Hermes Swarm: How To Run Multi-Agent Teams Free

A Hermes Swarm is the free upgrade to Hermes Workspace that lets you run a team of AI agents in parallel, all coordinated automatically. If you've been running Hermes one agent at a time, this changes everything about what you can build in a working day.

This post covers what a Hermes Swarm is, how to run multi-agent teams, phone access for managing on the go, and auto-routing without manual setup.

The Quick Pitch

Instead of running one Hermes agent on one task at a time, you run a team of agents doing different jobs in parallel, all coordinated automatically, and all for free.

That's a Hermes Swarm.

Why Multi-Agent Beats Single-Agent

The single-agent workflow is sequential — you ask, AI responds, one step at a time, you wait, then ask the next thing. It's slow because you're the bottleneck on every transition.

The multi-agent (swarm) workflow is parallel — you set a goal, multiple agents pursue it in parallel, one plans, one builds, one reviews, all at the same time. For complex tasks, swarms are dramatically faster because the bottleneck of waiting between steps disappears.

I cover the broader pattern in Hermes Agent Swarm — same release, different angle.

Phone Access For Mobile Ops

This is one of the killer features.

You can access your Hermes Swarm from your phone, which means you can trigger missions remotely, check progress while you're out, approve agent actions on the go, and effectively have your team of AI agents running 24/7 in your pocket. For solo operators who aren't always at their desk, this is real leverage.

Auto-Routing: Set Goal, Walk Away

Auto-routing is the new feature that makes swarms practical at scale.

You don't tell each agent what to do. You give the swarm a goal, and the orchestrator (Aurora) figures out which agents to deploy, what each one should do, and how to route work between them. You walk away and come back to a finished mission.

Setting Up A Hermes Swarm

Five steps to a working swarm.

Step one is installing the swarm plugin — use the free plugin built by community contributor Eric, with the install command going in your terminal. Step two is running the Hermes gateway as a standard Hermes startup. Step three is starting the workspace UI by connecting to Hermes Workspace on local host. Step four is updating Workspace if you already have it, because the latest version is needed for swarms. Step five is clicking Swarms in the left menu, where you'll see the full swarm section.

🔥 Want my full Hermes Swarm playbook? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom, I share my Hermes Swarm setup, mission templates, and 30-day road map. Plus 2-hour Hermes course and weekly live coaching where you can share your screen for help. 3,000+ members. → Get the playbook

Adding Swarm Agents

In the Swarms section, click "Add swarm" at the top right and pick a role from the presets — Builder, Reviewer, Triage, Lab, Sage, or Scribeex. Each role has preset system prompts and skills tuned for the job.

Or go custom by defining your own system prompt, setting the mission, and picking the skills assigned to that agent.

Running Your First Mission

Aurora is your orchestrator. Type your mission in plain English — for example, "Create a new AI automation blog for SEO. Plan keyword strategy. Create the content. Target AI agent community keywords. Send traffic to [URL]."

Click route mission and Aurora composes a routing plan. Sub-agents pick up their parts. You watch the office view as agents work in real time.

The Office View

This is one of the cooler UI features and it makes complex work visible.

You can see the team in round table style or grid view. Each agent's status is visible (working, blocked, ready). You see per-agent terminal output. You see files being created. You see browser previews of generated work.

For visual people, this kind of visibility transforms what working with multi-agent systems feels like.

What A Hermes Swarm Can Build

In demos, swarms have built full SEO content plans with 90-day calendars, internal linking strategies, and 5+ blog posts in 5-10 minutes. Whole websites with keyword research and templates. Multi-step research projects with verified sources.

For complex output, swarms are the upgrade that makes solo operators competitive with small teams.

Pairing Hermes Swarm With Other Tools

Swarms work alongside other parts of the AI stack.

Pair with OpenClaw computer use for desktop automation. Combine with ClawX OpenClaw for OpenClaw-side multi-agent setups. Add Claude Code SEO Agent for content automation deployment.

Each tool fills a different need. Hermes Swarm handles the multi-agent execution side.

Common Setup Issues

Three issues that trip people up most often.

The first is "blocked" status on an agent. Click the agent and check API/model settings — usually it's the wrong model assigned. The second is plugin install failing. Use Claude Code or Hermes locally to debug. The third is the swarms feature being buggy occasionally, which is a known issue at this stage. Use Claude Code to read logs and troubleshoot.

Why "Free" Matters

Hermes Workspace is free. The swarm plugin is free. The Hermes agent itself is free. For multi-agent functionality this powerful, free is unusual.

Most enterprise tools charge hundreds per month for less capability than this.

What Hermes Swarm Doesn't Do

Honest about the limits.

It doesn't handle highly creative single-agent tasks better than single-agent (different jobs need different tools). The setup has a learning curve. It's occasionally buggy as an early-stage feature.

For 80% of multi-step work, the wins outweigh the rough edges.

Daily Reality

What it looks like running swarms daily. In the morning, give Aurora a mission. Aurora deploys the swarm. Multiple agents work in parallel. Roughly 10-15 minutes later the output is ready. You review and act.

Used to be a half-day task. Now it's a coffee.

🚀 Want my full Hermes Swarm system? The AI Profit Boardroom has my Hermes Swarm setup, 2-hour Hermes course, OpenClaw 6-hour course, daily training, weekly live coaching. 3,000+ members. → Join here

FAQ — Hermes Swarm

Is Hermes Swarm free?

Yes — fully free, open source plugin.

Do I need Hermes Workspace?

Yes — swarms run inside Workspace.

How many agents can I run?

Hardware-dependent. Most users run 4-6 comfortably.

Can I run swarms from my phone?

Yes — Hermes Workspace supports phone access.

Will swarms work with cloud or local models?

Both. Mix per agent.

How do I troubleshoot stuck agents?

Click the agent and check model/API settings. Most issues are model misconfiguration.

Can I create custom roles?

Yes — fully customisable.