Who is hermes-agent for?

Suits developers and tinkerers who are comfortable with a terminal and want a self-hosted agent with long-term memory; you should have an API key or a Nous Portal account for a model.

What can you build with hermes-agent?

Run an assistant on a small cloud server and message it from Telegram while it works. Schedule daily reports, nightly backups or weekly audits in plain language and have them sent to Discord or Slack. Compare different LLM providers by switching models in the same agent with one command. Connect MCP servers to give the agent extra tools for your own workflows. Generate batch trajectories for research on training tool-calling models.

NousResearch /

hermes-agent

Self-hosted AI agent that keeps skills and memory, and chats via terminal or Telegram

256.3k stars
5.6k stars since 3 Oct
Python
Updated today
Some experience
AI agents

Open on GitHub (opens in a new tab) Website (opens in a new tab)

Hermes Agent is a personal AI agent you run yourself. You talk to it in a terminal interface or through Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal or email. One gateway process handles all the chat platforms, so a conversation can carry across them.

Its main idea is a learning loop. After complex tasks it can write a reusable skill, and it improves that skill with use. It keeps notes in memory, searches past conversations, and builds a profile of you over time. The README says its skills follow the agentskills.io open standard.

It isn't tied to one model or one machine. You pick a provider with hermes model, including Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or your own endpoint. Tools can run locally, in Docker, over SSH, or on Singularity, Modal, Daytona or Vercel Sandbox. That lets it live on a cheap server while you chat from your phone. The README also covers migrating from OpenClaw.

What it does

Learning loop
Creates skills after complex tasks and refines them as it uses them. It also keeps agent-curated memory and searches past sessions with full-text search and LLM summaries.
Many chat platforms, one gateway
Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal and the CLI connect through one gateway process. Voice memos are transcribed.
Scheduled automations
A built-in cron scheduler runs tasks described in natural language, such as daily reports or nightly backups. Results can be delivered to any connected platform.
Subagents and scripted tool calls
Spawns isolated subagents for parallel work. It can also write Python scripts that call tools over RPC, which collapses multi-step pipelines into one turn.
Seven terminal backends
Runs tools locally, in Docker, over SSH, or on Singularity, Modal, Daytona and Vercel Sandbox. Daytona and Modal can hibernate when idle.

What you could build

Run an assistant on a small cloud server and message it from Telegram while it works.
Schedule daily reports, nightly backups or weekly audits in plain language and have them sent to Discord or Slack.
Compare different LLM providers by switching models in the same agent with one command.
Connect MCP servers to give the agent extra tools for your own workflows.
Generate batch trajectories for research on training tool-calling models.

Get started

On Linux, macOS or WSL2, run the install script, then reload your shell and type hermes to start chatting. Use hermes model to choose a provider, and hermes setup for the full wizard. Windows has a separate PowerShell installer in the README.

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

source ~/.bashrc

hermes

Commands are copied from the project's README. Read it on GitHub for the full setup.

Anything better than hermes-agent?

Hermes Agent is the strongest pick for a self-hosted, general-purpose agent that learns skills, remembers across sessions, and chats via terminal or Telegram. Nothing here matches that full bundle. Look elsewhere only if you need just a memory layer or a desktop-first or Rust-based harness.