

   cli.py

   →

   process_command()

3. (Optional) Add gateway handler in

   gateway/run.py

All consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.

Agent Loop (High Level)

run_conversation():
  1. Build system prompt
  2. Loop while iterations < max:
     a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)
     b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue
     c. If text response → return
  3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit

Testing

python -m pytest tests/ -o 'addopts=' -q   # Full suite
python -m pytest tests/tools/ -q            # Specific area

• Tests auto-redirect

  HERMES_HOME

  to temp dirs — never touch real

  ~/.hermes/

• Run full suite before pushing any change
• Use

  -o 'addopts='

  to clear any baked-in pytest flags

Commit Conventions

type: concise subject line

Optional body.

Types:

fix:

feat:

refactor:

docs:

chore:

Key Rules

• Never break prompt caching — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation
• Message role alternation — never two assistant or two user messages in a row
• Use

  get_hermes_home()

  from

  hermes_constants

  for all paths (profile-safe)
• Config values go in

  config.yaml

  , secrets go in

  .env

• New tools need a

  check_fn

  so they only appear when requirements are met