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* skills: port spike, sketch, and gates/context-budget references from GSD Adds two new lightweight standalone skills and two reference docs adapted from gsd-build/get-shit-done (MIT © 2025 Lex Christopherson). All ports coexist cleanly with a full `npx get-shit-done-cc --hermes --global` install — GSD lives under `skills/gsd-*/`, these ports live at their natural Hermes category paths, zero name collisions. New skills: - skills/software-development/spike/ — Lightweight "spike an idea with throwaway experiments" workflow: decompose into Given/When/Then questions, research per-spike, build comparable variants, close with VALIDATED/PARTIAL/INVALIDATED verdict. Standalone alternative to the full `gsd-spike` (which requires `.planning/spikes/` state machinery and the rest of GSD). - skills/creative/sketch/ — Lightweight "sketch 2-3 HTML design variants" workflow: intake (feel, references, core action), produce differentiated variants along a design axis, head-to-head comparison. Standalone alternative to the full `gsd-sketch`. New references under subagent-driven-development/: - references/context-budget-discipline.md — Four-tier context degradation model (PEAK/GOOD/DEGRADING/POOR at 0-30%/30-50%/50-70%/70%+) with read-depth rules that scale with context window size, plus early warning signs of silent degradation (silent partial completion, increasing vagueness, skipped protocol steps). - references/gates-taxonomy.md — Four canonical gate types for validation checkpoints: Pre-flight (precondition block), Revision (bounded retry loop with stall detection), Escalation (pause for human decision), Abort (terminate to prevent damage). Each ships with behavior, recovery, and examples. Collision guard: each port has explicit "If the user has the full GSD system installed" guidance directing the agent to prefer `gsd-spike` / `gsd-sketch` when the full workflow is available. Verified end-to-end with 86 GSD skills + these 2 Hermes ports installed in the same HERMES_HOME — 90 total skills, zero duplicate names, both counterparts appear in the system prompt with distinct descriptions. Attribution preserved in each SKILL.md footer per MIT notice requirement. Full GSD system now installable via `npx get-shit-done-cc --hermes --global` (gsd-build/get-shit-done#2845). * skills/gsd-port: tighten descriptions, surface Hermes-native tools Review feedback adjustments to the spike/sketch ports from the previous commit on this branch: - description lengths trimmed to <=60 chars with trigger-first phrasing (spike: 55 chars 'Throwaway experiments to validate an idea before build.'; sketch: 55 chars 'Throwaway HTML mockups: 2-3 design variants to compare.') - author field credits gsd-build/get-shit-done explicitly - stale duplicate top-level `tags:` removed from sketch frontmatter (Hermes reads only metadata.hermes.tags — the top-level field was dead weight) - spike research step now shows concrete Hermes tool calls (web_search, web_extract with real URLs, terminal for venv inspection) instead of just naming the tool names - spike build step adds a worked tool-sequence example (terminal + write_file + terminal to run) and a delegate_task fan-out pattern for parallel comparison spikes (002a / 002b) - sketch build step adds browser_navigate + browser_vision verification step — visual spot-check that catches layout bugs pure source inspection misses - sketch Output section adds a worked tool-sequence example mirroring the spike pattern Descriptions now lead with 'Throwaway' (the pattern-match word that signals 'disposable / not production code') — gives the agent a clean activation signal in the system-prompt skill index.
Hermes Agent ☤
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), NVIDIA NIM (Nemotron), Xiaomi MiMo, z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, Hugging Face, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-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 automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn 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 laptop | Six 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-ready | Batch 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, WSL2, and Android via Termux. The installer handles the platform-specific setup for you.
Android / Termux: The tested manual path is documented in the Termux guide. On Termux, Hermes installs a curated
.[termux]extra because the full.[all]extra currently pulls Android-incompatible voice dependencies.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
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> |
/<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 — clone and go with setup-hermes.sh:
git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
./setup-hermes.sh # installs uv, creates venv, installs .[all], symlinks ~/.local/bin/hermes
./hermes # auto-detects the venv, no need to `source` first
Manual path (equivalent to the above):
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]"
scripts/run_tests.sh
RL Training (optional): The RL/Atropos integration (
environments/) ships via theatroposlibandtinkerdependencies pulled in by.[all,dev]— no submodule setup required.
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.