hermes-jina

Hermes Jina

Hand Hermes a link. Get back the page, not the markup.

Hermes Jina plugs Jina Reader into the web_extract and web_search tools Hermes already has.
Pages come back as clean Markdown. Reading works without an account; search needs a free key.

POWERED BY HERMES AGENT  ·  COMMUNITY PLUGIN  ·  VERSION 0.1.0

What it does  ·  Install it  ·  Where your data goes

Powered by Hermes

Hermes Jina is a community-built web backend for Hermes Agent. It adds no tools of its own. It registers a provider named jina through Hermes's web provider API, so the agent keeps calling web_extract and web_search exactly as before, and Hermes routes those calls to Jina when you choose it.

It works in the CLI, Hermes Desktop, the messaging gateway, cron jobs and subagents: anywhere the web tools run.

The web as Markdown

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Readweb_extract sends each URL to r.jina.ai and returns the page as Markdown, with title and final URL. No key needed. | Searchweb_search queries s.jina.ai and returns titles, URLs and snippets. Needs JINA_API_KEY. |
| Mix and matchUse Jina only for reading and keep your current search backend, or use it for both. | Fail per pageOne broken URL comes back with its own error. The rest of the batch still arrives. |

Small decisions, already made

• Hermes never switches you to Jina on its own. Without a key, Jina is used only when you name it in your config.
• Several URLs are read in parallel: 2 at a time without a key, 5 with one, to stay under Jina's rate limits.
• Only http:// and https:// links are sent. Anything else is refused before a request is made.
• Images are dropped from the Markdown, since the agent reads text.
• Search asks Jina for snippets only, not every result's full page, to save tokens. At most 20 results.
• Errors say what to do next: set a key, wait out a rate limit, or check Jina's status page.
• Each request times out after 60 seconds.

Make it yours

Install

hermes plugins install Adolanium/hermes-jina

The installer asks for JINA_API_KEY. Leave it empty if you only want reading.

Hermes Jina needs Hermes Agent 0.21.6 or later.

Choose it

Pick Jina Reader in hermes tools, or set the backends in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

web:
  extract_backend: jina   # web_extract through Jina Reader, key optional
  search_backend: jina    # web_search through Jina Search, key required

Set only extract_backend to keep your current search provider.

Add a key

Get one at jina.ai/api-dashboard. New keys come with free tokens. A key turns on search and raises the reading limit above the anonymous one, about 20 requests a minute.

Set it with hermes tools, or as JINA_API_KEY in your Hermes environment. The plugin reads it through Hermes's secret scope, so each profile keeps its own key.

Test

The tests use Hermes's real plugin discovery with a mocked HTTP transport, so they make no network calls:

HERMES_SOURCE=/path/to/hermes-agent bash scripts/test.sh

Check the plugin the same way the catalog does:

hermes plugins validate . --install-deps

CI runs both on every push, against Hermes 0.21.6 and 0.22.2 on Python 3.11 and 3.13.

Privacy you can explain in one breath

Hermes web_extract / web_search  →  r.jina.ai / s.jina.ai (Jina AI)  →  the page or the results

• What leaves your machine. The URLs the agent reads go to r.jina.ai, and its search queries go to s.jina.ai. Jina fetches and processes the pages on its own servers. See Jina's privacy policy.
• Your key. Sent to Jina as a bearer token when it is set. The plugin reads it only through Hermes. It never stores, logs or writes it, and it is never echoed back in an error.
• Nothing else. No files read or written, no shell commands, no background processes, no telemetry.

Compatibility

| Hermes Agent | Python | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0.22.2 | 3.11, 3.13, 3.14 | Tested in CI and by hand |
| 0.21.6 (minimum) | 3.11, 3.13 | Tested in CI |

The plugin depends only on httpx, which Hermes already ships.

Limits

• Without a key, reading shares Jina's anonymous rate limit with everyone on your IP. Heavy use needs a key.
• Search always needs a key.
• Jina may serve a cached copy of a page. When it does, the result carries Jina's warning in its metadata.
• Pages behind a login, a paywall or a bot wall may come back empty or partial. Those come back as a per-page error, not a crash.
• Jina has no batch endpoint, so a long list of URLs is read a few at a time.

License

MIT.

Community project

Hermes Jina is an independent community plugin. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially associated with Nous Research, the Hermes Agent project, or Jina AI. Hermes, Hermes Agent, Nous Research, Jina and Jina Reader are names and marks belonging to their respective owners.

README from the reviewed commit 9850595; it updates when the author re-pins.