Hermes Agent

One line: Hermes Agent (Nous Research, 262k+ stars) is an open-source personal agent you chat with right in your terminal — and it can take over Telegram / Discord / Slack / WhatsApp and other channels. One command installs everything into your user directory, no administrator rights required.

What you get

• A terminal TUI chat plus a messaging gateway (start with a single hermes)
• Full agent toolbox: skills, subagents, scheduled tasks, session compaction, workspace isolation
• A bundled toolchain (Python 3.14, Node, npm, pnpm, ripgrep, FFmpeg) — your system stays untouched

Before you start (2 minutes)

• Windows: native PowerShell on Windows 10/11 — no WSL needed; installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes
• macOS: a single curl command; installs to ~/.hermes
• One model key (OpenAI / Anthropic / OpenRouter…), or just use a Nous Portal subscription (one subscription covers models + web search + image gen + speech)
• Not needed: administrator rights, Docker, pre-installed Python/Node (the installer brings its own)

⚠️ Antivirus note (official): Windows Defender / Bitdefender may quarantine hermes\bin\uv.exe — it is Astral's uv Python package manager, a well-known false positive. Follow the vendor guidance and whitelist the bin folder (whitelist the folder, not the file hash — Hermes updates uv between versions).

Install

Route A: install with AiBOX (recommended)

1. Open AiBOX → app directory → Hermes Agent → Install
2. AiBOX downloads the official installer script with hash verification (install.ps1 / install.sh) and executes it exactly the way the official one-liners do: Invoke-Expression on Windows, piped to bash on macOS
3. When it finishes, reopen your terminal and type hermes

Route B: manual install (official commands)

Windows (PowerShell):

iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)

macOS / Linux / WSL2:

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

Then source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc) and you are set.

Configuration (pick a model, connect a key)

The setup wizard is the fastest path:

hermes setup            # configure everything at once: model, tools, channels
hermes setup --portal   # or use Nous Portal: one OAuth login covers models + tool gateway

• Manual way: hermes model to choose provider and model (OpenRouter / OpenAI / Anthropic / Nous…), hermes tools to toggle tools
• Settings persist to ~/.hermes/config.yaml (%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\config.yaml on Windows) — keys never leave your machine
• Migrating from another agent: hermes setup auto-detects ~/.openclaw, ~/.claude, etc. and offers a previewed import

Verification: what "success" looks like

1. hermes --version prints a version (e.g. 0.23.1)
2. Run hermes in the terminal and ask anything — a normal reply means the model is wired
3. For messenger channels: hermes gateway setup → hermes gateway start, then message your Telegram bot and get a reply
4. hermes doctor reports no problems = healthy environment

FAQ

• hermes command not found after install: open a new terminal (the installer updated PATH); on PowerShell also check that $env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\bin is on PATH
• uv.exe quarantined by antivirus: false positive — whitelist the bin folder as described above
• Upgrading: just run hermes update (official self-updater)
• Switching models: anytime with hermes model — no lock-in

Uninstall

hermes uninstall        # official uninstall command
# If anything remains, delete manually:
#   macOS/Linux: rm -rf ~/.hermes
#   Windows:     remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes

⚠️ Uninstalling removes the keys in config.yaml, your chat sessions and installed skills — back up ~/.hermes first.

More: official docs · quickstart