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

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1	CLI Interface	Master the Hermes Agent terminal interface — commands, keybindings, personalities, and more

CLI Interface

Hermes Agent's CLI is a full terminal user interface (TUI) — not a web UI. It features multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. Built for people who live in the terminal.

Running the CLI

# Start an interactive session (default)
hermes

# Single query mode (non-interactive)
hermes chat -q "Hello"

# With a specific model
hermes chat --model "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4"

# With a specific provider
hermes chat --provider nous        # Use Nous Portal
hermes chat --provider openrouter  # Force OpenRouter

# With specific toolsets
hermes chat --toolsets "web,terminal,skills"

# Resume previous sessions
hermes --continue             # Resume the most recent CLI session (-c)
hermes --resume <session_id>  # Resume a specific session by ID (-r)

# Verbose mode (debug output)
hermes chat --verbose

Interface Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  HERMES-AGENT ASCII Logo                        │
│  ┌─────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │  Caduceus   │ │ Model: claude-sonnet-4     │ │
│  │  ASCII Art  │ │ Terminal: local            │ │
│  │             │ │ Working Dir: /home/user    │ │
│  │             │ │ Available Tools: 19        │ │
│  │             │ │ Available Skills: 12       │ │
│  └─────────────┘ └────────────────────────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Conversation output scrolls here...             │
│                                                 │
│   (◕‿◕✿) 🧠 pondering... (2.3s)                │
│   ✧٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧ got it! (2.3s)                    │
│                                                 │
│ Assistant: Hello! How can I help you today?     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ❯ [Fixed input area at bottom]                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The welcome banner shows your model, terminal backend, working directory, available tools, and installed skills at a glance.

Keybindings

Key	Action
Enter	Send message
Alt+Enter or Ctrl+J	New line (multi-line input)
Ctrl+C	Interrupt agent (double-press within 2s to force exit)
Ctrl+D	Exit
Tab	Autocomplete slash commands

Slash Commands

Type / to see an autocomplete dropdown of all available commands.

Navigation & Control

Command	Description
/help	Show available commands
/quit	Exit the CLI (also: /exit, /q)
/clear	Clear screen and reset conversation
/new	Start a new conversation
/reset	Reset conversation only (keep screen)

Tools & Configuration

Command	Description
/tools	List all available tools grouped by toolset
/toolsets	List available toolsets with descriptions
/model [name]	Show or change the current model
/config	Show current configuration
/prompt [text]	View/set/clear custom system prompt
/personality [name]	Set a predefined personality

Conversation Management

Command	Description
/history	Show conversation history
/retry	Retry the last message
/undo	Remove the last user/assistant exchange
/save	Save the current conversation
/compress	Manually compress conversation context
/usage	Show token usage for this session

Skills & Scheduling

Command	Description
/cron	Manage scheduled tasks
/skills	Search, install, inspect, or manage skills
/platforms	Show gateway/messaging platform status
/verbose	Cycle tool progress display: off → new → all → verbose
/<skill-name>	Invoke any installed skill (e.g., /axolotl, /gif-search)

:::tip Commands are case-insensitive — /HELP works the same as /help. Most commands work mid-conversation. :::

Skill Slash Commands

Every installed skill in ~/.hermes/skills/ is automatically registered as a slash command. The skill name becomes the command:

/gif-search funny cats
/axolotl help me fine-tune Llama 3 on my dataset
/github-pr-workflow create a PR for the auth refactor

# Just the skill name loads it and lets the agent ask what you need:
/excalidraw

Personalities

Set a predefined personality to change the agent's tone:

/personality pirate
/personality kawaii
/personality concise

Built-in personalities include: helpful, concise, technical, creative, teacher, kawaii, catgirl, pirate, shakespeare, surfer, noir, uwu, philosopher, hype.

You can also define custom personalities in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

agent:
  personalities:
    helpful: "You are a helpful, friendly AI assistant."
    kawaii: "You are a kawaii assistant! Use cute expressions..."
    pirate: "Arrr! Ye be talkin' to Captain Hermes..."
    # Add your own!

Multi-line Input

There are two ways to enter multi-line messages:

1. Alt+Enter or Ctrl+J — inserts a new line
2. Backslash continuation — end a line with \ to continue:

❯ Write a function that:\
  1. Takes a list of numbers\
  2. Returns the sum

:::info Pasting multi-line text is supported — use Alt+Enter or Ctrl+J to insert newlines, or simply paste content directly. :::

Interrupting the Agent

You can interrupt the agent at any point:

• Type a new message + Enter while the agent is working — it interrupts and processes your new instructions
• Ctrl+C — interrupt the current operation (press twice within 2s to force exit)
• In-progress terminal commands are killed immediately (SIGTERM, then SIGKILL after 1s)
• Multiple messages typed during interrupt are combined into one prompt

Tool Progress Display

The CLI shows animated feedback as the agent works:

Thinking animation (during API calls):

  ◜ (｡•́︿•̀｡) pondering... (1.2s)
  ◠ (⊙_⊙) contemplating... (2.4s)
  ✧٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧ got it! (3.1s)

Tool execution feed:

  ┊ 💻 terminal `ls -la` (0.3s)
  ┊ 🔍 web_search (1.2s)
  ┊ 📄 web_extract (2.1s)

Cycle through display modes with /verbose: off → new → all → verbose.

Session Management

Resuming Sessions

When you exit a CLI session, a resume command is printed:

Resume this session with:
  hermes --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3

Session:        20260225_143052_a1b2c3
Duration:       12m 34s
Messages:       28 (5 user, 18 tool calls)

Resume options:

hermes --continue                          # Resume the most recent CLI session
hermes -c                                  # Short form
hermes --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3     # Resume a specific session by ID
hermes -r 20260225_143052_a1b2c3           # Short form

Resuming restores the full conversation history from SQLite. The agent sees all previous messages, tool calls, and responses — just as if you never left.

Use hermes sessions list to browse past sessions.

Session Logging

Sessions are automatically logged to ~/.hermes/sessions/:

sessions/
├── session_20260201_143052_a1b2c3.json
├── session_20260201_150217_d4e5f6.json
└── ...

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 context limit
  summary_model: "google/gemini-3-flash-preview"  # Model used for summarization

When compression triggers, middle turns are summarized while the first 3 and last 4 turns are always preserved.

Quiet Mode

By default, the CLI runs in quiet mode which:

• Suppresses verbose logging from tools
• Enables kawaii-style animated feedback
• Keeps output clean and user-friendly

For debug output:

hermes chat --verbose