About Hermes Agent
Hermes Agent is an open-source AI agent platform built by Nous Research under an MIT license. Unlike chat-based assistants, Hermes is a persistent, learning agent that connects to your communication platforms (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email), remembers your projects and preferences across sessions, and automates recurring tasks via a built-in cron scheduler. You install it on your own machine or server and bring your own API keys -- or subscribe to the Nous Portal for access to 300+ models with bundled web search, browser automation, image generation, and text-to-speech. Hermes supports five execution backends (local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal), a skills system for reusable workflows, delegated subagents with isolated environments, and a native Desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Because it is self-hosted and MIT-licensed, you own your data and can extend the agent however you need.
Key Features
- Multi-Platform Connectivity -- Connect Hermes to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, and CLI so the agent meets you wherever you work
- Persistent Memory -- Hermes learns from your projects via soul.md, agents.md, and context files; preferences and solutions carry forward across every session
- Cron Scheduler -- Schedule recurring tasks in plain language -- reports, backups, monitoring jobs -- without writing cron syntax or managing separate automation tools
- Delegated Subagents -- Spawn isolated sub-agents with their own conversation history, execution environment, and tool access for parallel or sensitive workloads
- 300+ Models via Nous Portal -- Access OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, and Nous own models through one subscription with bundled web search, browser automation, image gen, and TTS
- Five Execution Backends -- Run tasks locally, inside Docker, over SSH, in Singularity containers, or on Modal cloud; swap backends per task without changing your agent setup
- Skills System -- Package repeatable workflows as named skills (e.g. /review-pr, /deploy-staging) that you or your team can invoke with a single command
- Hermes Desktop -- Native cross-platform app (Mac, Windows, Linux) with a streaming chat interface, file browser, preview rail, config UI, and multi-agent orchestration panel
Pricing Structure
- Free (Self-Hosted) — $0 — Full Hermes Agent with your own API keys; MIT-licensed, no usage limits imposed by Nous, unlimited installs
- Plus — $20/month — $22 in Nous Portal credits per month; access to 300+ models, web search, browser automation, image generation, and TTS bundled
- Super — $100/month — $110 in Nous Portal credits per month; same bundle as Plus at higher volume; suited for daily heavy use
- Ultra — $200/month — $220 in Nous Portal credits per month; highest volume tier for power users and teams running continuous agent workloads
Why People Use It
Hermes stands out because it is genuinely self-improving -- the soul.md and context file system means the agent builds up knowledge about your specific workflows over time rather than starting fresh every session. The combination of self-hosting (so your data stays yours), open-source extensibility, and a growing skills ecosystem makes it the most customizable general-purpose agent available. If you are comfortable running software on your own machine, it is the easiest way to get a persistent AI agent that actually knows you.