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hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/features/tools.md
2026-03-14 19:18:10 -07:00

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---
sidebar_position: 1
title: "Tools & Toolsets"
description: "Overview of Hermes Agent's tools — what's available, how toolsets work, and terminal backends"
---
# Tools & Toolsets
Tools are functions that extend the agent's capabilities. They're organized into logical **toolsets** that can be enabled or disabled per platform.
## Available Tools
Hermes ships with a broad built-in tool registry covering web search, browser automation, terminal execution, file editing, memory, delegation, RL training, messaging delivery, Home Assistant, Honcho memory, and more.
High-level categories:
| Category | Examples | Description |
|----------|----------|-------------|
| **Web** | `web_search`, `web_extract` | Search the web and extract page content. |
| **Terminal & Files** | `terminal`, `process`, `read_file`, `patch` | Execute commands and manipulate files. |
| **Browser** | `browser_navigate`, `browser_snapshot`, `browser_vision` | Interactive browser automation with text and vision support. |
| **Media** | `vision_analyze`, `image_generate`, `text_to_speech` | Multimodal analysis and generation. |
| **Agent orchestration** | `todo`, `clarify`, `execute_code`, `delegate_task` | Planning, clarification, code execution, and subagent delegation. |
| **Memory & recall** | `memory`, `session_search`, `honcho_*` | Persistent memory, session search, and Honcho cross-session context. |
| **Automation & delivery** | `cronjob`, `send_message` | Scheduled tasks with create/list/update/pause/resume/run/remove actions, plus outbound messaging delivery. |
| **Integrations** | `ha_*`, MCP server tools, `rl_*` | Home Assistant, MCP, RL training, and other integrations. |
For the authoritative code-derived registry, see [Built-in Tools Reference](/docs/reference/tools-reference) and [Toolsets Reference](/docs/reference/toolsets-reference).
## Using Toolsets
```bash
# Use specific toolsets
hermes chat --toolsets "web,terminal"
# See all available tools
hermes tools
# Configure tools per platform (interactive)
hermes tools
```
Common toolsets include `web`, `terminal`, `file`, `browser`, `vision`, `image_gen`, `moa`, `skills`, `tts`, `todo`, `memory`, `session_search`, `cronjob`, `code_execution`, `delegation`, `clarify`, `honcho`, `homeassistant`, and `rl`.
See [Toolsets Reference](/docs/reference/toolsets-reference) for the full set, including platform presets such as `hermes-cli`, `hermes-telegram`, and dynamic MCP toolsets like `mcp-<server>`.
## Terminal Backends
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 |
| `daytona` | Cloud sandbox workspace | Persistent remote dev environments |
### Configuration
```yaml
# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml
terminal:
backend: local # or: docker, ssh, singularity, modal, daytona
cwd: "." # Working directory
timeout: 180 # Command timeout in seconds
```
### Docker Backend
```yaml
terminal:
backend: docker
docker_image: python:3.11-slim
```
### SSH Backend
Recommended for security — agent can't modify its own code:
```yaml
terminal:
backend: ssh
```
```bash
# Set credentials in ~/.hermes/.env
TERMINAL_SSH_HOST=my-server.example.com
TERMINAL_SSH_USER=myuser
TERMINAL_SSH_KEY=~/.ssh/id_rsa
```
### Singularity/Apptainer
```bash
# 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)
```bash
uv pip install "swe-rex[modal]"
modal setup
hermes config set terminal.backend modal
```
### Container Resources
Configure CPU, memory, disk, and persistence for all container backends:
```yaml
terminal:
backend: docker # or singularity, modal, daytona
container_cpu: 1 # CPU cores (default: 1)
container_memory: 5120 # Memory in MB (default: 5GB)
container_disk: 51200 # Disk in MB (default: 50GB)
container_persistent: true # Persist filesystem across sessions (default: true)
```
When `container_persistent: true`, installed packages, files, and config survive across sessions.
### Container Security
All container backends run with security hardening:
- Read-only root filesystem (Docker)
- All Linux capabilities dropped
- No privilege escalation
- PID limits (256 processes)
- Full namespace isolation
- Persistent workspace via volumes, not writable root layer
## Background Process Management
Start background processes and manage them:
```python
terminal(command="pytest -v tests/", background=true)
# Returns: {"session_id": "proc_abc123", "pid": 12345}
# Then manage with the process tool:
process(action="list") # Show all running processes
process(action="poll", session_id="proc_abc123") # Check status
process(action="wait", session_id="proc_abc123") # Block until done
process(action="log", session_id="proc_abc123") # Full output
process(action="kill", session_id="proc_abc123") # Terminate
process(action="write", session_id="proc_abc123", data="y") # Send input
```
PTY mode (`pty=true`) enables interactive CLI tools like Codex and Claude Code.
## 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`.
:::warning
On messaging platforms, if sudo fails, the output includes a tip to add `SUDO_PASSWORD` to `~/.hermes/.env`.
:::