Work that runs long
One thread that moves between the terminal, your files, a browser and web search without you re-briefing it at every handover.
Hermes Agent by Nous Research · Independent guide
Hermes Agent learns
how you work, then
keeps getting better.
Nous Research’s open-source agent remembers across sessions, turns the workflows you repeat into skills it can run again, and sharpens them as you go.
Pick a surface, right now
Independent guide. Updated for the current Hermes Agent release.
~/.hermesWhat survives the session
memories/MEMORY.mdFacts about your setup and projects, loaded fresh at the start of every session.cap 2,200
memories/USER.mdHow you like work done. The agent writes it; you can edit or delete it anytime.cap 1,375
skills/…/SKILL.mdA procedure it wrote down once and can load again on a matching task.reusable
state.dbEvery session you have had, searchable down to the message.FTS5 search
Local and inspectable. Memory and skills are stored as files you control; past sessions live in the local state.db database and remain searchable.
No Hermes account to create. You bring the model provider.
MIT licensedLaptop or always-on serverMultiple model providers
What are you here to do?
Hermes DesktopTerminalTelegram · Slack · email
~/.hermesmemory, skills, every past session
An open-source agent that keeps what it learns.
Hermes runs on your own machine, uses the model you choose, and reaches your files, terminal and browser. The part that makes it different is what happens after the task: it writes down what it learned and can run it again.
Built by Nous Research, MIT licensed
Desktop app, terminal, or chat platforms like Slack and Telegram
Memory, skills and past sessions live in ~/.hermes
The learning loop
Session one is the worst Hermes will ever be.
Most agents meet you again from scratch every time. Hermes ends a session by writing down what it learned, how you like the work done, and any workflow worth running again, then starts the next one from there. That is stored context and reusable procedures carrying forward, not the underlying model retraining itself.
Illustration — how memory and skills accumulate across five sessions
You ask
Pull Thursday's revenue out of Postgres and write me a summary.
A cold start. Everything gets explained — connection, schema, what a useful summary looks like.
Carried in (0)
Nothing yet. First session, so everything has to be explained.
Written this session (3)
MEMORY.md · warehouse schemaMEMORY.md · summarise, don't dump tablesUSER.md · numbers first, prose after
In practice
What people actually point it at.
None of this needs a new interface. It is the same agent whether you reach it from the desktop app, a terminal or a chat thread.
See what it can doResearch that stays open
Sources, findings and the questions you have not answered yet survive the session. Weeks later it can search the actual messages, not a summary of them.
The Thursday jobs
Recurring reports, checks and briefings described in plain language, run on a schedule and delivered where you already read things.
The thing you do every month
Once a workflow works, Hermes writes it down as a skill and runs it again. Point it at your own docs and it writes the skill from those.
On your machine
Your laptop is enough to find out.
One command installs it, and you approve commands as it runs them. Your config, memory, skills and session history sit in ~/.hermes where you can read them, and hermes uninstall removes the agent while leaving that data in place — add --full when you want the data gone too.
$ curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bashCLI on macOS, Linux, WSL2 and native Windows
Desktop app or terminal, same agent underneath
You pay for model usage, not for Hermes
The catch: it works when your machine is awake and you are there. Nothing runs while the lid is shut.
Always-on hosting
Scheduled work needs a machine that stays up.
The messaging gateway is the part that has to keep running. It holds your chat platforms open, answers from wherever you are, and keeps the cron scheduler firing whether or not you are logged in. On a server, that is a service. On a laptop, it is a coin flip.
$ hermes gateway install $ sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
systemd on Linux, launchd on macOS, restarts on boot
Reach the same memory and skills from your phone
Container backends when you want the blast radius small
A server you own is a server you secure. Non-root user, explicit allowlist, keys in ~/.hermes/.env at 0600.
First run
Four moves between nothing and an agent that knows your setup.
Most of the setup time goes into the first two steps. The fourth is optional, but it is the fastest way to see what Hermes kept from a session and what it did not.
01
Install it
One shell command on macOS, Linux or WSL2, or the PowerShell installer on native Windows. The desktop app has its own installer if you would rather not use a terminal.
curl -fsSL …/install.sh | bash02
Point it at a model
Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or any endpoint you already pay for. Switch later without losing anything.
hermes model03
Give it real work
Not a demo prompt. Something you were going to do today anyway, so you can judge the result honestly.
hermes04
See what it kept
The journey view lists the memory notes and skills written during your sessions, so you can check them and delete anything wrong.
/journeySet up Hermes Agent
Step by step, with the parts that usually go wrong called out.
Everything else, in one list.
Written for the current release, checked against the official docs.
What Hermes Agent isThe short, honest answerGet started with Hermes AgentInstallation through your first verified taskInstall Hermes AgentEvery platform, including the awkward onesHermes DesktopThe native app on macOS, Windows and LinuxChoose a model and providerWhat to run it on, and what changes if you switchHermes Agent featuresMemory, skills, subagents, scheduling, voiceTools and integrationsMCP servers, browser, search, messagingConfigure Hermes AgentApproval modes, toolsets, and the settings that matter earlySecurity guideCommand approval, sandboxes, what to lock downHermes Agent costWhat you pay for, and what drives the billTroubleshootingWhen it will not start, connect or rememberHosting optionsMove to an always-on server when you are readyHermes Agent vs OpenClawThe comparison, and how to migrate
Checked against Hermes Agent v0.20.5 on .
Hermes gets better by working with you. Give it something real to start with.
Hermes Agent is built by Nous Research. Applied Hermes is an independent guide to evaluating, installing and running it.