agentos.guide › blog
Hermes Labs: The Quick Start For Nous Research's Unsupported Plugins, And How They Fit Your Agent OS
Hermes Labs is Nous Research's set of experimental Hermes Agent plugins that Nous built but does not support.
There are three of them right now, called Inbox, Workflow Record and Telegram Business Mode.
They arrived in the plugin catalog with the Hermes Agent v0.22.4 release on 21 October 2026, and they install free like any other catalog plugin.
This page is the quick start for all three, plus how each one fits an Agent OS workflow.
The Hermes Labs quick start
This is the shortest path from nothing to all three Hermes Labs plugins running.
| Step | What you do | Command |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Update Hermes so the catalog has the Labs entries. | hermes update |
| 2 | Install the read-only status view. | hermes plugins install inbox |
| 3 | Check what your agents have in flight. | hermes inbox |
| 4 | Install the browser recorder. | hermes plugins install workflow-record |
| 5 | Record a browser task once. | hermes record --slug shop-login |
| 6 | Install the Telegram secretary if you sell on Telegram. | hermes plugins install hermes-telegram-business |
| 7 | Restart the gateway so Telegram picks it up. | hermes gateway restart |
The install names come from the Hermes Labs repo, and the other commands come from each plugin's README.
The v0.22.4 release notes say a command-line install updates with hermes update, the Microsoft Store app updates through the Store, and Docker users pull nousresearch/hermes-agent:stable.
You can also find each plugin with hermes plugins search <term> or browse the catalog in Hermes Desktop.
What Hermes Labs is
Hermes Labs is a set of experimental Hermes Agent plugins that Nous Research built and chose not to support.
Nous says they "started as Hermes features we decided not to put in the core."
Instead of throwing that work away, Nous put it in one repo so anyone who wants it can install it.
| Promise | What Nous Research says about Hermes Labs |
|---|---|
| Who built it | Nous Research built every Labs plugin. |
| Support | Nous makes no promise of fixes, and a bug report may sit. |
| Breakage | A core change may break a plugin before anyone notices. |
| Testing | CI runs every plugin against the current Hermes nightly, so breakage is at least visible. |
| Catalog tier | The catalog lists the plugins as community, not official. |
| Ownership | Each plugin is up for adoption if you want to own it. |
| Licence | The repo is MIT licensed. |
The official docs site does not have its own Hermes Labs page yet, so that README is the clearest definition Nous has published.
Supported first-party plugins live separately in the hermes-official-plugins repo.
The name first appears in the Hermes Agent v0.22.4 release notes, dated 21 October 2026.
Those notes say the plugin catalog gained "inbox and workflow-record from Hermes Labs," and that "Telegram Business moves to the Hermes Labs community tier."
I have not tested the Labs plugins on video yet, so everything on this page comes from Nous Research's own notes and READMEs.
One name, two different Hermes Labs
There is a naming trap you should know about before you search for more Labs plugins.
A separate GitHub organisation called hermes-labs-ai publishes a catalog plugin named little-canary.
Its catalog entry lists the maintainer as "roli-lpci (Hermes Labs; independent of Nous Research)."
When I say Hermes Labs here, I mean the NousResearch/hermes-labs-plugins repo and nothing else.
🔥 Want the exact Hermes Agent 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.
Hermes Inbox: the plugin I would install first
Inbox adds a single command, hermes inbox, which shows everything Hermes has in flight for the active profile.
It adds no model tools and no hooks, and nothing runs during your chats.
It is read-only, so it opens SQLite databases in read-only mode and never writes, repairs or prunes a store.
The view is split into five sections, which are Needs attention, In progress, Finished but not delivered, Scheduled and Open surfaces.
Needs attention covers stalled delegations, dropped results, failed or paused cron jobs, orphaned background processes and blocked kanban tasks.
Scheduled shows each enabled cron job with its next five runs.
Open surfaces lists live CLI, TUI, Desktop and gateway chat sessions with their titles.
The two flags worth knowing are hermes inbox --json for scripts and hermes -p work inbox for another profile.
Your agent can use it too, because the README says you can ask it to run hermes inbox --json in the terminal.
The one gap is that pending approvals and clarify prompts never show up, because they live only in the process that asked.
Workflow Record: teach Hermes a browser task by doing it once
Workflow Record adds hermes record, which captures a browser workflow you demonstrate in a Chromium browser.
It also ships a skill called workflow-record:replay-recording, which tells /learn how to turn the recording into a replayable skill.
Nous sums up the flow as record, then /learn, then replay.
First you start a browser Hermes can reach over the DevTools protocol, and the simplest way is /browser connect inside a Hermes chat, which launches Chrome on port 9222.
Then you open the starting page, keep that tab in front and run hermes record --slug shop-login.
You do the task, press Ctrl-C, and Hermes saves a JSON file in <HERMES_HOME>/recordings and prints the exact /learn line to paste.
The recorder stores clicks, final field values, Enter presses and top-frame navigations.
Password, one-time-code and card fields are masked as {SECRET:name} in the page, and Hermes masks them again before saving.
At replay time, logins come from Hermes's browser vault or an environment variable you set, so the password never enters the conversation.
Other modes include hermes record --list to list recordings and hermes record --manual when you cannot use CDP.
If /learn is new to you, my Hermes /learn guide shows how Hermes turns material into skills.
🔥 Want the exact Hermes Agent 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.
Telegram Business Mode: a secretary that never sends on its own
Telegram Business Mode connects your Telegram Business account to your Hermes bot and drafts a reply to every customer message.
Each draft lands in your own DM with Send, Edit and Discard buttons, and the README says "no auto-send exists."
It needs a Telegram Business subscription, Business Mode switched on for your bot in @BotFather, and Hermes v0.18 or later for plugin Telegram handlers.
After you install it and run hermes gateway restart, you add the bot in Telegram under Settings, Business and Chatbots.
You allow it to reply on your behalf so the Send button appears, then you message the bot /biz to confirm it is live.
/biz pause stops all drafting, and /biz off <chat_id> mutes a single customer chat.
Drafts expire after 24 hours, bursts within eight seconds become one draft, and only the account owner can press the buttons.
Drafting uses your active Hermes model, so there is no separate API key.
How Hermes Labs fits an Agent OS workflow
My Agent OS runs several Hermes profiles side by side, so the question I care about is which Labs plugin helps an operator running many agents at once.
| Agent OS job | Hermes Labs plugin | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| The morning check across agents | Inbox | One command lists failed cron jobs, stalled delegations and blocked kanban tasks. |
| A status tile on your own dashboard | Inbox | hermes inbox --json prints the same snapshot for scripts. |
| One inbox per profile | Inbox | hermes -p work inbox reads another profile once the plugin is installed there. |
| Turning a repeated browser chore into a skill | Workflow Record | You do it once, then /learn builds a replayable skill. |
| Customer replies with a human in the loop | Telegram Business Mode | It drafts every reply and sends nothing until you tap Send. |
Inbox is the obvious fit, because an Agent OS lives or dies on knowing which agent stalled overnight.
Workflow Record fits the skills layer, because it gives your agents a new skill without you writing a single step.
Telegram Business Mode fits the messaging layer, but only if Telegram is where your customers already talk to you.
If you are building out your plugin stack more widely, my best Hermes Agent plugins guide ranks the catalog's strongest options.
The Hermes Labs limits to plan around
These limits come straight from the plugin READMEs.
| Plugin | Limit Nous documents |
|---|---|
| All three | Nobody promises fixes, so a Hermes update can break them. |
| Inbox | It does not show pending approvals or clarify prompts. |
| Workflow Record | It records one tab only, and new tabs or pop-ups stop the recording. |
| Workflow Record | Only password-like fields are masked, so review every recording before you share it. |
| Workflow Record | It works with Chromium browsers only, so Firefox and Safari need --manual. |
| Telegram Business Mode | Version 1 is text only and drafts each message without conversation history. |
Workflow Record also misses scrolling, hovering, drag and drop, file uploads and iframe navigations, so start with simple click-and-type tasks.
To back out of any plugin, hermes plugins disable my-plugin switches it off and hermes plugins remove my-plugin uninstalls it.
I would re-run each Labs plugin after every hermes update before trusting it again.
If you want to talk through where plugins like these fit an SEO business, you can book a free SEO strategy session with my team.
Also On Our Network
FAQ
What is Hermes Labs?
Hermes Labs is Nous Research's set of experimental Hermes Agent plugins that Nous built but does not support. They started as Hermes features Nous chose not to put in the core, and the catalog lists them in the community tier.
Which plugins are in Hermes Labs?
There are three: Inbox, which adds hermes inbox; Workflow Record, which adds hermes record; and Telegram Business Mode, which drafts Telegram customer replies for your approval.
How do I install Hermes Labs plugins?
Run hermes plugins install inbox, hermes plugins install workflow-record or hermes plugins install hermes-telegram-business, after updating Hermes with hermes update.
Is Hermes Labs supported?
No. Nous makes no promise of fixes, and a core change may break a plugin before anyone notices. CI runs each plugin against the current Hermes nightly, so breakage is at least visible.
Does Hermes Labs cost anything?
The plugins are free and the repo is MIT licensed. Telegram Business Mode needs a Telegram Business subscription, and the parts that call a model use the model you already run.
Is hermes-labs-ai part of Hermes Labs?
No. The plugin catalog lists the hermes-labs-ai maintainer as independent of Nous Research, so it is a different project with a similar name.
Final word on Hermes Labs
Install Inbox first, try Workflow Record on one simple browser task, and only add Telegram Business Mode if Telegram is a real sales channel for you.
If you want a second opinion on which agents and plugins fit your business, you can book a free SEO strategy session with my team.
If you want the whole Agent OS with Hermes profiles, plugins and training already set up, it lives inside the AI Profit Boardroom, with 3,400+ members and four coaching calls a week.
That is the fastest way to get real work out of Hermes Labs.
About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an AI entrepreneur, SEO expert and the founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
My YouTube channel has 400,000+ subscribers, and I run Goldie Agency, a seven-figure SEO agency.
Related guides on agentos.guide
→ Hermes Agent v0.22: The Quick Start
→ Hermes /learn: Turn Books Into Skills
→ The Hermes Agent Plugins Marketplace
Get the whole Agent OS
The installable system behind every guide on this site — dashboard, agents, memory and pipelines — updated as new tools land, with 3,400+ members and four coaching calls a week.
Join the AI Profit Boardroom →📺 Video notes + links to the tools 👉
🎥 Learn how I make these videos 👉