diff --git a/nix/checks.nix b/nix/checks.nix
index cf11082b98b..bb8801a0b83 100644
--- a/nix/checks.nix
+++ b/nix/checks.nix
@@ -124,6 +124,26 @@ json.dump(sorted(leaf_paths(DEFAULT_CONFIG)), sys.stdout, indent=2)
           echo "ok" > $out/result
         '';
 
+        # Verify bundled plugins (platforms, memory, context_engine) are present
+        bundled-plugins = pkgs.runCommand "hermes-bundled-plugins" { } ''
+          set -e
+          echo "=== Checking bundled plugins ==="
+          test -d ${hermes-agent}/share/hermes-agent/plugins || (echo "FAIL: plugins directory missing"; exit 1)
+          echo "PASS: plugins directory exists"
+
+          test -f ${hermes-agent}/share/hermes-agent/plugins/platforms/irc/plugin.yaml || \
+            (echo "FAIL: irc plugin manifest missing"; exit 1)
+          echo "PASS: irc plugin manifest present"
+
+          grep -q "HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS" ${hermes-agent}/bin/hermes || \
+            (echo "FAIL: HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS not in wrapper"; exit 1)
+          echo "PASS: HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS set in wrapper"
+
+          echo "=== All bundled plugins checks passed ==="
+          mkdir -p $out
+          echo "ok" > $out/result
+        '';
+
         # Verify bundled TUI is present and compiled
         bundled-tui = pkgs.runCommand "hermes-bundled-tui" { } ''
           set -e
diff --git a/nix/hermes-agent.nix b/nix/hermes-agent.nix
index b6f4e76e967..886bb1aadb7 100644
--- a/nix/hermes-agent.nix
+++ b/nix/hermes-agent.nix
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ let
     filter = path: _type: !(lib.hasInfix "/index-cache/" path);
   };
 
+  # Import bundled plugins (memory, context_engine, platforms/*).  Keeping
+  # them out of the Python site-packages keeps import semantics identical
+  # to a dev checkout — the loader reads them from HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS.
+  bundledPlugins = lib.cleanSourceWith {
+    src = ../plugins;
+    filter = path: _type: !(lib.hasInfix "/__pycache__/" path);
+  };
+
   runtimeDeps = [
     nodejs_22
     ripgrep
@@ -88,6 +96,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
     mkdir -p $out/share/hermes-agent $out/bin
     cp -r ${bundledSkills} $out/share/hermes-agent/skills
+    cp -r ${bundledPlugins} $out/share/hermes-agent/plugins
     cp -r ${hermesWeb} $out/share/hermes-agent/web_dist
 
     mkdir -p $out/ui-tui
@@ -98,6 +107,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
         makeWrapper ${hermesVenv}/bin/${name} $out/bin/${name} \
           --suffix PATH : "${runtimePath}" \
           --set HERMES_BUNDLED_SKILLS $out/share/hermes-agent/skills \
+          --set HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS $out/share/hermes-agent/plugins \
           --set HERMES_WEB_DIST $out/share/hermes-agent/web_dist \
           --set HERMES_TUI_DIR $out/ui-tui \
           --set HERMES_PYTHON ${hermesVenv}/bin/python3 \