Teknium c58e16757a docs: fix 40+ discrepancies between documentation and codebase (#5818)
Comprehensive audit of all ~100 doc pages against the actual code, fixing:

Reference docs:
- HERMES_API_TIMEOUT default 900 -> 1800 (env-vars)
- TERMINAL_DOCKER_IMAGE default python:3.11 -> nikolaik/python-nodejs (env-vars)
- compression.summary_model default shown as gemini -> actually empty string (env-vars)
- Add missing GOOGLE_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, GEMINI_BASE_URL env vars (env-vars)
- Add missing /branch (/fork) slash command (slash-commands)
- Fix hermes-cli tool count 39 -> 38 (toolsets-reference)
- Fix hermes-api-server drop list to include text_to_speech (toolsets-reference)
- Fix total tool count 47 -> 48, standalone 14 -> 15 (tools-reference)

User guide:
- web_extract.timeout default 30 -> 360 (configuration)
- Remove display.theme_mode (not implemented in code) (configuration)
- Remove display.background_process_notifications (not in defaults) (configuration)
- Browser inactivity timeout 300/5min -> 120/2min (browser)
- Screenshot path browser_screenshots -> cache/screenshots (browser)
- batch_runner default model claude-sonnet-4-20250514 -> claude-sonnet-4.6
- Add minimax to TTS provider list (voice-mode)
- Remove credential_pool_strategies from auth.json example (credential-pools)
- Fix Slack token path platforms/slack/ -> root ~/.hermes/ (slack)
- Fix Matrix store path for new installs (matrix)
- Fix WhatsApp session path for new installs (whatsapp)
- Fix HomeAssistant config from gateway.json to config.yaml (homeassistant)
- Fix WeCom gateway start command (wecom)

Developer guide:
- Fix tool/toolset counts in architecture overview
- Update line counts: main.py ~5500, setup.py ~3100, run.py ~7500, mcp_tool ~2200
- Replace nonexistent agent/memory_store.py with memory_manager.py + memory_provider.py
- Update _discover_tools() list: remove honcho_tools, add skill_manager_tool
- Add session_search and delegate_task to intercepted tools list (agent-loop)
- Fix budget warning: two-tier system (70% caution, 90% warning) (agent-loop)
- Fix gateway auth order (per-platform first, global last) (gateway-internals)
- Fix email_adapter.py -> email.py, add webhook.py + api_server.py (gateway-internals)
- Add 7 missing providers to provider-runtime list

Other:
- Add Docker --cap-add entries to security doc
- Fix Python version 3.10+ -> 3.11+ (contributing)
- Fix AGENTS.md discovery claim (not hierarchical walk) (tips)
- Fix cron 'add' -> canonical 'create' (cron-internals)
- Add pre_api_request/post_api_request hooks to plugin guide
- Add Google/Gemini provider to providers page
- Clarify OPENAI_BASE_URL deprecation (providers)
2026-04-07 10:17:44 -07:00
2026-02-25 11:53:44 -08:00
2026-03-30 15:29:06 -05:00
2026-03-30 17:38:07 -05:00
2026-03-07 13:43:08 -08:00

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent ☤

Documentation Discord License: MIT Built by Nous Research

The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop — it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop — talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.

Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter (200+ models), z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.

A real terminal interfaceFull TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output.
Lives where you doTelegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity.
A closed learning loopAgent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard.
Scheduled automationsBuilt-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended.
Delegates and parallelizesSpawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns.
Runs anywhere, not just your laptopSix terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Daytona, Singularity, and Modal. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence — your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster.
Research-readyBatch trajectory generation, Atropos RL environments, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models.

Quick Install

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

Works on Linux, macOS, and WSL2. The installer handles everything — Python, Node.js, dependencies, and the hermes command. No prerequisites except git.

Windows: Native Windows is not supported. Please install WSL2 and run the command above.

After installation:

source ~/.bashrc    # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes              # start chatting!

Getting Started

hermes              # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model        # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools        # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set   # Set individual config values
hermes gateway      # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup        # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update       # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor       # Diagnose any issues

📖 Full documentation →

CLI vs Messaging Quick Reference

Hermes has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.

Action CLI Messaging platforms
Start chatting hermes Run hermes gateway setup + hermes gateway start, then send the bot a message
Start fresh conversation /new or /reset /new or /reset
Change model /model [provider:model] /model [provider:model]
Set a personality /personality [name] /personality [name]
Retry or undo the last turn /retry, /undo /retry, /undo
Compress context / check usage /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] /compress, /usage, /insights [days]
Browse skills /skills or /<skill-name> /skills or /<skill-name>
Interrupt current work Ctrl+C or send a new message /stop or send a new message
Platform-specific status /platforms /status, /sethome

For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.


Documentation

All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:

Section What's Covered
Quickstart Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes
CLI Usage Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions
Configuration Config file, providers, models, all options
Messaging Gateway Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant
Security Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation
Tools & Toolsets 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends
Skills System Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills
Memory Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices
MCP Integration Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities
Cron Scheduling Scheduled tasks with platform delivery
Context Files Project context that shapes every conversation
Architecture Project structure, agent loop, key classes
Contributing Development setup, PR process, code style
CLI Reference All commands and flags
Environment Variables Complete env var reference

Migrating from OpenClaw

If you're coming from OpenClaw, Hermes can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.

During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.

Anytime after install:

hermes claw migrate              # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run    # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data   # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite  # Overwrite existing conflicts

What gets imported:

  • SOUL.md — persona file
  • Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
  • Skills — user-created skills → ~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/
  • Command allowlist — approval patterns
  • Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
  • API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
  • TTS assets — workspace audio files
  • Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with --workspace-target)

See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.


Contributing

We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.

Quick start for contributors:

git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv venv --python 3.11
source venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
python -m pytest tests/ -q

RL Training (optional): To work on the RL/Tinker-Atropos integration:

git submodule update --init tinker-atropos
uv pip install -e "./tinker-atropos"

Community


License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built by Nous Research.

Languages
Python 88.1%
TypeScript 8.9%
TeX 1.7%
Shell 0.5%
Nix 0.3%
Other 0.5%