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Hermes Agent Hermes Agent is Nous Research’s self-improving AI agent. It builds skills from experience, refines them during use, and maintains a persistent model of the user across sessions. This guide puts Hermes on an Orgo computer, where it runs 24/7.

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Launch the Hermes Agent template

The fastest way. The curated template boots with Hermes installed and its gateway supervised: it restarts on a crash and on every boot. It runs on 1 vCPU and 8 GB RAM, and any paid plan can launch it.
Create a computer and choose Hermes Agent.

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Give Hermes a model

Pick one:
  • From the dashboard. Open the computer and chat with Hermes. Orgo sets it up with ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from your workspace’s Secrets, or, without one, with Orgo’s models billed to your AI credits.
  • From its terminal. Open the computer’s Terminal and run hermes setup. hermes setup --portal signs in with a Nous Portal account.
Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in the Secrets section of Settings → Credentials before launch and the template writes it into Hermes’ own env file. The gateway starts once Hermes has a config.

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Connect a messaging app

Hermes takes messages from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and email. In the computer’s terminal:
On the template, the gateway is already supervised. Nothing else to run. A computer has no public inbound hostname, so run gateways in outbound mode, such as Slack Socket Mode or Telegram long polling. Webhooks cannot reach the gateway.

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Install on a computer you already have

Open the computer’s Terminal and run the installer. It installs Python, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg, and Git if missing, and registers the hermes command.
Orgo computers do not run systemd, so hermes gateway install cannot register a service. Run the gateway in a detached tmux session with --no-supervise, or Hermes hands it to a service manager that is not there and exits:
A tmux session does not survive a restart. Use the template for a gateway that does.

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Commands

Full reference: hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs.

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Good to know

  • The agent reaches only what you put on the computer. Your laptop’s files, browser sessions, and keys stay out of reach.
  • Identity, memory, and learned skills live in ~/.hermes/ on the computer’s disk. They survive stops and restarts.
  • For many users, run one Hermes computer per user.
  • To move an existing Hermes from a VPS, see Migrate to Orgo.