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Hermes Agent By Nous Research: What It Is, Who Makes It And A 7-Step Quick-Start For Your Agent OS

By Julian Goldie · 7 October 2026 · agentos.guide

Hermes Agent by Nous Research is a free, open-source AI agent that remembers you, writes its own skills, uses real tools and runs jobs on a schedule.

Nous Research is the AI lab that builds it, the licence is MIT, and the latest tagged release was v0.21.6 when I checked on 12 October 2026.

Below you'll get who the company is, the difference between the Hermes models and the Hermes Agent, a seven-step quick-start and how it powers an Agent OS.

Hermes Agent by Nous Research at a glance

Here is the whole answer in one table before the detail.

I run Hermes every day as the engine of my Agent OS, so the practical parts below come from my own use.

The company facts come from Nous Research's own pages, the GitHub API and the press reports I name.

Who Nous Research is

Nous Research is an AI lab, and it is best known for publishing open models that anyone can download.

Teknium is a pseudonym, and it is the name that researcher uses in public.

The Block also described Psyche, which is a network Nous is building to train models across many separate machines.

I have only listed facts those sources reported, and I left out anything I could not confirm.

Hermes the model versus Hermes the agent

Nous Research uses the name Hermes for two different products, and this trips up almost everyone.

A model is the brain that writes the answer.

An agent is everything around the brain, which means memory, tools, a schedule and a way to reach you.

Hermes Agent does not need a Hermes model.

The official README says you can use Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or your own endpoint, and switch with hermes model.

I run Hermes Agent on several different brains, and none of that requires changing the agent itself.

What Hermes Agent does

The README calls it "the self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research".

Here is what that means in plain words, with the official docs as the source.

• Memory lets the agent keep notes about you between sessions and search its own past chats.
• Skills are procedures the agent writes for itself after a hard task and improves as it uses them.
• Tools let it act, and the docs list more than 60 built-in tools for search, browsing, vision, images and speech.
• The gateway connects one agent to more than 20 messaging platforms, including Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp and email.
• Scheduled jobs run plain-English tasks on a timer and deliver the result to any of those platforms.
• Subagents let it split a big job across isolated helpers.
• Profiles let one machine run several separate agents, each with its own model and memory.
• Plugins add extra powers from a curated catalogue.
• Terminal backends decide where commands run, and the README lists seven, from local to Docker to serverless.
• Hermes Desktop is the official app for people who do not want a terminal.
• Hermes Cloud is the official hosted agent that stays on for you.

My sibling guide on the Hermes Agent backend explains the terminal backends in more depth.

🔥 Want the exact Hermes setup I run inside my Agent OS?

Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get the installable Agent OS, step-by-step video tutorials, four coaching calls a week and 3,400+ members building real automations.

→ Get access here

The 7-step Hermes Agent quick-start

This is the shortest path I know from nothing to an agent that does real work.

Step 1: Install it

Download Hermes Desktop from the Hermes website, or run the official install script on Linux, macOS or WSL2.

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

On native Windows, the README gives this PowerShell command.

iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)

Step 2: Pick a brain

Run hermes setup --portal to log in to Nous Portal and choose a model, which is the first step the docs recommend.

Run hermes setup instead if you want to use another provider or a local model.

Step 3: Check it works

Run hermes --version and hermes doctor.

My own install printed a v0.21.4 build on the day I wrote this, which is a few tags behind the latest release because I update on my own schedule.

Step 4: Teach it about you

Type hermes, tell it what your business does and ask it to save that to memory.

Type /learn with a topic or a document when you want it to write a new skill.

I have used that command to turn a full book into a skill the agent can reuse.

Step 5: Make a second profile

Run hermes profile create coder and then hermes -p coder setup.

I keep one profile per model, so trying a new brain never touches my main agent.

Step 6: Put it on your phone

Run hermes gateway setup, connect Telegram and approve yourself with the pairing step.

The security docs say chat access is denied by default, so strangers cannot use your agent.

Step 7: Give it a schedule

Run hermes cron create and describe one daily job.

My first three were a 6am to-do recap, a daily Japanese lesson and a morning inbox summary.

Remember hermes pause, because it is the emergency stop for scheduled jobs and new chat turns.

How Hermes Agent fits into an Agent OS

An Agent OS is a dashboard that runs a crew of AI agents under one shared memory.

Hermes Agent is the engine underneath mine.

The useful detail is that everything syncs, because it is the same Hermes underneath.

An automation I create in my Agent OS also shows up in Hermes Desktop.

That is also why add-ons such as Herald OS can show the same automations.

You do not need my dashboard to get value from Hermes, because Hermes Desktop and hermes dashboard already give you a cockpit.

My best Hermes Agent setup guide ranks the six builds I would choose between.

What Hermes Agent costs

The software is free, so the real costs are the brain and the hosting.

The Hermes Cloud page said you need at least $2 in credits, or an active subscription, to deploy a Cloud Agent.

Free models rotate, so I use them to test and I keep a fallback with hermes fallback add.

The Nous homepage described its newest stealth model, MissingNo, as free for a limited time.

My Hermes MissingNo guide shows how I tried it.

🔥 Want the exact Hermes setup I run inside my Agent OS?

Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get the installable Agent OS, step-by-step video tutorials, four coaching calls a week and 3,400+ members building real automations.

→ Get access here

How fast Hermes Agent ships

GitHub listed 37 tagged releases between 12 March and 8 October 2026.

The v0.2.0 notes say the project went from a small internal project to a full agent platform in just over two weeks.

The Herald Release notes list about 3,650 commits from more than 650 contributors.

I tested that release in my own Agent OS, and my Hermes v0.20 guide has what I found.

A project this fast needs one habit from you, which is running hermes backup before hermes update.

Is Hermes Agent safe?

Hermes Agent is as safe as the access you give it.

The official security page describes eight layers of defence, including command approval, deny-by-default chat access, container isolation and scanning of project files for prompt injection.

A hard blocklist stops catastrophic commands, and the docs say no setting overrides it.

The same page warns that file-write guards are defence in depth and not a hard boundary.

It also says that turning approvals off belongs in trusted environments only.

I keep approvals on, I start new agents on read-only work, and I run hermes security to audit plugins against known vulnerabilities.

How Hermes Agent compares with other agents I cover

I do not pick one of these and ignore the rest.

In my Agent OS, Claude Code builds things and Hermes runs things every day.

What is official and what is independent

Several tools use the Hermes name without being made by Nous Research.

Herald OS and FlyHermes both say on their own pages that they are not affiliated with Nous Research.

The names overlap because version 0.20 of Hermes Agent was called the Herald Release.

Who Hermes Agent is for

Hermes Agent suits founders, operators and agencies who want one agent that learns their business and works on a schedule.

Hermes Desktop makes it reachable for beginners.

It is a weaker fit if you only want coding help inside an editor, because a dedicated coding agent is simpler for that.

It is also a weaker fit if you want software that never changes, because the version number is still below 1.0.

FAQ

What is Hermes Agent by Nous Research?

Hermes Agent is a free, open-source AI agent built by Nous Research. It keeps memory, writes its own skills, uses more than 60 built-in tools, runs scheduled jobs and talks to you through a terminal, a desktop app or chat apps.

Who is Nous Research?

Nous Research, Inc. is an AI lab that describes itself as a pioneer in open AI training and research. The Block reported in April 2025 that it was founded in 2023, is led by CEO Jeffrey Quesnelle and raised a $50 million Series A led by Paradigm.

Is Hermes Agent the same as the Hermes models?

No, they are separate products. The Hermes models are open-weight language models on Hugging Face, and Hermes Agent is the software that runs an agent. The agent works with many models, so a Hermes model is optional.

Is Hermes Agent free and open source?

Yes, the GitHub API lists it under the MIT licence and the software costs nothing. The model is the only part that can bill you, and Nous Portal has a free plan limited to free models.

Is Hermes Agent safe?

It is as safe as the access you give it. The official docs describe command approval, deny-by-default chat access and container isolation, and they warn that some guards are not a hard boundary. Keep approvals on and start with read-only work.

Is Herald OS or FlyHermes made by Nous Research?

No, both are independent. Herald OS is an open-source desktop by a developer called Luke The Dev, and FlyHermes is a paid host run by HF Data Studio LLC. Both say they are not affiliated with Nous Research.

How do I install Hermes Agent?

Download Hermes Desktop from the Hermes website, or run curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash on Linux, macOS or WSL2. Then run hermes setup to choose a model provider.

Final word on Hermes Agent by Nous Research

Install it, connect a free model and give it one daily job before you spend anything.

A week of real use will tell you more than any explainer about Hermes Agent by Nous Research.

Related guides on agentos.guide

→ Best Hermes Agent Setup: My Ranked Builds

→ Hermes v0.20: The Herald Release, Tested

→ Herald OS: A Free Desktop Built On Hermes

→ FlyHermes: The Independent Hosted Hermes Agent

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