1. What is Hermes Agent?
Hermes Agent is an autonomous AI assistant built by Nous Research that runs from your terminal. Unlike chat-based AI tools, Hermes can actually do things — execute shell commands, browse the web, manage files, send emails, control smart homes, deploy code, and much more.
Think of it as a junior developer that lives in your terminal and can handle complex multi-step tasks with minimal supervision.
Key Capabilities
- ✓ Execute shell commands and scripts autonomously
- ✓ Browse the web, fill forms, take screenshots
- ✓ Read, write, and edit files across your system
- ✓ Schedule cron jobs for recurring tasks
- ✓ Connect to MCP servers for extended tool access
- ✓ Send messages to Telegram, Discord, Slack, and more
- ✓ Generate images, videos, and audio
- ✓ Manage GitHub repos, PRs, and CI/CD pipelines
- ✓ Delegate tasks to sub-agents for parallel execution
- ✓ Persistent memory across sessions
2. Installation
Quick Install (Recommended)
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
UV Pip Install
uv pip install hermes-agent
# Verify installation
hermes version
From Source (Development)
git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
# Install in development mode
uv pip install -e .
3. Configuration
After installation, run the setup wizard to configure your API keys and preferences:
hermes setup
# Set your model provider
hermes config set model.provider openrouter
hermes config set model.model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4
# Configure terminal working directory
hermes config set terminal.cwd /your/project/path
Config File Location
Configuration lives at ~/.hermes/config.yaml. Key settings include:
- ⚙ model.provider — OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, or custom providers
- ⚙ model.model — Which LLM to use (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
- ⚙ terminal.cwd — Default working directory for commands
- ⚙ gateway — Web gateway settings for remote access
- ⚙ tts — Text-to-speech provider configuration
4. The 42 Built-in Tools
Hermes comes with 42 tools organized into categories. Here are the most important ones:
Terminal & File
terminal
Execute shell commands with timeout control and background mode
read_file
Read files with line numbers and pagination
write_file
Write content to files, auto-creates directories
search_files
Ripgrep-powered file content and name search
patch
Targeted find-and-replace edits in files
execute_code
Run Python scripts with tool access (up to 50 calls per script)
Web & Browser
browser_navigate
Navigate to URLs and get page snapshots
browser_click
Click elements identified by ref ID
browser_type
Type text into form fields
browser_vision
Take screenshots for visual inspection
Automation & Communication
cronjob
Schedule recurring tasks with cron expressions
send_message
Send messages to Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.
delegate_task
Spawn sub-agents for parallel task execution
text_to_speech
Convert text to audio via TTS providers
image_generate
Generate images from text prompts
memory
Persistent memory across sessions
5. Skills System
Skills are reusable procedures that teach Hermes how to handle specific tasks. There are 952+ community skills covering everything from WordPress management to cybersecurity to creative writing.
Using Skills
hermes skills list
# View a specific skill
hermes skills view wordpress-manage
Popular Skill Categories
- 🏠 Web Development — WordPress, Next.js, React, Tailwind, Shopify
- 🛡 Cybersecurity — 400+ skills for security analysis, forensics, pen testing
- 📊 Data Science — Jupyter notebooks, ML training, model evaluation
- 📡 Marketing — SEO, content strategy, email campaigns, social media
- 💻 DevOps — Docker, CI/CD, deployment, monitoring
- 🎨 Creative — Image generation, video, music, ASCII art
Creating Your Own Skills
# Skills are stored as SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter
# Location: ~/.hermes/skills/
6. Cron Jobs & Automation
Hermes can schedule tasks to run automatically — either as LLM-driven jobs or as pure script executions:
hermes cron create –schedule “0 9 * * *” –prompt “Generate daily briefing”
# Run a script every 5 minutes (no LLM, just watchdog)
hermes cron create –schedule “*/5 * * * *” –script “health_check.sh” –no-agent
# List all scheduled jobs
hermes cron list
--no-agent skip the LLM entirely and just run the script.7. MCP Server Integration
Hermes has a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) client that connects to external tool servers:
hermes config set mcp.servers.my-server.command “npx”
hermes config set mcp.servers.my-server.args ‘[“@my-org/mcp-server”]’
This gives Hermes access to any MCP-compatible tools — databases, APIs, custom workflows, and more.
8. Real-World Use Cases
Business Automation
CRM management, email outreach, pipeline reviews, daily journal generation
Web Development
WordPress management, deployments, SEO audits, content publishing
Research
Web scraping, data analysis, competitor monitoring, academic paper review
Security
Vulnerability scanning, log analysis, incident response, threat hunting
Content Creation
Blog writing, social media posts, email newsletters, image generation
DevOps
Docker management, server monitoring, CI/CD, automated deployments
9. Pro Tips & Pitfalls
- ⚠ Cost awareness — Use free models (Gemini Flash Lite) for cron jobs, premium models for complex tasks
- ⚠ Gateway restart — Don’t restart the gateway from within an agent session; it kills your connection
- ⚠ Cron prompts — Make cron prompts self-contained; fresh sessions have no conversation context
- ⚠ Skills first — Always check if a skill exists before building from scratch; 952+ are available
- ⚠ Memory limits — Keep memory entries compact; they’re injected into every turn
- ⚠ execute_code — Use for 3+ tool calls with logic between them; single calls are better as direct tool invocations
- ⚠ Sub-agents — Use delegate_task for reasoning-heavy subtasks; keeps parent context clean
Ready to Get Started?
Hermes Agent is open source and free to use. You only pay for the LLM API calls.