hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/desktop.md

sidebar_position	title	description
3	Desktop App	The native Hermes desktop app — a polished Electron window for chatting with the full agent, with streaming tool output, side-by-side previews, a file browser, voice, cron, profiles, skills, and settings. macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Desktop App

The Hermes desktop app is a native window around the same agent you get from the CLI and the gateway — same config, same API keys, same sessions, same skills, same memory. It is not a separate product or a lightweight clone; it installs the standard Hermes Agent runtime into the standard ~/.hermes layout and drives it through a real UI. If you have used hermes in a terminal, everything you set up there is already here, and anything you do here shows up there.

It's built on Electron and runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

:::tip Which interface is which? Hermes has several front ends that all talk to the same agent:

• CLI (hermes) and TUI (hermes --tui) — terminal interfaces.
• Web Dashboard (hermes dashboard) — a browser admin panel; its optional Chat tab embeds the TUI through a pseudo-terminal.
• Desktop App (this page) — a native window with a purpose-built React UI for chat, previews, and management.

Pick whichever fits the moment. They share state, so you can start a session in one and resume it in another. :::

Install

With the Hermes installer (recommended)

Add --include-desktop to the one-line installer and it provisions the agent and builds the desktop app in a single pass:

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

Already have the Hermes CLI? Build and launch against your existing install:

hermes desktop

That uses your current config, keys, sessions, and skills. On first launch the app walks you through picking a provider and model; there's nothing else to configure.

Prebuilt installers

When a release ships desktop installers they're attached to the releases page:

Platform	Artifacts
macOS	.dmg (signed + notarized)
Windows	.exe (NSIS) / .msi
Linux	.AppImage / .deb / .rpm

These are published manually, so the install-with-Hermes path above is the most reliable way to get the latest build.

Windows GUI installer

On Windows there's also a thin GUI installer: download Hermes Desktop, run the .exe, and on first launch it calls install.ps1 under the hood to provision a bundled Python (via uv), a portable Git, ripgrep, and the rest of the dependencies — no admin rights or system changes required. The desktop app and a PowerShell-installed CLI share the same install and data directories, so you can use either or both. See the Windows (Native) guide for details.

Requirements

The installer handles the toolchain for you (Python 3.11+, a portable Git, ripgrep). What's worth knowing:

• Windows — the installer bundles its own Git and Python; no admin rights needed.
• macOS / Linux — uses your system Python 3.11+, installed automatically if missing.

What's in the app

The desktop app is organized as a chat-first window with a left sidebar for navigation. The headline surface is the conversation; the rest are management panes that mirror what you'd otherwise do through hermes subcommands or the web dashboard.

Chat

The center of the app. You get:

• Streaming responses with live tool activity and structured tool-call summaries as the agent works.
• The same conversation history as every other Hermes surface — sessions started here resume in the CLI/TUI and vice versa.
• Drag-and-drop files anywhere in the chat area to attach them to your next message.
• A right-hand preview rail — render web pages, files, and tool outputs side by side while you keep chatting.
• A model picker for switching models mid-session without leaving the window.

File browser

Explore and preview the working directory without leaving the app — useful for following along as the agent reads, writes, and edits files. Set the initial project directory with hermes desktop --cwd <path> (or the HERMES_DESKTOP_CWD environment variable).

Voice

Talk to Hermes and hear it back, the same voice mode available elsewhere. On macOS the OS will prompt once for microphone access.

Settings & onboarding

Manage providers, models, tools, and credentials from a real UI instead of editing YAML. First-run onboarding gets you to your first message in seconds. The settings panes cover providers/keys, model selection, toolset configuration, MCP servers, the gateway, and session management.

Management panes

The app also surfaces the broader Hermes management surface so you don't have to drop to a terminal:

• Skills — browse, install, and manage skills.
• Cron — view and manage scheduled jobs.
• Profiles — switch between Hermes profiles (isolated config/skills/sessions).
• Messaging — set up gateway channels.
• Agents and Command Center — orchestration surfaces for multi-agent work.

Updating

The app checks for updates in the background and offers a one-click update when one is ready. You can also update any time from the CLI — this pulls the latest agent and rebuilds the app in place:

hermes update

CLI reference: hermes desktop

The canonical command is hermes desktop (the older hermes gui is kept as a deprecated alias). By default it installs workspace Node dependencies, builds the current OS's unpacked Electron app, then launches that packaged artifact.

Flag	Description
--skip-build	Skip npm install/package and launch the existing unpacked app from apps/desktop/release
--source	Launch via electron . against apps/desktop/dist instead of the packaged app
--build-only	Build the desktop app but do not launch it (used by the installer's --update flow)
--cwd PATH	Initial project directory for desktop chat sessions (sets HERMES_DESKTOP_CWD)
--hermes-root PATH	Override the Hermes source root the app uses (sets HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES_ROOT)
--ignore-existing	Force the app to ignore any hermes CLI already on PATH during backend resolution
--fake-boot	Enable deterministic boot delays for validating the startup UI

How it works

The packaged app ships only the Electron shell. On first launch it installs the Hermes Agent runtime into HERMES_HOME (~/.hermes, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes on Windows) — the same layout a CLI install uses, which is why the two are interchangeable. The React renderer talks to a hermes dashboard --tui backend over the standard gateway APIs and reuses the agent rather than reimplementing it. Install, backend-resolution, and self-update logic live in the Electron main process.

Troubleshooting

Boot logs land in HERMES_HOME/logs/desktop.log (it includes backend output and recent Python tracebacks) — check it first if the app reports a boot failure. You can also tail it from the CLI:

hermes logs gui -f

Common resets:

# Force a clean first-launch setup (macOS/Linux)
rm "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/.hermes-bootstrap-complete"

# Rebuild a broken Python venv (macOS/Linux)
rm -rf "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv"

# Reset a stuck macOS microphone prompt
tccutil reset Microphone com.nousresearch.hermes

Building from source

If you want to hack on the app itself, install workspace deps from the repo root once, then run the dev server from apps/desktop:

npm install          # from repo root — links apps/desktop, web, apps/shared
cd apps/desktop
npm run dev          # Vite renderer + Electron, which boots the Python backend

Point the app at a specific checkout, or sandbox it from your real config:

HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES_ROOT=/path/to/clone npm run dev
HERMES_HOME=/tmp/throwaway npm run dev
npm run dev:fake-boot   # exercise the startup overlay with deterministic delays

Build installers:

npm run dist:mac     # DMG + zip
npm run dist:win     # NSIS + MSI
npm run dist:linux   # AppImage + deb + rpm
npm run pack         # unpacked app under release/ (no installer)

macOS/Windows signing and notarization run automatically when the relevant credentials are present in the environment (CSC_LINK / CSC_KEY_PASSWORD / APPLE_* for macOS, WIN_CSC_* for Windows).

See also

• CLI Guide — the terminal interface
• TUI — the modern terminal UI the desktop backend reuses
• Web Dashboard — browser admin panel with an embedded chat tab
• Configuration — config that the desktop app reads and writes
• Windows (Native) — native Windows install path