Jonathon's AI Wiki

Hermes Agent

22 min read

Hermes Agent is Nous Research’s self-hosted, self-improving agent framework — a stateful agent that learns from experience, remembers across sessions, and runs 24/7. This topic tracks its architecture, memory model, security, skills, and the growing community ecosystem of dashboards, plugins, themes, and integrations around it.

Visual overview

The Anatomy of Hermes Agent — a 10-section community infographic by nainsi dwivedi covering what it is, how it's built, the SOUL.md identity layer, the three-tier memory system, self-evolving skills, GEPA offline evolution, getting started, scaling 1 to 10 agents, customizing agents, and CRON scheduling

One-page community infographic by nainsi dwivedi. Ten-section visual walkthrough: (1) what Hermes Agent is — learns, remembers, works 24/7; (2) how it’s built — AIAgent class loop (build system prompt, check context compression, API call, execute tools, loop up to 12 turns); (3) before-memory identity via SOUL.md as the load-bearing system prompt; (4) three-tier memory system — Tier 1 Core Memory in Context (2,200 chars plus a 1,375-char USER.md, persistent across projects, fast and essential), Tier 2 Session Search (full-text search across all past conversations with LLM summarization, searchable and on-demand), Tier 3 External Memory Providers (pluggable — Obsidian, Notion, Roam, MongoDB, Upbrand, Redis, Zep, Chroma; deep, persistent, synced); (5) self-evolving skills written as Markdown plus YAML with progressive disclosure (Level 0 names, Level 1 metadata, Level 2 drill into reference files); (6) GEPA — Genetic-Pareto Prompt Evolution evolving skills offline using execution traces (no GPU required, roughly 2 to 10 USD per run, published at ICLR 2026); (7) getting started — curl install, setup wizard, start chatting, Telegram connect; (8) going from 1 to 10 agents (full profiles in ~/.hermes/ versus fully isolated); (9) customizing your agents (Programmer / Designer / Researcher / Coder example team); (10) CRON scheduling made simple with YAML config. A useful “show me Hermes in one page” surface for anyone arriving cold to the topic — sister visual to Nate Herk’s 1-hour course narration. Caveat: community-made distillation, not Nous Research’s official documentation — verify load-bearing figures (the 12-turn loop cap, the GEPA per-run cost, the Tier-1 character counts) against hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs before quoting in production work.

Public Hermes course material

  • Access Your Hermes Agent From Anywhere — Tailscale + Termius + tmux — YouTube walkthrough of a three-tool remote-access stack for reaching a self-hosted Hermes host from any device with zero public-port exposure: Tailscale (private WireGuard mesh — devices reachable by MagicDNS name, peer-to-peer, free personal plan) solves reach; Termius (mobile-grade SSH client with command keyboard, mosh, port forwarding) solves control; tmux (tmux owns the shell, SSH is just a window into it) solves persistence so agentic loops survive dropped SSH / closed laptop / bad Wi-Fi. Full server-side commands (sudo tailscale up --hostname, apt install openssh-server, tmux new -s / attach -t), Termius key-gen + export + dashboard port-forwarding, and the live demo of starting a task on a PC and reattaching the same running session from an iPhone. Rejects port-forwarding / ngrok / Cloudflare Tunnel / VPS+reverse-SSH as the alternatives. Honest caveat: secures reach, not the agent — pairs with the seven-layer security model which governs what the agent can do once reached. Windows+WSL host throughout; Tailscale must be installed inside whatever environment runs the agent. Framework credited to a Pseudo Sue (X) post.
  • Hermes Skill Bundles — Slash-Command Skill Composition — New Hermes feature shipped with v0.14.x. Save a named set of skills behind one slash command (e.g., /research, /release-prep, /incident-response). Bundles are tiny YAML files under ~/.hermes/skill-bundles/ with name / skills / description / instruction (mini agents.md) fields. CLI: hermes bundles create/list/reload. Solves the probabilistic-skill-invocation problem — agents may skip skills you intended; bundles make the set explicit per workflow. Pairs with the self-improvement loop (consult Hermes itself about which skills to bundle, let it draft the YAML, ship). Sister surface to Browse.sh runtime skill hub announced same week. Team sharing pattern: commit bundles to dotfiles or shared repo.
  • * Turns to Codex CLI — Opt-in runtime that delegates openai/* and openai-codex/* turns to OpenAI’s Codex CLI instead of running Hermes’ own tool loop. Hermes keeps the orchestration layer (session DB, memory, cron jobs, slash commands, review forks); Codex executes the turn with its sandbox, built-in toolset (shell, apply_patch, update_plan, view_image, web_search), and plugin ecosystem (Linear, GitHub, Gmail, etc.). Headline value prop: runs OpenAI agent turns against your ChatGPT subscription (no API key required) via Codex CLI’s existing OAuth flow. Wired up via JSON-RPC over stdio + bidirectional MCP callback so Codex can still reach Hermes-side tools (browser automation, vision, image gen, skills, TTS) during the turn. Enabled per-session with /codex-runtime codex_app_server. Requires Codex CLI 0.130.0+. Four Hermes tools (delegate_task, memory, session_search, todo) unavailable in this runtime; background review forks downgrade to codex_responses to access them. Auxiliary tasks (title generation, etc.) also flow through ChatGPT subscription by default — can be overridden per-task to cheaper providers. Multi-profile isolation requires explicit CODEX_HOME. Goals fully compatible; Kanban supported; cron jobs untested but expected to work.
  • Hermes Agent — Security Model (Defense-in-Depth) — Nous Research’s official seven-layer security model for self-hosted Hermes deployments: (1) dangerous command approval against a curated pattern list (rm -rf, bash -c, curl \| sh, tee to ~/.ssh, etc.), (2) container/sandbox isolation, (3) MCP-server credential scoping (each MCP subprocess sees only its declared env block, not the full host env), (4) credential redaction in error messages (ghp_..., sk-..., token=, etc. → [REDACTED]), (5) website access policy, (6) user authorization on messaging channels, (7) encrypted secrets at rest (decrypted only at heartbeat). Three approval modes (manual / smart / off) configured via ~/.hermes/config.yaml. Why each layer matters and what fails if it isn’t there. Operational pairing with Nate Herk’s course — platform-side defenses + operator-side discipline together close the security loop.
  • Hermes Agent — User Stories and Use Cases — Community-curated catalog from Hermes’ official docs across five categories: Privacy & Self-Hosted (Tailscale serve for secure remote access without exposed ports), Business Ops (Google Slides, Hunter.io for sales outreach, live inventory tracking, AgentMail email-inbox via MCP), Integrations (JMAP for Fastmail), Personal Assistant (Google Tasks), Meta & Ecosystem (OpenClaw → Hermes shadow-mode migration, real cutover testimonials). Three operational patterns surface from the catalog: (1) Hermes’ value prop is stateful business agent, not coding agent — multi-day session continuity matters more than raw code-gen speed; (2) MCP is the integration substrate — every new integration ships as MCP server or skill wrapping one; (3) OpenClaw → Hermes migration is a real, documented path. Useful as roadmap signal and deployment-pattern map.
  • Hermes Skins — Community Visual Themes for the Hermes CLI Agent (joeynyc) — Community-curated visual-theme bundle for the Hermes CLI agent (380★, MIT, Python). 15 custom skins (Pirate, Vault-Tec, Bubblegum 80s, Skynet, Lain, Neonwave, Sakura, Netrunner, Mythos, Nous, Mother, DOS, Telemate, Empire, Catppuccin) + reference docs for the 7 built-in skins shipped with Hermes (default, ares, mono, slate, poseidon, sisyphus, charizard). Visual-only — “They don’t affect personality or behavior — just how things look.” YAML config under ~/.hermes/skins/<name>.yaml, 28 color keys per SCHEMA.md, default-skin inheritance so partial skins work. Activation: /skin <name> (session) or display: skin: in ~/.hermes/config.yaml (permanent). Orthogonal to Hermes Skill Bundles (which modify behavior). Several skins double as brand homages — Nous mirrors Nous Research’s #DD8E35 brand color, Mythos uses Eye of Providence + Prometheus Labs branding.
  • Hermes MemoryKit — duclamvan’s 8-Layer Memory Stack for Hermes (v0.2.0) — Memory toolkit extending Hermes’s three-tier memory model with an opinionated 8-layer stack: LCM raw transcript → native memory → QMD/markdown wiki → entity graph → hybrid RRF router → focus brief → regression tests → nightly maintenance. Hermes-native plugin wrapper exposes 4 tools (memory_stack_status / memory_stack_route / memory_stack_focus_brief / memory_stack_regress). Config templates for .env, ~/.hermes/config.yaml, and cron prompts. Companion benchmark repo claims 100/100 A+ / 27/27 retrieval checks / 35 Hermes profiles verified. Adoption signal caveat: 1 star / 0 forks / 5 commits / 3 days old at ingest — extremely early; benchmark claims are self-reported. The novel layer set (4-8) is the routing + regression discipline that most agent-memory toolkits don’t ship. MIT / Python.
  • Hermes Console — Obsidian Plugin for Hermes Agent (Danny Shmueli, v1.1.14) — Obsidian community plugin embedding Hermes as a tabbed PTY terminal inside the vault. Three-component architecture — Obsidian plugin (terminal UI + tabs) + bridge file (.obsidian/hermes/context.json) + companion Hermes plugin (obsidian-context-bridge, installed via hermes plugins install dannyshmueli/obsidian-hermes-console --enable). Highlight text in any note → press Enter in Hermes Console → selection becomes context inside Hermes. xterm.js + node-pty for real interactive shell (not just command execution); ConPTY backend on Windows with patched windowsConoutConnection.js for Electron Worker incompatibility. 12 themes, tab pin/drag/color-code, wiki-link autocomplete, session persistence, busy/idle per-tab status, background-turn-complete notifications, obsidian://hermes-console URI handler. Built on fork of Lean Terminal with upstream credit preserved. Desktop only / Obsidian 1.7.2+ / MIT / 162 downloads at 6 days old.
  • Bun, 189★, v1.7.1) — Tabbed, mouse-aware TUI built with OpenTUI (React renderer) + Bun. Talks to the same gateway the Hermes CLI uses. Streaming chat with markdown / inline images (chafa) / LaTeX→unicode / diff chips / tool-call expansion / animated ASCII avatar. 11 dashboard tabs — sessions / context / agents / analytics / skills / cron / toolsets / config / env / memory / kanban. Profile switching, command palette (Ctrl+K), slash popover, @-refs for file/diff context. Fully rebindable keys via /keys, opencode-compatible keymap. Theme picker. Resume last session: herm -c. Install: bunx herm-tui (trial), bun add -g herm-tui (stable), npm i -g herm-tui. Author built it because they wanted Hermes capabilities with an OpenCode UX. MIT / TypeScript / 189★. v1.7.1 released 2026-05-22.
  • SwiftUI, 1.6k★) — Native macOS companion that manages a Hermes host over pure SSH — “no gateways, no exposed ports, no browser layer.” Eight focused views (Overview / Sessions / Workflows / Kanban / Files / Cron / Usage / Skills / embedded Terminal) over the host’s own state, with the host as the only source of truth (no daemon, no local mirror, no sync layer). Multi-profile / multi-agent — the active ~/.hermes/profiles/<name> flows through every view. Stays usable when higher-level surfaces break (SSH-direct recovery path). Complementary to the official web dashboard (“browser for administration, Mac app for direct host work”). Sessions Chat embeds the real hermes --tui over SSH; Workflows are the only locally-stored state (reusable presets that seed a fresh Terminal turn). Universal app (Apple Silicon + Intel, macOS 14+), localized EN/zh-CN/RU. Ad-hoc signed (not notarized) + per-release SHA-256/manifest + from-source build. The native-Mac sibling of Herm-TUI and Hermes Console in the client-surface cluster. MIT / Swift / 1,604★.
  • Linux) — Nous Research’s first-party desktop app for Hermes Agent (MIT, v0.15.2): one cross-platform install (macOS 12+ / Windows 10-11 / Linux) packaging the full stack behind a GUI. Six pillars — Connect (one agent + one memory across Telegram/Discord/Slack/WhatsApp/Signal/Email/CLI), Remember (persistent memory + auto-generated skills), Schedule (natural-language unattended automation), Delegate (isolated subagents with their own terminals + Python RPC), Search (web/browser/vision/image-gen/TTS/multi-model), Experiment (five sandbox backends — local/Docker/SSH/Singularity/Modal). Paid usage via Nous Portal (Free/Plus/Super/Ultra — monthly credits across Hermes Agent + Nous Chat, hundreds of models). The official counterpart to the community client cluster, and distinct from dodo-reach’s third-party SSH client that confusingly shares the name. Answers the dodo-reach “will Nous ship an official desktop?” open question.
  • Nous Portal — Unified Subscription Backend for Hermes Agent — Nous Research’s unified subscription + model-access backend for Hermes Agent: one plan gives metered access to 300+ models plus hosted tools (web search / scraping / image gen / browser use / code execution / voice) from a single credit pool — no per-provider API keys. Four tiers (Free / Plus 100 / Ultra $200; paid tiers +10% credits + tier-scaled rollover caps). Switch with hermes portal. The paid layer under Hermes Desktop; documents the Portal that the velocity release and MCP catalog already route through.
  • Hermes Multi-Agent Workflow — Kanban-Coordinated Triage Pipeline Template (tonbistudio) — Reusable MIT template for an autonomous, human-gated multi-agent triage pipeline on Hermes: sources → intake → dedup → score → research (parallel) → route → HUMAN GATE → fulfill → deliver, all coordinated on one Hermes Kanban board as the message bus / dispatcher / fan-in. Hard config/code split (whole domain in triage.yaml; generic engine/ rarely edited), one explicit approve/shelve/modify gate, 12 tests + 7 deep-dive docs + a worked ai-agent-pain-points example. The readable reference implementation of the Kanban-orchestration pattern — sibling to the complexity-routed SWE workflow below. 153★ / Python / pushed 2026-06-01.
  • Hermes GAPA — Self-Improvement Loop (v0.8.0) — GAPA (Get-Act-Plan-Act) is Hermes’s runtime self-evolution mechanism: every ~15 tool calls it reviews its trajectory, writes a new skill if a reusable pattern emerged, and updates MEMORY.md — “back-propagation for prompts.” 5 stages (trajectory capture → LLM review → skill creation → memory update → compounding reuse). Configurable via skills.creation_nudge_interval. Source: Agent Wikis compiled from official Hermes docs + raw/GAPA.md.
  • Hermes Memory Providers — 9 Pluggable External Memory Providers Compared — Pluggable memory backend interface (since v0.7.0): 9 external providers (Honcho, OpenViking, Mem0, Hindsight, Holographic, RetainDB, ByteRover, Supermemory, Memori) compared across cost, hosting, trust model, and setup difficulty. Only one external provider active at a time alongside built-in; no cross-provider migration path. Holographic recommended as first upgrade (zero dependencies, one command).
  • Hermes Profiles & Multi-Instance — Running Multiple Isolated Agents — A profile is a fully isolated HERMES_HOME at ~/.hermes/profiles/<name>/ — its own config, keys, memory, sessions, skills, cron, and subprocess $HOME. Added v0.6.0. Key architectural rule: two gateways on the same HERMES_HOME corrupt SQLite; profiles are the fix. Clone modes (--clone copies config/identity only; --clone-all copies everything). Wrapper scripts auto-created per profile.
  • Hermes Autonomous SWE Workflow — Model Routing via Kanban (Shubham Saboo) — Worked-example infographic + thread showing Hermes as an orchestrator that routes a coding task by complexity: simple scoped work (patches, tests, repo cleanup) → SmallCode + Ollama on a Mac mini (terminal-native agent running local models like Gemma 4 at zero API cost); hard/ambiguous work (reasoning, architecture, reviews) → Claude or Codex. Everything tracked on a single Kanban board (Backlog → Todo → In Progress → In Review → Done). Traces one feature request (“add dark mode toggle + persist preference”) end-to-end: Telegram prompt → Hermes decompose → route → parallel execute → review (Claude flags a system-theme edge case) → merge-ready settings_dark_mode.patch with 5 passing tests. The cheapest-successful-outcome principle (Puneet Shah / Lucas) pushed to a free local tier, with the routing decided structurally at decomposition time. SmallCode repo: github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode.
  • Hermes Plugin — MemeLord (karmsheel, dashboard plugin example) — Meme generation + gallery plugin for the Hermes Agent dashboard (hermes dashboard --tui --port 9119). 11 built-in templates (Drake / Distracted Boyfriend / Two Buttons / Expanding Brain / Anakin & Padme / Change My Mind / This Is Fine / Always Has Been / Bernie Sanders / Epic Handshake / Running Away Balloon) + Imgflip catalog discovery with 1h cache + drag-and-drop upload + JSON-backed humor profile (safe mode, blocked topics) + exclusive KingPepe theme (PEPE aesthetic, scanline overlay, Orbitron + Share Tech Mono). FastAPI backend (15+ endpoints, ~565 LOC) + vanilla-JS React frontend (no build step). Load-bearing read for plugin authors: worked example of the Hermes dashboard plugin-development pattern — module-level router = APIRouter(), sys.path injection for sibling imports, window.__HERMES_PLUGIN_SDK__ global, window.__HERMES_PLUGINS__.register() for tab registration, CustomEvent-based cross-tab refresh. Companion SKILL.md for agent-side use (two-surface plugin model). v0.1.0 / 1 star / MIT / Python. Surfaces the hermes-dashboard-plugin-development skill as an unindexed primary source for plugin authors. Sister plugin example to Hermes MemoryKit (same FastAPI + sibling-import pattern, different domain).
  • RoboNuggets) — Beginner-tier intro built around Jay’s recurring three-element model + harness + context framework (same framing he uses in OpenClaw Concepts). Side-by-side comparison of Claude Code vs OpenClaw vs Hermes across the three elements: Claude Code = Anthropic-only model + CLI/IDE harness + CLAUDE.md context; OpenClaw + Hermes = model-agnostic + messaging-channel-native (Telegram/Discord/Slack/WhatsApp) + skills+memory context. Distinctive contribution: explicit cross-system comparison framing in one place. Positions Hermes for stateful long-running workflows — the use case user stories catalogs. Audience signal: Jay/RoboNuggets is the same author as the OpenClaw Concepts walkthrough, credible recurring source across CC / OC / Hermes intro content.
  • Hermes Agent — Zero to Personal AI Assistant (Nate Herk 1-Hour Course) — May 2026 YouTube walkthrough by Nate Herk. Covers the five-pillar mental model (memory / skills / soul / crons / self-improving loop), Hostinger one-click VPS setup with the Docker route (KVM 2 plan, code Nate Herk for 10% off annual), OpenAI Codex authentication via ChatGPT subscription OAuth (cheapest non-open-source path), Telegram channel wiring through BotFather, the Cloud-Code-as-VPS-manager pattern (one Claude Code project tracks all VPS agents’ passwords/env/IPs/integration notes), live cron-creation demo where Hermes self-detects a daylight-savings gotcha and installs an hourly self-checked variant, multi-agent decision tree (when to spin up a new Hermes vs keep one mega-agent), and operator hygiene (least-privilege API keys, separate Gmail per agent, stale memory is the #1 cause of weird agent behavior). Sister course to Nate’s Claude Code AIOS masterclass — same operator, on-the-go surface vs desk surface.
  • Hermes MCP Catalog — One-Click Install for Nous-Approved MCP Servers — Built-in catalog of PR-reviewed MCP servers installable in one command (hermes mcp / mcp install <name> / mcp configure <name>), instead of hand-pasting JSON into config.yaml. Linear + n8n at launch (GitHub disabled for now); manifests gated by PR review into the official repo, per-tool whitelisting at install, OAuth tokens cached in ~/.hermes/mcp-tokens/, never auto-updates (sync via hermes update). Beginner-safe least-privilege install path; the curated-vetted-slice counterpart to Essential MCP Servers. Ships in the v0.15 release.
  • Set Up a Grok Subscription in Hermes Agent (xAI OAuth, No API Key) — Concrete setup walkthrough (YouTube, AI Garage) for using a SuperGrok subscription as a Hermes model provider via OAuth — no xAI API key. The Grok-subscription analog of the Codex App-Server Runtime (ChatGPT-sub → OpenAI turns). Flow: hermes update → hermes setup → select xAI Grok OAuth (distinct from the existing xAI direct-API entry, and from X-Premium Grok) → authorize “Grok build” in browser → pick Grok 4.3 (creator-reported 1M-token context). Differentiators: native X-post summarization that plain Claude Code/Codex can’t do (x.com 403s direct agent fetches), natural-sounding Grok TTS (beats default Edge TTS), Grok Imagine images (~27s) and video (Grok-exclusive vs Codex/GPT-Images — even adds audio + on-screen text). Pricing ~$30/mo, 3-day free trial (card required). Video gen must be checked on under configure all platforms or Grok can’t see the tool. Model names/prices creator-stated — verify vs official xAI/Nous docs.
  • Hermes Agent Masterclass (4-Part Hands-On Series) — Build-it-live YouTube walkthrough (AI Garage, first 4 of an 11-part series) taking a fresh WSL2 machine to a 24/7 agent. Part 1: install + ~/.hermes/ layout (config.yaml/.env/memories//state.db) + CLI/slash commands + Docker sandbox via one hermes setup terminal switch. Part 2: $6 DigitalOcean droplet + gateway as systemd service + loginctl enable-linger root to survive SSH logout + Telegram (@BotFather/@userinfobot allow-list) and Discord wiring (the Message-Content-Intent silent-empty-message trap). Part 3: four-layer memory (markdown caps + § separator + frozen-snapshot prompt-cache + FTS5 state.db session search + Honcho provider + headless Obsidian skill via OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH). Part 4: skill.md anatomy + progressive disclosure + skills hub + self-written-skill review fork + the v12/v13 curator (hermes curator pin) + agentskills.io portability. The hands-on, Windows/WSL2 counterpart to Nate Herk’s 1-hour course and the natural next step after Jay’s 15-minute intro.
  • Stripe Payments Skill Suite — first-party Hermes + Stripe skills (stripe-link-cli, mpp-agent, stripe-projects) for agent commerce (buy on the open web, pay-per-call APIs, provision SaaS), installed via hermes skills install official/payments/<skill>, with human-approval gates + credential isolation.
  • Hermes Personal-Agent Briefing (Dmitry Shapiro, MindStudio) — practitioner what-it-is/why/how briefing: harness mental model, activity-dependent model selection, GBrain long-term-memory layer, customization dimensions, 2 metric-backed case studies.
  • Hermes Agent Inside Excel — Task Pane + Custom Functions via the API Server — Walkthrough (tonbistudio / @tonbistudio, same author as the multi-agent workflow template) of running the full Hermes agent — tools, memory, skills — inside Microsoft Excel two ways: a docked chat task pane and Hermes itself as custom cell functions (=HERMES.SUMMARIZE, .CLASSIFY, .EXTRACT, .FORMULA_HELP, recomputing live as referenced cells change). Both ride Hermes’ OpenAI-compatible API server (the full agent), not the model-only “proxy” — so one agent’s memory persists across sessions and even across separate Hermes projects. Setup: three .env lines (API_SERVER_ENABLED=true + SERVER_KEY + CORS ORIGINS), a Caddy reverse proxy for the HTTPS that Office add-ins require, and a yo office “Excel Custom Functions using shared runtime” scaffold sideloaded into Excel. The task pane reads/writes ranges, makes sheets, formats, and builds charts but proposes changes and only edits after approval (demo: cleaned a messy NFT P&L, ~45 changes + 4 charts). Guardrails: never write to a cell other than its own (infinite-loop risk), avoid volatile inputs (every recompute is a billed agent call), built-in cache for repeats. Open-sourced, Windows-first, at tostudio/hermes-office.
  • Hermes Architecture Explained — Memory, Context, Gateways — code-level walkthrough (HuggingFace explainer video) of the agent loop with its memory-update step, markdown-based context construction + 50%-threshold context compression, the asyncio gateway + session manager, the three memory layers (markdown + SQLite transcripts + external providers), and cron as its own tick loop reading jobs.json. The architecture-overview entry point to this topic.
  • [[hermes-agent/hermes-runs-web-app-vps|Hermes Runs My Web App on a 6 droplet, using Caddy auto-TLS + git-as-database + two cron multi-agent loops (maintenance + a privacy-preserving “demand loop”), each Telegram-gated. Concrete cheap-self-host deployment pattern.
  • MLX) — Community-consensus reference (r/hermesagent megathread) for running Hermes locally on a Mac: model-by-RAM picks (16GB floor = Qwen3.5-9B; 32GB+ default = Qwen3.6-35B-A3B MoE), the backend landscape (llama.cpp / MLX-LM / Ollama / LM Studio / Rapid-MLX), and the afternoon-wasting pitfalls — MTP is a net loss on Metal, tool-calling breakage is usually the backend not the model, memory bandwidth > chip generation, the Hermes agent context tax, and KV-cache quantization. Hybrid local + cheap-cloud-fallback is the consensus. Time-stamped June 2026 — verify against Nous’s official local-LLM-on-Mac doc.

Internal walkthroughs (internal — publish: false)

  • Hermes Computer Use + Venice API — Private macOS Control Tutorial — (internal — publish: false) YouTube tutorial walkthrough (creator unnamed but Venice-affiliated per closing Discord CTA) of installing Hermes against Venice’s zero-data-retention model surface — Venice custom endpoint https://api.venice.ai/api/v1, Diem-token-staking returns 0.85/6.25/$37.50) / DeepSeek v4. Self-cleanup pattern — the agent edits its own skill manifests under a custom role prompt (“be my computer manager”) and cuts the system prompt from 5.2 MB to 160 KB (97%). Hermes Computer Use (NEW) activated via the Kua driver on macOS with dual permission grants (screen recording + accessibility, terminal relaunch between each); known screenshot context-window-overload bug that the agent can patch in its own code. Apple Reminders + cron-job daily-check-in workflow; theoretical Xcode-built desktop widget bounded by macOS’s read-only widget restriction. Privacy-vs-capability trade-off explicitly disclosed — open-source models on Venice are cheaper and zero-retention, less capable than Opus 4.7 or GPT 5.5 for agentic computer control.

Releases

  • Hermes Agent v0.17 — The Reach Release — Latest release (2026-06-19). Theme = reach across channels and memory: native iMessage + official WhatsApp + Raft messaging surfaces, atomic batch memory operations, background subagents, image-to-image generation, and a Skills Hub rehaul with per-skill security scanning. Successor to the v0.16 Surface Release.
  • Hermes Agent v0.16 — The Surface Release — Major release (2026-06-05; 874 commits / 542 PRs / 399 issues closed / 170 contributors since v0.15.2). Theme = real surfaces beyond the terminal: a native desktop app (macOS/Linux/Windows, one-click install + in-app self-update, Cmd+K palette, remote-gateway connect), a feature-complete web dashboard admin panel (MCP catalog toggles, channels, credentials, webhooks from the browser), “Tool Search” / progressive tool disclosure (agents load only the tools they need), Quick Setup via Nous Portal, /undo [N] + /title, a skills overhaul (environments: relevance gate, NVIDIA Skills Hub tap, usage tracking), new models (MiniMax-M3 1M-ctx, deepseek-v4-flash, qwen3.7-plus, gemini-3.5-flash), Kanban goal_mode, username/password + self-hosted OIDC auth, and a CVE-2026-48710 patch + 16 security fixes. Official changelog confirms several creator-reported v0.15 increments. Successor to the v0.15 Velocity Release.
  • Hermes Agent v0.15 — The Velocity Release — Architecture-and-speed release bundled from two weeks of incremental rollouts. Headline: core refactor of the main loop (run_agent.py 16K → 3,800 lines across 14 modules) so hermes update stops breaking things; startup --version 700→258ms; per-turn overhead 399K→213K calls; session search rebuilt without an LLM (90s → 20ms) + full verbatim session resume; Kanban Swarm (root task → parallel workers + verifier + synthesizer, worktree-per-task, claim TTL, retry fingerprinting); brainworm/prompt-ware blocked at 3 choke points (tool output / recalled memory / stored skills) + 15 threat patterns; Notify (23rd channel), Korea image-gen, Bitwarden secrets, the MCP Catalog. Creator-reported figures (verify vs official changelog). Builds on the v0.14 Foundation Release.
  • Hermes Agent v0.14.0 (v2026.5.16) — Foundation Release — (internal — publish: false) Placeholder article for the May 16, 2026 Foundation Release. Reddit-announcement summary captures the delta-over-v0.13.0 scale (808 commits / 633 PRs / 1,393 files / 165k insertions / 545 issues closed / 215 contributors) and the “installs and runs anywhere” tagline. Refreshed 2026-05-20 with the YT walkthrough’s 6 headline features (XAI OAuth Grok/X access / macOS Computer Use / native Windows / Teams integration / hermes update + debloat / video integrations) plus a 7th — Skill Bundles (slash-command-driven multi-skill YAML bundles like /release-prep, /incident-response, /research-sprint; sourced to hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs, Reddit signal r/hermesagent 2026-05-20). Full GitHub release notes still pending an ai-research pull.

For end-to-end agent infrastructure context, see Agents & Agentic Systems.

32 items under this folder.