hermes-agent/README.md

Hermes Agent 🦋

An AI agent with advanced tool-calling capabilities, featuring a flexible toolsets system, messaging integrations, and scheduled tasks.

Quick Install

Linux/macOS:

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

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

The installer will:

• Clone to ~/.hermes-agent
• Create a virtual environment
• Install all dependencies
• Run the interactive setup wizard
• Add hermes to your PATH

After installation, reload your shell and run:

hermes setup    # Configure API keys (if you skipped during install)
hermes          # Start chatting!

---

Configuration

All your settings are stored in ~/.hermes/ for easy access:

~/.hermes/
├── config.yaml     # Settings (model, terminal, compression, etc.)
├── .env            # API keys and secrets
├── cron/           # Scheduled jobs
├── sessions/       # Gateway sessions
└── logs/           # Logs

Managing Configuration

hermes config              # View current configuration
hermes config edit         # Open config.yaml in your editor
hermes config set KEY VAL  # Set a specific value

# Examples:
hermes config set model anthropic/claude-opus-4
hermes config set terminal.backend docker
hermes config set OPENROUTER_API_KEY sk-or-...  # Saves to .env

Required API Keys

You need at least one LLM provider:

Provider	Get Key	Env Variable
OpenRouter (recommended)	openrouter.ai/keys	OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Anthropic	console.anthropic.com	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
OpenAI	platform.openai.com	OPENAI_API_KEY

Optional API Keys

Feature	Provider	Env Variable
Web scraping	Firecrawl	FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
Browser automation	Browserbase	BROWSERBASE_API_KEY, BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID
Image generation	FAL	FAL_KEY
Messaging	Telegram, Discord	TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN

---

Commands

hermes                    # Interactive chat (default)
hermes chat -q "Hello"    # Single query mode
hermes setup              # Configure API keys and settings
hermes config             # View/edit configuration
hermes status             # Show configuration status
hermes doctor             # Diagnose issues
hermes update             # Update to latest version
hermes gateway            # Start messaging gateway
hermes cron list          # View scheduled jobs
hermes version            # Show version info

CLI Commands (inside chat)

Command	Description
/help	Show available commands
/tools	List available tools
/model [name]	Show or change model
/personality [name]	Set personality (kawaii, pirate, etc.)
/clear	Clear screen and reset
/cron	Manage scheduled tasks
/config	Show current configuration
/quit	Exit

---

Features

🛠️ Tools & Toolsets

Tools are organized into logical toolsets:

# Use specific toolsets
hermes --toolsets "web,terminal"

# List all toolsets
hermes --list-tools

Available toolsets: web, terminal, browser, vision, creative, reasoning, skills, cronjob, and more.

🖥️ Terminal Backend

The terminal tool can execute commands in different environments:

Backend	Description	Use Case
local	Run on your machine (default)	Development, trusted tasks
docker	Isolated containers	Security, reproducibility
ssh	Remote server	Sandboxing, keep agent away from its own code
singularity	HPC containers	Cluster computing, rootless
modal	Cloud execution	Serverless, scale

Configure in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

terminal:
  backend: local    # or: docker, ssh, singularity, modal
  cwd: "."          # Working directory ("." = current dir)
  timeout: 180      # Command timeout in seconds

Docker Backend:

terminal:
  backend: docker
  docker_image: python:3.11-slim

SSH Backend (recommended for security - agent can't modify its own code):

terminal:
  backend: ssh

# Set credentials in ~/.hermes/.env
TERMINAL_SSH_HOST=my-server.example.com
TERMINAL_SSH_USER=myuser
TERMINAL_SSH_KEY=~/.ssh/id_rsa

Singularity/Apptainer (for HPC clusters):

# Pre-build SIF for parallel workers
apptainer build ~/python.sif docker://python:3.11-slim

# Configure
hermes config set terminal.backend singularity
hermes config set terminal.singularity_image ~/python.sif

Modal (serverless cloud):

pip install modal boto3
modal setup  # Authenticate
hermes config set terminal.backend modal

Sudo Support: If a command needs sudo, you'll be prompted for your password (cached for the session). Or set SUDO_PASSWORD in ~/.hermes/.env.

📱 Messaging Gateway

Chat with Hermes from Telegram, Discord, or WhatsApp:

# Configure your bot token
hermes config set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN "your_token"

# Start the gateway
hermes gateway

# Or install as a service
hermes gateway install
hermes gateway start

See docs/messaging.md for full setup.

⏰ Scheduled Tasks (Cron)

Schedule tasks to run automatically:

# In the CLI
/cron add 30m "Remind me to check the build"
/cron add "every 2h" "Check server status"
/cron add "0 9 * * *" "Morning briefing"
/cron list
/cron remove <job_id>

The agent can also self-schedule using schedule_cronjob tool.

Run the scheduler:

hermes cron daemon         # Built-in daemon
# Or add to system cron for reliability

🗜️ Context Compression

Long conversations are automatically summarized when approaching context limits:

# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml
compression:
  enabled: true
  threshold: 0.85    # Compress at 85% of limit

📝 Session Logging

Every conversation is logged to ~/.hermes-agent/logs/ for debugging:

logs/
├── session_20260201_143052_a1b2c3.json
└── ...

🌐 Browser Automation

Browser tools let the agent navigate websites, fill forms, click buttons, and extract content using Browserbase.

Setup:

# 1. Get credentials from browserbase.com
hermes config set BROWSERBASE_API_KEY your_api_key
hermes config set BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID your_project_id

# 2. Install Node.js dependencies (if not already)
cd ~/.hermes-agent && npm install

Available tools: browser_navigate, browser_snapshot, browser_click, browser_type, browser_scroll, browser_back, browser_press, browser_close, browser_get_images

Example:

hermes --toolsets browser -q "Go to amazon.com and find the price of the latest Kindle"

📚 Skills System

Skills are on-demand knowledge documents the agent can load when needed. They follow a progressive disclosure pattern to minimize token usage.

Using Skills:

hermes --toolsets skills -q "What skills do you have?"
hermes --toolsets skills -q "Show me the axolotl skill"

Creating Skills:

Create skills/category/skill-name/SKILL.md:

---
name: my-skill
description: Brief description shown in skills_list
tags: [python, automation]
version: 1.0.0
---

# Skill Content

Instructions, examples, and guidelines here...

Skill Structure:

skills/
├── mlops/
│   ├── axolotl/
│   │   ├── SKILL.md          # Main instructions (required)
│   │   ├── references/       # Additional docs
│   │   └── templates/        # Output formats
│   └── vllm/
│       └── SKILL.md

---

Manual Installation

If you prefer not to use the installer:

# Clone the repository
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent

# Run setup script
./setup-hermes.sh

# Or manually:
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[all]"
hermes setup

---

Batch Processing

Process multiple prompts in parallel with automatic checkpointing:

python batch_runner.py \
  --dataset_file=prompts.jsonl \
  --batch_size=20 \
  --run_name=my_run \
  --num_workers=4 \
  --distribution=default

Key Options:

Flag	Description
--dataset_file	JSONL file with prompts
--batch_size	Prompts per batch
--run_name	Name for output/checkpoints
--num_workers	Parallel workers (default: 4)
--distribution	Toolset distribution
--resume	Resume from checkpoint
--ephemeral_system_prompt	Guide behavior without saving to trajectories
--list_distributions	Show available distributions

Output: data/<run_name>/trajectories.jsonl

Trajectory Compression

Compress trajectories to fit token budgets for training:

# Compress a directory
python trajectory_compressor.py --input=data/my_run

# Compress with sampling
python trajectory_compressor.py --input=data/my_run --sample_percent=15

# Custom token target
python trajectory_compressor.py --input=data/my_run --target_max_tokens=16000

Features:

• Protects first/last turns
• Summarizes middle turns via LLM
• Configurable via configs/trajectory_compression.yaml

---

Python API

from run_agent import AIAgent

agent = AIAgent(
    model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4",
    enabled_toolsets=["web", "terminal"]
)

result = agent.run_conversation("Search for the latest Python news")
print(result["final_response"])

---

Environment Variables Reference

All variables go in ~/.hermes/.env. Run hermes config set VAR value to set them.

LLM Providers:

Variable	Description
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	OpenRouter API key (recommended)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Direct Anthropic access
OPENAI_API_KEY	Direct OpenAI access

Tool APIs:

Variable	Description
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	Web scraping (firecrawl.dev)
BROWSERBASE_API_KEY	Browser automation
BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID	Browserbase project
FAL_KEY	Image generation (fal.ai)

Terminal Backend:

Variable	Description
TERMINAL_ENV	Backend: local, docker, ssh, singularity, modal
TERMINAL_DOCKER_IMAGE	Docker image (default: python:3.11-slim)
TERMINAL_SINGULARITY_IMAGE	Singularity image or .sif path
TERMINAL_TIMEOUT	Command timeout in seconds
TERMINAL_CWD	Working directory
SUDO_PASSWORD	Enable sudo (stored plaintext - be careful!)

SSH Backend:

Variable	Description
TERMINAL_SSH_HOST	Remote server hostname
TERMINAL_SSH_USER	SSH username
TERMINAL_SSH_PORT	SSH port (default: 22)
TERMINAL_SSH_KEY	Path to private key

Messaging:

Variable	Description
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN	Telegram bot token (@BotFather)
TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL	Default channel for cron delivery
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN	Discord bot token
DISCORD_HOME_CHANNEL	Default channel for cron delivery

Context Compression:

Variable	Description
CONTEXT_COMPRESSION_ENABLED	Enable auto-compression (default: true)
CONTEXT_COMPRESSION_THRESHOLD	Trigger at this % of limit (default: 0.85)
CONTEXT_COMPRESSION_MODEL	Model for summaries

---

File Structure

Path	Description
~/.hermes/config.yaml	Your settings
~/.hermes/.env	API keys and secrets
~/.hermes/cron/	Scheduled jobs data
~/.hermes/sessions/	Gateway session data
~/.hermes-agent/	Installation directory
~/.hermes-agent/logs/	Session logs
hermes_cli/	CLI implementation
tools/	Tool implementations
skills/	Knowledge documents
gateway/	Messaging platform adapters
cron/	Scheduler implementation

---

Troubleshooting

hermes doctor    # Run diagnostics
hermes status    # Check configuration
hermes config    # View current settings

Common issues:

• "API key not set": Run hermes setup or hermes config set OPENROUTER_API_KEY your_key
• "hermes: command not found": Reload your shell (source ~/.bashrc) or check PATH
• Gateway won't start: Check hermes gateway status and logs

---

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

---

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.