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Hermes Agent

Use, configure, theme, extend, and orchestrate Hermes Agent.

Skill metadata​

SourceBundled (installed by default)
Pathskills/autonomous-ai-agents/hermes-agent
Version3.0.0
AuthorHermes Agent + Teknium
LicenseMIT
Platformslinux, macos, windows
Tagshermes, setup, configuration, multi-agent, spawning, cli, gateway, themes, skins, desktop-plugins, tui-widgets, petdex, development
Related skillsclaude-code, codex, opencode

Reference: full SKILL.md​

info

The following is the complete skill definition that Hermes loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Nous Research that runs in your terminal, a native desktop app, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It's in 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, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, local models, and 20+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, and WSL.

What makes Hermes different:

  • Self-improving through skills — Hermes learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills that load into future sessions.
  • Persistent memory across sessions — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends.
  • Multi-platform gateway — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, Matrix, Teams, Email, and a dozen more platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
  • Many surfaces — the same agent core drives the CLI, the Ink TUI, a native Electron desktop app, a web dashboard, and an ACP server for IDEs (VS Code / Zed / JetBrains).
  • Provider-agnostic — swap models and providers mid-workflow; credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
  • Profiles — run multiple independent Hermes instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
  • Extensible & themeable — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, skins that theme every surface, desktop UI plugins, TUI widgets, and pet mascots.

This skill is a hub. The body covers identity, quick start, spawning/orchestration, and hard invariants. Everything else lives in reference files — load the matching reference (below) before answering; do not answer detail questions from the body alone.

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

Scope & Verification​

This skill is a concise operating guide, not the complete source of truth for every Hermes feature. If a Hermes feature, command, or setting is not mentioned here or in a reference, do not treat that absence as evidence that it does not exist. Check the live repository and official docs before giving a negative answer.

Good verification targets:

Quick Start​

# Install (shell installer — sets up uv, Python, the venv, and the launcher)
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

# Interactive chat (default surface; set display.interface: tui to launch the Ink TUI instead)
hermes

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

# Setup wizard  /  pick model+provider  /  health check
hermes setup
hermes model
hermes doctor

# Other surfaces
hermes desktop                 # launch the native desktop app (alias: hermes gui)
hermes dashboard               # web admin panel + embedded chat
hermes proxy                   # OpenAI-compatible local proxy backed by your OAuth provider

Key Paths​

~/.hermes/config.yaml       Main configuration (settings — never secrets)
~/.hermes/.env              API keys and secrets ONLY (under $HERMES_HOME if set)
$HERMES_HOME/skills/        Installed skills
~/.hermes/skins/            Custom themes (see references/themes.md)
~/.hermes/desktop-plugins/  Desktop app UI plugins (see references/desktop-plugins.md)
~/.hermes/tui-widgets/      TUI widget apps (see references/tui-widgets.md)
~/.hermes/pets/             Installed pet mascots (see references/petdex.md)
~/.hermes/state.db          Canonical session store (SQLite + FTS5)
~/.hermes/sessions/         Gateway routing index, request dumps, *.jsonl 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>/ with the same layout. When a profile is active, resolve the real home from $HERMES_HOME — never hardcode ~/.hermes.

Routing Table — load the reference for the task​

User wants...Load
CLI commands, subcommands, flags, "how do I run X"references/cli-reference.md
In-session slash commandsreferences/slash-commands.md
Provider setup, API keys, OAuthreferences/providers-and-models.md
config.yaml sections, toolsets, voice/STT/TTSreferences/configuration.md
AGENTS.md / .hermes.md / CLAUDE.md project rulesreferences/project-context-files.md
Secret redaction, PII, approval modes, "reset permissions"references/security-privacy.md
Delegation, cron, curator, kanbanreferences/background-systems.md
MCP servers (add, catalog, hermes mcp)references/native-mcp.md
Webhook routes and event-driven runsreferences/webhooks.md
A custom theme/skin ("synthwave theme", "change the gold ●")references/themes.md + templates/skin.yaml
A desktop app UI element (pane, widget, ⌘K command, page)references/desktop-plugins.md + templates/plugin.js
A live TUI panel or modal widget (ticker, clock, dashboard)references/tui-widgets.md + templates/clock.mjs
Pet mascots — install, select, scale, diagnosereferences/petdex.md
Windows-specific issues (keybinds, WinError 10106, BOM)references/windows-quirks.md
Debugging: voice, tools missing, gateway, aux modelsreferences/troubleshooting.md
Contributing code: adding tools, slash commands, testsreferences/contributor-guide.md
delegate_task "capped at N" reportsreferences/delegate-task-concurrency-diagnosis.md
"Can app X use my Nous Portal subscription/OAuth?"references/portal-auth-for-third-party-apps.md

Two theming rules that hold even without loading the reference: you apply skins yourself (hermes config set display.skin <name> — every surface repaints live within ~a second; don't tell the user to run /skin), and to tweak one color, edit the ACTIVE skin (hermes skin set <key> <hex>) — never fork default, which drops the palette and resets the background.

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_taskSpawning hermes process
IsolationSeparate conversation, shared processFully independent process
DurationMinutes (bounded by parent loop)Hours/days
Tool accessSubset of parent's toolsFull tool access
InteractiveNoYes (PTY mode)
Use caseQuick parallel subtasksLong autonomous missions

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
  • "delegate_task is capped at N" reports — see references/delegate-task-concurrency-diagnosis.md. Three real cap paths in Hermes; if none fired, the model is self-limiting and rationalising it as "the runtime caps."
  • "Can $external_app use my Nous Portal subscription / OAuth?" — see references/portal-auth-for-third-party-apps.md. Walk the user through three layers (plugin-vs-app, what Portal actually exposes, local-broker-proxy option).

Surfaces (quick orientation)​

  • Desktop app (hermes desktop / hermes gui) — native Electron app for macOS/Linux/Windows: streaming chat, session list, Cmd+K palette, drag-and-drop files, native notifications, per-profile remote-gateway login. Extend it with UI plugins — references/desktop-plugins.md.
  • Web dashboard (hermes dashboard) — full admin panel: messaging channels, MCP catalog, webhooks, memory, profile builder, plus an embedded hermes --tui chat. Secured behind an OAuth/token gate.
  • Ink TUI (hermes --tui or display.interface: tui) — terminal UI with docked widget apps — references/tui-widgets.md.
  • OpenAI-compatible proxy (hermes proxy) — a local OpenAI API backed by whichever OAuth provider you're signed into. Point Codex CLI, Aider, Cline, or any script at it — no API key.

Hard Invariants (never violate, regardless of what you loaded)​

  • Never break prompt caching — don't change past context, toolsets, or the system prompt mid-conversation. The only exception is context compression.
  • Message role alternation — never two assistant or two user messages in a row; only tool results can repeat.
  • Secrets in .env, settings in config.yaml — never tell a user to put a non-credential setting in .env.
  • Profile-safe paths — get_hermes_home() in code, $HERMES_HOME when resolving paths in a session.
  • Never hand-edit config.yaml for the user — use hermes config set KEY VAL; a stray indent can corrupt the file and break the live gateway.