b62a82e0c3
* docs(providers): add model-provider-plugin authoring guide + fix stale refs
New docs:
- website/docs/developer-guide/model-provider-plugin.md — full authoring
guide (directory layout, minimal example, ProviderProfile fields,
overridable hooks, user overrides, api_mode selection, auth types,
testing, pip distribution)
- Wired into website/sidebars.ts under 'Extending'
- Cross-references added in:
- guides/build-a-hermes-plugin.md (tip block)
- developer-guide/adding-providers.md
- developer-guide/provider-runtime.md
User guide:
- user-guide/features/plugins.md: Plugin types table grows from 3 to 4
with 'Model providers' row
Stale comment cleanup (providers/*.py → plugins/model-providers/<name>/):
- hermes_cli/main.py:_is_profile_api_key_provider docstring
- hermes_cli/doctor.py:_build_apikey_providers_list docstring
- hermes_cli/auth.py: PROVIDER_REGISTRY + alias auto-extension comments
- hermes_cli/models.py: CANONICAL_PROVIDERS auto-extension comment
AGENTS.md:
- Project-structure tree: added plugins/model-providers/ row
- New section: 'Model-provider plugins' explaining discovery, override
semantics, PluginManager integration, kind auto-coerce heuristic
Verified: docusaurus build succeeds, new page renders, all 3 cross-links
resolve. 347/347 targeted tests pass (tests/providers/,
tests/hermes_cli/test_plugins.py, tests/hermes_cli/test_runtime_provider_resolution.py,
tests/run_agent/test_provider_parity.py).
* docs(plugins): add 'pluggable interfaces at a glance' maps to plugins.md + build-a-hermes-plugin
Devs landing on either the user-guide plugin page or the build-a-plugin
guide now get an upfront table of every distinct pluggable surface with
a link to the right authoring doc. Previously they'd have to read the
full general-plugin guide to discover that model providers / platforms
/ memory / context engines are separate systems.
user-guide/features/plugins.md:
- New 'Pluggable interfaces — where to go for each' section below the
existing 4-kinds table
- 10 rows covering every register_* surface (tool, hook, slash command,
CLI subcommand, skill, model provider, platform, memory, context
engine, image-gen)
- Explicit note: TTS/STT are NOT plugin-extensible yet — documented
with a pointer to the current config.yaml 'command providers' pattern
and a note that register_tts_provider()/register_stt_provider() may
come later
guides/build-a-hermes-plugin.md:
- New :::info 'Not sure which guide you need?' map at the top so devs
see all pluggable interfaces before investing in this 737-line
general-plugin walkthrough
- Existing bottom :::tip expanded to include platform adapters alongside
model/memory/context plugins
Verified:
- All 8 cross-doc links in the new plugins.md table resolve in a
docusaurus build (SUCCESS, no new broken links)
- TTS link corrected (features/voice → features/tts; latter exists)
- Pre-existing broken links/anchors (cron-script-only, llms.txt,
adding-platform-adapters#step-by-step-checklist) are unchanged
* docs(plugins): correct TTS/STT pluggability \u2014 they ARE plugins (command-providers)
Previous commit incorrectly said TTS/STT 'aren't plugin-extensible'. They
are, via the config-driven command-provider pattern \u2014 any CLI that reads
text and writes audio (or vice versa for STT) is automatically a plugin
with zero Python. The tts.md docs cover this extensively and I missed it.
plugins.md:
- TTS row: 'Config-driven (not a Python plugin)', points at
tts.md#custom-command-providers
- STT row: points at tts.md#voice-message-transcription-stt (STT docs
live in tts.md despite the filename)
- Expanded note: TTS/STT use config-driven shell-command templates as
their plugin surface (full tts.providers.<name> registry for TTS;
HERMES_LOCAL_STT_COMMAND escape hatch for STT)
- Any CLI that reads/writes files is automatically a plugin \u2014 no Python
register_* API needed
- Future register_tts_provider()/register_stt_provider() hooks mentioned
as nice-to-have for SDK/streaming cases, not as the primary story
build-a-hermes-plugin.md:
- Same map update: TTS/STT rows explicit, footer note corrected
Verified:
- tts.md anchors (custom-command-providers, voice-message-transcription-stt)
exist and resolve in docusaurus build (SUCCESS, no new broken links)
* docs(plugins): expand pluggable interfaces table with MCP / event hooks / shell hooks / skill taps
Broadened the scope beyond Python register_* hooks. Hermes has MULTIPLE
plugin-style extension surfaces; they're now all in one table instead of
being scattered across feature docs.
Added rows for:
- **MCP servers** — config.yaml mcp_servers.<name> auto-registers external
tools from any MCP server. Huge extensibility surface, previously not
linked from the plugin map.
- **Gateway event hooks** — drop HOOK.yaml + handler.py into
~/.hermes/hooks/<name>/ to fire on gateway:startup, session:*, agent:*,
command:* events. Separate from Python plugin hooks.
- **Shell hooks** — hooks: block in config.yaml runs shell commands on
events (notifications, auditing, etc.).
- **Skill sources (taps)** — hermes skills tap add <repo> to pull in new
skill registries beyond the built-in sources.
Both docs updated:
- user-guide/features/plugins.md: table column renamed to 'How' (mixes
Python API + config-driven + drop-in-dir surfaces accurately)
- guides/build-a-hermes-plugin.md: :::info map at top mirrors the new
surfaces with a forward-link to the consolidated table
Note block rewritten: instead of singling out TTS/STT as the 'different
style' exception, now honestly describes that Hermes deliberately
supports three plugin styles — Python APIs, config-driven commands, and
drop-in manifest directories — and devs should pick the one that fits
their integration.
Not included (considered and rejected):
- Transport layer (register_transport) — internal, not user-facing
- Tool-call parsers — internal, VLLM phase-2 thing
- Cloud browser providers — hardcoded registry, not drop-in yet
- Terminal backends — hardcoded if/elif, not drop-in yet
- Skill sources (the ABC) — hardcoded list, only taps are user-extensible
Verified:
- All 5 new anchors resolve (gateway-event-hooks, shell-hooks, skills-hub,
custom-command-providers, voice-message-transcription-stt)
- Docusaurus build SUCCESS, zero new broken links
- Same 3 pre-existing broken links on main (cron-script-only, llms.txt,
adding-platform-adapters#step-by-step-checklist)
* docs(plugins): cover every pluggable surface in both the overview and how-to
Both plugins.md and build-a-hermes-plugin.md now cover every extension
surface end-to-end \u2014 general plugin APIs, specialized plugin types,
config-driven surfaces \u2014 with concrete authoring patterns for each.
plugins.md:
- 'What plugins can do' table grows from 9 rows (general ctx.register_*
only) to 14 rows covering register_platform, register_image_gen_provider,
register_context_engine, MemoryProvider subclass, register_provider
(model). Each row links to its full authoring guide.
- New 'Plugin sub-categories' section under Plugin Discovery explains
how plugins/platforms/, plugins/image_gen/, plugins/memory/,
plugins/context_engine/, plugins/model-providers/ are routed to
different loaders \u2014 PluginManager vs the per-category own-loader
systems.
- Explicit mention of user-override semantics at
~/.hermes/plugins/model-providers/ and ~/.hermes/plugins/memory/.
build-a-hermes-plugin.md:
- New '## Specialized plugin types' section (5 sub-sections):
- Model provider plugins \u2014 ProviderProfile + plugin.yaml example,
auto-wiring summary, link to full guide
- Platform plugins \u2014 BasePlatformAdapter + register_platform() skeleton
- Memory provider plugins \u2014 MemoryProvider subclass example
- Context engine plugins \u2014 ContextEngine subclass example
- Image-generation backends \u2014 ImageGenProvider + kind: backend example
- New '## Non-Python extension surfaces' section (5 sub-sections):
- MCP servers \u2014 config.yaml mcp_servers.<name> example
- Gateway event hooks \u2014 HOOK.yaml + handler.py example
- Shell hooks \u2014 hooks: block in config.yaml example
- Skill sources (taps) \u2014 hermes skills tap add example
- TTS / STT command templates \u2014 tts.providers.<name> with type: command
- Distribute via pip / NixOS promoted from ### to ## (they were orphaned
after the reorganization)
Each specialized / non-Python section has a concrete, copy-pasteable
example plus a 'Full guide:' link to the authoritative doc. Devs arriving
at the build-a-hermes-plugin guide now see every extension surface at
their disposal, not just the general tool/hook/slash-command surface.
Verified:
- Docusaurus build SUCCESS, zero new broken links
- All new cross-links (developer-guide/model-provider-plugin,
adding-platform-adapters, memory-provider-plugin, context-engine-plugin,
user-guide/features/mcp, skills#skills-hub, hooks#gateway-event-hooks,
hooks#shell-hooks, tts#custom-command-providers,
tts#voice-message-transcription-stt) resolve
- Same 3 pre-existing broken links on main (cron-script-only, llms.txt,
adding-platform-adapters#step-by-step-checklist)
* docs(plugins): fix opt-in inconsistency — not every plugin is gated
The 'Every plugin is disabled by default' statement was wrong. Several
plugin categories intentionally bypass plugins.enabled:
- Bundled platform plugins (IRC, Teams) auto-load so shipped gateway
channels are available out of the box. Activation per channel is via
gateway.platforms.<name>.enabled.
- Bundled backends (plugins/image_gen/*) auto-load so the default
backend 'just works'. Selection via <category>.provider config.
- Memory providers are all discovered; one is active via memory.provider.
- Context engines are all discovered; one is active via context.engine.
- Model providers: all 33 discovered at first get_provider_profile();
user picks via --provider / config.
The plugins.enabled allow-list specifically gates:
- Standalone plugins (general tools/hooks/slash commands)
- User-installed backends
- User-installed platforms (third-party gateway adapters)
- Pip entry-point backends
Which matches the actual code in hermes_cli/plugins.py:737 where the
bundled+backend/platform check bypasses the allow-list.
Rewrote '## Plugins are opt-in' to:
- Retitle to 'Plugins are opt-in (with a few exceptions)'
- Narrow opening claim to 'General plugins and user-installed backends
are disabled by default'
- Added 'What the allow-list does NOT gate' subsection with a full
table of which bypass the gate and how they're activated instead
- Fixed migration section wording (bundled platform/backend plugins
never needed grandfathering)
Verified: docusaurus build SUCCESS, zero new broken links.
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 | Seven terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, and Vercel Sandbox. 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.