Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent is a self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It features automatic skill creation, cross-session memory, and 70+ skills that it ships with by default.

Quick start

ollama launch hermes

Ollama handles everything automatically:

1. Install — If Hermes isn't installed, Ollama prompts to install the Hermes command-line agent
2. Model — Pick a model from the selector (local or cloud). See currently-supported models here.
3. Onboarding — Ollama configures the Ollama provider, points Hermes at http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1, and sets your model as the primary
4. Gateway — Optionally connects a messaging platform (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email) and launches the Hermes chat

Connect messaging apps

Link Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email to chat with your models from anywhere:

hermes gateway setup

Reconfigure

Use Hermes's model picker to change providers or models later:

hermes model

Manual setup

If you'd rather drive Hermes's own wizard instead of ollama launch hermes, install it directly:

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

Hermes launches the setup wizard automatically. Choose Quick setup:

How would you like to set up Hermes?

 →  Quick setup — provider, model & messaging (recommended)
    Full setup — configure everything

Connect to Ollama

1. Select More providers...

2. Select Custom endpoint (enter URL manually)

3. Set the API base URL to the Ollama OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

   API base URL [e.g. https://api.example.com/v1]: http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1
   

4. Leave the API key blank (not required for local Ollama):

   API key [optional]:
   

5. Hermes auto-detects downloaded models, confirm the one you want:

   Verified endpoint via http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1/models (1 model(s) visible)
     Detected model: kimi-k2.5:cloud
     Use this model? [Y/n]:
   

6. Leave context length blank to auto-detect:

   Context length in tokens [leave blank for auto-detect]:
   

Connect messaging

Optionally connect a messaging platform during setup:

Connect a messaging platform? (Telegram, Discord, etc.)

 →  Set up messaging now (recommended)
    Skip — set up later with 'hermes gateway setup'

Launch

Launch hermes chat now? [Y/n]: Y