* refactor(desktop): dock terminal under chat and simplify file rail
Keep the right rail focused on file browsing while moving the persistent terminal into the chat column bottom slot, and make terminal colors follow the active light/dark mode instead of a fixed Solarized palette.
* fix(desktop): make the terminal a resizable, themed side pane
- Move the terminal into a resizable pane (viewport-% widths) that shares
<main>'s stacking context, so its drag handle no longer sits under the
fixed terminal overlay; works on either rail side.
- Restore +x on node-pty's spawn-helper before the first spawn to fix
"posix_spawnp failed" on macOS prebuilds (real cause; drop the redundant
shell-candidate retry loop).
- Gate terminal open/fit/start on document.fonts.ready and strip leading
blank rows (re-armed before the resize Ctrl-L redraw) so the prompt sits
flush at the top with no starship add_newline gap.
- Inherit the app editor-surface color as the terminal background.
- Bind Ctrl+` (⌃` on macOS) to toggle the terminal; add a palette entry.
* feat(desktop): show platform hotkey hints in the command palette
- Render each palette item's live binding as a <KbdGroup> hint via a new
comboTokens() helper (mac shows ⌘/⌃/⌥/⇧, every other platform shows
Ctrl/Alt/Shift — never a ⌘ on PC).
- Default the terminal toggle to ⌘` / Ctrl+` (the ~ key) on both platforms.
- Drop the hardcoded (⌘⏎) baked into the composer steer tooltip; render it
platform-aware with formatCombo instead.
* fix(desktop): drop the active check on the command-palette terminal item
* fix(desktop): remove active/check states from the command palette
* fix(desktop): allow ⌥/Shift-drag selection over mouse-mode TUIs
Full-screen apps (hermes --tui, vim) enable mouse reporting, so a plain
drag can't select text and ⌘/Ctrl+L (add-selection-to-chat) had nothing
to send. Enable macOptionClickForcesSelection so ⌥-drag on macOS (Shift
elsewhere) forces a native selection over mouse-mode apps.
* feat(desktop): tell the in-pane agent it's embedded in the GUI
Set HERMES_DESKTOP_TERMINAL=1 on the terminal pane's shell env and surface
it in build_environment_hints, so a hermes/--tui launched inside the pane
knows it's next to the GUI chat and that ⌥/Shift-drag + ⌘/Ctrl+L sends a
selection to the composer. Distinct from HERMES_DESKTOP (agent backend).
* refactor(desktop): drop the redundant Ctrl+` terminal-toggle fallback
The toggle now ships as mod+` on both platforms, so the standard combo
index handles it — the bespoke fallback (and its stale 'old default'
comment) is dead weight.
* fix(desktop): read live terminal selection for ⌘/Ctrl+L
A redraw-heavy TUI (spinners/clocks) outruns onSelectionChange, leaving the
React selection state empty so the state-gated shortcut listener never
attached and ⌘L no-op'd. Always listen and read xterm's live selection (with
a native fallback) at press time; only swallow the key when there's text to
send. Drops the now-redundant custom key handler.
* feat(desktop): make any agent aware it's in the Hermes desktop GUI
Generalize the runtime-surface hint: fire for HERMES_DESKTOP (the backend
powering the GUI chat) as well as HERMES_DESKTOP_TERMINAL (a hermes in the
embedded terminal pane), so it's about being inside the desktop GUI, not
about being a TUI. The terminal-pane selection note stays pane-specific.
* feat(desktop): give the GUI agent a read_terminal tool
The in-app terminal buffer lives in the renderer (xterm), so expose it to the
chat agent over the same blocking bridge clarify uses: read_terminal emits
terminal.read.request, the renderer serializes the buffer (visible screen by
default, or a start_line/count range against total_lines) and answers
terminal.read.respond. Gated to the GUI via HERMES_DESKTOP.
Also restores the flipped-layout titlebar inset fix (app-shell +
desktop-controller) for terminal/preview rails at the window's left edge.
* chore(desktop): trim read_terminal comments
* feat(desktop): add a terminal toggle to the statusbar
The file rail lost its terminal icon, leaving ⌘` and the command palette
as the only ways in. Add a one-click toggle to the statusbar's left
cluster, mirroring the command-center item: it reads $terminalTakeover so
it lights up while the pane is open and stays in sync with the hotkey, and
is gated to chat view (the only place the pane can show).
* fix(desktop): relabel the terminal header button to what it does
The in-pane button claimed a focus/split fullscreen toggle ("Focus
terminal view" / "Return to split view", screen-full/normal icons), but
the terminal is just a resizable side pane — there's no fullscreen. The
button only mounts while the pane is open, so the focus branch was dead
and clicking it merely closed the terminal. Relabel to "Hide terminal"
with a close icon, drop the dead conditional and the now-unused takeover
read.
* fix(desktop): move the terminal toggle next to the version item
Relocate it from the left cluster to the right of the statusbar, just
left of the client version item.
* feat(desktop): default the terminal to PowerShell on Windows
Prefer pwsh (7+) then Windows PowerShell 5.1 over cmd.exe, falling back to
comspec only when neither is present. -NoLogo drops the startup banner so
the prompt sits flush like the POSIX shells.
* feat(desktop): show a persistent divider on the terminal pane
The resize sash only painted on hover, so the terminal/chat boundary was
invisible at rest. Add an opt-in `divider` prop to Pane that paints a thin
resting hairline on the resize edge (side-aware, so it tracks the rail when
the layout flips) and enable it on the terminal pane.
* refactor(desktop): resolve the terminal shell instead of hardcoding it
Make shell selection a real resolver: an explicit override wins
(HERMES_DESKTOP_SHELL on both platforms, $SHELL on POSIX), otherwise
auto-detect the best installed shell — pwsh > Windows PowerShell 5.1 > cmd
on Windows, zsh > bash > sh on POSIX. A shared shellSpecFor() picks the
interactive flags by family, so an overridden bash/pwsh/cmd all launch
correctly.
* fix(desktop): repaint the terminal on light/dark switch
Setting term.options.theme updated colors for the DOM renderer but not the
WebGL one, which caches glyph colors in a texture atlas — so already-drawn
cells kept their old palette after a mode switch. Hold the WebglAddon in a
ref and clear its atlas when the theme changes.
* fix(desktop): match the terminal palette to VS Code Light+/Dark+
Adopt VS Code's exact default ANSI palette (the terminalColorRegistry
defaults), enable minimumContrastRatio: 4.5 so foregrounds are clamped
against the background the way the integrated terminal does, and key the
light/dark choice off renderedMode (the painted surface) instead of
resolvedMode so it can't invert. The canvas + inset paint the live skin
surface (--ui-editor-surface-background) so the terminal blends with the
app and follows light/dark, while the contrast clamp keeps colors crisp.
* fix(desktop): tighten command palette search to substring matching
cmdk's default fuzzy scorer matched anything with the query letters
scattered across an item, so e.g. "color" never narrowed to color
entries. Add a substring filter: every typed word must literally appear
in an item's value/keywords, keeping results tight and predictable.
* fix(desktop): blend the terminal header into the skin surface
The persistent-terminal overlay painted the static palette background
(#1e1e1e/#ffffff), so the transparent header strip revealed a near-black
slab above the surface-colored body. Paint the overlay with the live
--ui-editor-surface-background so header and body read as one pane.
* fix(desktop): re-resolve the terminal surface on skin switch
The canvas surface only re-resolved on light/dark change, so switching
skins at the same mode left the WebGL canvas painted with the old tint
until reload. Key the resolve off themeName too. Also trim the palette
comments.
* chore(desktop): drop redundant terminal theming header comment
|
||
|---|---|---|
| .github | ||
| .plans | ||
| acp_adapter | ||
| acp_registry | ||
| agent | ||
| apps | ||
| assets | ||
| cron | ||
| datagen-config-examples | ||
| docker | ||
| docs | ||
| gateway | ||
| hermes_cli | ||
| infographic/kanban-db-corruption-defense | ||
| locales | ||
| nix | ||
| optional-mcps | ||
| optional-skills | ||
| packaging/homebrew | ||
| plans | ||
| plugins | ||
| providers | ||
| scripts | ||
| skills | ||
| tests | ||
| tools | ||
| tui_gateway | ||
| ui-tui | ||
| web | ||
| website | ||
| .dockerignore | ||
| .env.example | ||
| .envrc | ||
| .gitattributes | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .hadolint.yaml | ||
| .mailmap | ||
| AGENTS.md | ||
| batch_runner.py | ||
| cli-config.yaml.example | ||
| cli.py | ||
| constraints-termux.txt | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| docker-compose.windows.yml | ||
| docker-compose.yml | ||
| Dockerfile | ||
| flake.lock | ||
| flake.nix | ||
| hermes | ||
| hermes-already-has-routines.md | ||
| hermes_bootstrap.py | ||
| hermes_constants.py | ||
| hermes_logging.py | ||
| hermes_state.py | ||
| hermes_time.py | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| MANIFEST.in | ||
| mcp_serve.py | ||
| mini_swe_runner.py | ||
| model_tools.py | ||
| package-lock.json | ||
| package.json | ||
| pyproject.toml | ||
| README.md | ||
| README.ur-pk.md | ||
| README.zh-CN.md | ||
| run_agent.py | ||
| SECURITY.md | ||
| setup-hermes.sh | ||
| setup.py | ||
| toolset_distributions.py | ||
| toolsets.py | ||
| trajectory_compressor.py | ||
| utils.py | ||
| uv.lock | ||
Hermes Agent ☤
The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop — it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop — talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.
Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter (200+ models), NovitaAI (AI-native cloud for Model API, Agent Sandbox, and GPU Cloud), NVIDIA NIM (Nemotron), Xiaomi MiMo, z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, Hugging Face, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Runs anywhere, not just your laptop | Six terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, and Daytona. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence — your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster. |
| Research-ready | Batch trajectory generation, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
Quick Install
Linux, macOS, WSL2, Termux
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
Windows (native, PowerShell)
Heads up: Native Windows runs Hermes without WSL — CLI, gateway, TUI, and tools all work natively. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux/macOS one-liner above works there too. Found a bug? Please file issues.
Run this in PowerShell:
iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)
The installer handles everything: uv, Python 3.11, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg, and a portable Git Bash (MinGit, unpacked to %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\git — no admin required, completely isolated from any system Git install). Hermes uses this bundled Git Bash to run shell commands.
If you already have Git installed, the installer detects it and uses that instead. Otherwise a ~45MB MinGit download is all you need — it won't touch or interfere with any system Git.
Android / Termux: The tested manual path is documented in the Termux guide. On Termux, Hermes installs a curated
.[termux]extra because the full.[all]extra currently pulls Android-incompatible voice dependencies.Windows: Native Windows is fully supported — the PowerShell one-liner above installs everything. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux command works there too. Native Windows install lives under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes; WSL2 installs under~/.hermesas on Linux.
After installation:
source ~/.bashrc # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes # start chatting!
Getting Started
hermes # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set # Set individual config values
hermes gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor # Diagnose any issues
Skip the API-key collection — Nous Portal
Hermes works with whatever provider you want — that's not changing. But if you'd rather not collect five separate API keys for the model, web search, image generation, TTS, and a cloud browser, Nous Portal covers all of them under one subscription:
- 300+ models — pick any of them with
/model <name> - Tool Gateway — web search (Firecrawl), image generation (FAL), text-to-speech (OpenAI), cloud browser (Browser Use), all routed through your sub. No extra accounts.
One command from a fresh install:
hermes setup --portal
That logs you in via OAuth, sets Nous as your provider, and turns on the Tool Gateway. Check what's wired up any time with hermes portal info. Full details on the Tool Gateway docs page.
You can still bring your own keys per-tool whenever you want — the gateway is per-backend, not all-or-nothing.
CLI vs Messaging Quick Reference
Hermes has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.
| Action | CLI | Messaging platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Start chatting | hermes |
Run hermes gateway setup + hermes gateway start, then send the bot a message |
| Start fresh conversation | /new or /reset |
/new or /reset |
| Change model | /model [provider:model] |
/model [provider:model] |
| Set a personality | /personality [name] |
/personality [name] |
| Retry or undo the last turn | /retry, /undo |
/retry, /undo |
| Compress context / check usage | /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] |
/compress, /usage, /insights [days] |
| Browse skills | /skills or /<skill-name> |
/<skill-name> |
| Interrupt current work | Ctrl+C or send a new message |
/stop or send a new message |
| Platform-specific status | /platforms |
/status, /sethome |
For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.
Documentation
All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
| Context Files | Project context that shapes every conversation |
| Architecture | Project structure, agent loop, key classes |
| Contributing | Development setup, PR process, code style |
| CLI Reference | All commands and flags |
| Environment Variables | Complete env var reference |
Migrating from OpenClaw
If you're coming from OpenClaw, Hermes can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.
During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.
Anytime after install:
hermes claw migrate # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite # Overwrite existing conflicts
What gets imported:
- SOUL.md — persona file
- Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
- Skills — user-created skills →
~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/ - Command allowlist — approval patterns
- Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
- API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
- TTS assets — workspace audio files
- Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with
--workspace-target)
See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.
Contributing
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Quick start for contributors — clone and go with setup-hermes.sh:
git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
./setup-hermes.sh # installs uv, creates venv, installs .[all], symlinks ~/.local/bin/hermes
./hermes # auto-detects the venv, no need to `source` first
Manual path (equivalent to the above):
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv .venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
scripts/run_tests.sh
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 🔌 computer-use-linux — Linux desktop-control MCP server for Hermes and other MCP hosts, with AT-SPI accessibility trees, Wayland/X11 input, screenshots, and compositor window targeting.
- 🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.