Hermes Agent by Nous Research is an open-source, self-hosted AI agent that remembers you, writes its own reusable skills and works from your terminal, a native desktop app or your messaging apps. It's MIT licensed, the source lives at github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent, and it runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, WSL2 and Android. I use it every day, so here's the plain-English rundown of what it is, who makes it and how to get it running.
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What is Hermes Agent by Nous Research?
Hermes Agent is an AI agent you run yourself. It's not a chatbot in a browser tab. It lives on your machine or your server, it keeps memory between sessions, and it can use real tools like a terminal, a browser and web search.
You can talk to it three ways:
- The CLI. Run hermes in your terminal.
- Hermes Desktop. A native app for macOS, Windows and Linux.
- The messaging gateway. Chat with it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email and more.
Per the Hermes docs, these front ends all talk to the same agent and share state, so you can start a session in one and resume it in another.
I run Hermes daily inside my own Agentic Operating System, with a separate profile for every model. If you want my exact setup, the courses and the Agent OS zip, it's all inside the AI Profit Boardroom for $69/mo, with daily updates and 4 coaching calls a week.
Who is Nous Research?
Nous Research is the team that builds Hermes Agent. I'll stick to what their own docs say, because that's what matters for you.
- They maintain Hermes Agent. The core repo is NousResearch/hermes-agent, and the docs live at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com.
- They run Nous Portal. The docs describe it as Nous Research's unified subscription gateway and the recommended way to run Hermes Agent.
- They make the Hermes 4 models. Hermes-4-70B and Hermes-4-405B are available through the Portal. The docs call them frontier hybrid-reasoning chat models, but say they're not recommended inside Hermes Agent because they're tuned for chat rather than the fast tool-calling loop the agent needs.
- They maintain official plugins. Plugins like Home Assistant and Spotify sit in NousResearch/hermes-official-plugins.
- They run a community. The docs point people to the Nous Research Discord for help and for sharing plugins.
The docs also note that Nous Research has been inducted into the Nemotron Coalition of AI labs working with NVIDIA on open frontier foundation models.
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Key features
Persistent memory
Per the Hermes docs, Hermes has bounded, curated memory that persists across sessions. Two files do the work: MEMORY.md for the agent's own notes about your environment and conventions, and USER.md for your preferences and communication style. The agent manages them itself with its memory tool.
Skills
Skills are on-demand knowledge documents the agent loads when it needs them. They live in your Hermes skills folder, follow the agentskills.io open standard, and the agent can create, modify or delete them. The /learn command turns something you already know into a skill fast. This is the part that makes Hermes get better the more you use it.
Messaging gateway
The docs describe the gateway as a single background process that connects to all your platforms, handles sessions, runs cron jobs and delivers voice messages. The list is long: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, email, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, iMessage via BlueBubbles and more.
Tools
Hermes ships with a built-in tool registry covering web search, browser automation, terminal execution, file editing, memory, delegation and scheduled tasks. Tools are grouped into toolsets you can switch on or off per platform, and plugins add more.
Profiles
A profile is a separate Hermes home with its own config, API keys, memory, sessions, skills and gateway state. Create one called coder and you get a coder command straight away. The docs warn never to point two agent processes at the same profile. This is exactly how I run one profile per model.
Hermes Desktop
Per the docs, Desktop is a native app built around the same agent as the CLI and gateway, with the same config, keys, sessions, skills and memory. It's chat-first with a sidebar, and it handles multiple conversations, messaging setup, artifacts and project folders. I've covered it in depth in my Hermes Desktop app guide.
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How to install Hermes Agent
The Hermes docs give you a few official routes.
Desktop packages (macOS or Windows)
- Download the package from the Hermes website at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com.
- On Windows, open the .appinstaller file with Windows App Installer. It installs the signed MSIX bundle.
- On macOS, open the DMG and copy Hermes.app to Applications. The docs say the macOS installer is Apple Silicon only.
Per the docs, the bundled packages contain the agent, Python, supported dependencies and prebuilt interfaces, so first launch doesn't have to build the base runtime.
Command line only
- Linux, macOS or WSL2: curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
- Windows (PowerShell): iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)
- Android: use the Termux APT package on aarch64 devices, set up its signed repository, then run pkg install hermes-agent.
Already installed the CLI and want the app too? The docs say just run hermes desktop. For a full walkthrough with troubleshooting, follow my Hermes Agent installation guide for 2026.
Not sure which install route fits your setup? Book a free AI strategy session and we'll work it out together.
Nous Portal and free models
Hermes needs a model to think with. You can bring your own provider, but per the Hermes docs, Nous Portal is the recommended way to run it.
Here's what the docs say Portal gives you:
- One login, lots of models. A single OAuth login covers 300+ agentic models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax and Grok.
- The Tool Gateway. Web search, image generation, text-to-speech and browser automation through the same subscription, without separate API keys.
- No pile of keys on disk. The refresh token in auth.json is the only credential stored, and Hermes mints short-lived tokens from it per request.
The fastest setup is one command: hermes setup --portal. The docs say it runs the Portal login, lets you pick a Nous model, sets Nous as your provider and turns on the Tool Gateway. On an existing install, hermes model does the job.
There's also a free Nous tier. Per the docs, free-tier rate limits apply, and a session you're watching won't sit through a cooldown longer than 60 seconds. It ends the turn and tells you when the limit lifts, after trying any fallback you've set. Portal's free catalog changes over time, and right now it includes free models like the MissingNo stealth model. I test these as they land and rank them on my Goldie Bench.
Official vs third-party Hermes projects
Hermes is popular, so plenty of projects have grown around it. Know which is which.
Official: Hermes Agent itself, Hermes Desktop, the Nous Portal, the official installers and the plugins in NousResearch/hermes-official-plugins. The docs list the supported install methods, and anything outside that list isn't supported.
Independent: FlyHermes, Herald OS and StarNet are third-party projects. They're not made by Nous Research. Some are useful, but treat them as separate products with their own support. I've reviewed one in detail in my FlyHermes write-up.
The docs are clear on plugins too. Plugins that connect someone else's product are built as standalone repos rather than merged into the core, and get shared in the Nous Research Discord.
If you want to see how all these pieces fit into one working system, read my Agent OS guide.
FAQ
What is Hermes Agent by Nous Research?
It's an open-source, self-hosted AI agent made by Nous Research. It has persistent memory, writes its own skills, uses tools like a terminal and browser, and you can reach it from the CLI, the Hermes Desktop app or messaging apps like Telegram and Discord.
Is Hermes Agent free?
The software is open source under the MIT licence, so it costs nothing to install. You still need a model. You can use your own provider, a Nous Portal subscription, or the free Nous tier with its rate limits and changing free catalog.
What platforms does Hermes Agent run on?
Per the docs, Tier 1 support covers macOS on Apple Silicon, Windows 10 and 11, Linux, WSL2 and Docker. Android via Termux and Nix are Tier 2, maintained on a best-effort basis.
Are FlyHermes, Herald OS and StarNet made by Nous Research?
No. They're independent third-party projects. The official pieces are Hermes Agent, Hermes Desktop, Nous Portal and the official plugins.
Ready to put it to work? Join the AI Profit Boardroom for my Hermes courses and Agent OS, or book a free AI strategy session and I'll help you plan your Hermes Agent by Nous Research setup.
