Hermes AI Agent Guide

The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research — the only AI agent with a built-in learning loop.

What is Hermes AI Agent?¶

Hermes AI Agent is an autonomous AI assistant that goes beyond simple chatbots. It learns from your interactions, creates skills from experience, persists knowledge across sessions, and builds a deepening model of who you are over time.

Unlike traditional AI coding assistants tethered to an IDE, Hermes runs anywhere — from your local terminal to a $5 VPS, Docker container, or serverless infrastructure.

Key Capabilities¶

Multi-Platform Messaging¶

Access Hermes from multiple platforms: - CLI (Terminal) - Telegram - Discord - Slack - WhatsApp - Signal - Email - And more...

Built-in Learning¶

Memory System — MEMORY.md and USER.md persist context across sessions
Skills Creation — Auto-generates reusable skills from complex tasks
Skill Self-Improvement — Skills improve during use
Cross-Session Recall — FTS5 search with LLM summarization

47 Built-in Tools¶

Category	Tools
Web	`web_search`, `web_extract`
Terminal	`terminal`, `process`, `file` ops
Browser	`browser_navigate`, `browser_snapshot`, `browser_vision`
Vision	`vision_analyze`, `image_generate`
Memory	`memory`, `session_search`
Automation	`cronjob`, `send_message`
Delegation	Delegate subagents

Research Ready¶

Batch Trajectory Generation — Generate training data at scale
Atropos RL — Reinforcement learning environments
MCP Integration — Connect any MCP server
Tool-calling Training — Export to ShareGPT format

Installation¶

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

After installation:

source ~/.bashrc  # or source ~/.zshrc
hermes  # Start chatting!

Quick Start¶

# Interactive CLI
hermes

# Choose your model provider
hermes model

# Configure toolsets
hermes tools

# Start messaging gateway
hermes gateway

Use Cases¶

For Common Users¶

Personal AI Assistant - Daily task automation - Research and summarization - Writing and editing - Calendar and schedule management

Learning Companion - Explain complex topics - Create study guides - Quiz generation - Cross-session memory of your learning progress

Productivity Booster - Email drafting - Meeting summaries - Content creation - Automated reminders via cron

For Researchers¶

RL Training - Atropos RL environments - Trajectory generation for model training - Tool-call data export

Multi-Model Comparison - Mixture of Agents (MOA) routing - 200+ models via OpenRouter - Benchmark workflows

Agent Architecture Research - Multi-agent orchestration - Skill systems (agentskills.io compatible) - Memory and personality modeling

For Developers¶

Coding Assistant - Full terminal access - Git integration - File operations - Browser automation for web testing

DevOps Automation - SSH/Docker/Singularity backends - Cron scheduling with delivery - MCP server integration

Custom Skill Development - Create reusable skills - Skill sharing via agentskills.io - Plugin system

Configuration¶

Models¶

Hermes supports multiple providers:

# Set provider
hermes model

# Options: Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Kimi, MiniMax, custom

Toolsets¶

# Enable specific toolsets
hermes chat --toolsets "web,terminal,file,browser"

# View all available
hermes tools

Gateway Setup¶

# Set up Telegram/Discord/etc
hermes gateway setup
hermes gateway start

Resources¶

Last Updated: April 2026