f66a929a6b
* fix(desktop): render approval/sudo/secret prompts so tools stop silently timing out The desktop app's gateway event handler (use-message-stream.ts) handled clarify.request but had no case for approval.request, sudo.request, or secret.request. When a tool needed approval, the gateway emitted approval.request and blocked the agent thread in _await_gateway_decision() for up to 5 min (approvals.gateway_timeout); the desktop dropped the unknown event, never showed a dialog, then the agent returned BLOCKED. No prompt, just a stall then a block. The Ink TUI already handles all three (createGatewayEventHandler.ts); this brings the Electron app to parity. - store/prompts.ts: approval/sudo/secret atoms (+ request-id-guarded clears) - components/prompt-overlays.tsx: Radix dialogs; close/Esc maps to refusal so silence is never mistaken for consent (parity with TUI Esc->deny) - use-message-stream.ts: wire the three *.request cases; clearAllPrompts on message.complete so an overlay can't outlive its turn - chat-messages.ts: GatewayEventPayload gains command/description/env_var/prompt - mount PromptOverlays in the chat shell * feat(desktop): inline tool-call approval bar (Cursor-style "Run") Render dangerous-command / execute_code approval inline on the pending tool row instead of as a modal. Binding is positional: the desktop tool.start payload carries no structured args, but approval.request only fires from the terminal/execute_code guards and the agent blocks on one approval at a time, so the single pending row of those tools is the one that raised it. Command/description text comes from $approvalRequest. Drops ApprovalDialog from PromptOverlays (sudo/secret stay modal). * style(desktop): make inline approval bar match Cursor's command card Drop the amber alert styling for a neutral elevated card: command on a terminal-prefixed row up top, a divided footer with the muted description on the left and right-aligned controls — a ghost "Reject" (Esc) plus a split primary "Run" (⌘⏎) whose chevron opens "Allow this session" / "Always allow" / "Reject". Wire ⌘/Ctrl+Enter → Run and Esc → Reject to match Cursor's accept/skip bindings, guarded against double-send via the $approvalRequest atom. * style(desktop): shrink inline approval to a tiny Cursor-style button strip The running tool row already shows the command, so drop the whole card + command echo + description band. What's left is a compact strip under the row: a small split "Run ⌘⏎" button (chevron → Allow this session / Always allow / Reject) and a ghost "Reject Esc", indented to sit under the row's title text. * style(desktop): drop the loud blue Run button for a quiet outlined control Swap the primary (blue) Run for a subtle outlined split control — neutral border, transparent fill, hover-accent — so the approval strip reads as quiet inline affordance rather than a big CTA. Reject stays ghost. * style(desktop): make Run a soft primary badge Tint the Run split control with the primary color as a badge (bg-primary/10, primary text, primary/25 border, rounded-md, hover primary/15) instead of a solid CTA or a neutral outline. * style(desktop): slim the approval chevron and space out Reject The chevron button had ballooned because dropping the size prop fell back to the big default size (h-9 + has-svg px-3). Pin size=xs everywhere and give the chevron a tight w-5/px-0. Bump the gap between the Run badge and Reject (gap-2.5) and loosen Reject's internal spacing. * feat(desktop): confirm before "Always allow" persists an approval "Always allow" writes the matched pattern to ~/.hermes/config.yaml and suppresses the prompt in every future session — too consequential to fire straight from a menu click. Route it through a confirm dialog that names the pattern + command and the file it touches. The dialog owns the keyboard while open so Esc closes it instead of denying the approval. * fix(gateway): make sudo + secret prompts actually fire in the desktop Tek's PR added the sudo/secret overlays and callback wiring, but neither reached the live path: - Sudo: the sudo password callback is thread-local (terminal_tool _callback_tls), and _wire_callbacks runs on the agent-build thread, not the turn thread that executes tools. At command time the callback was missing, so terminal sudo fell through to /dev/tty and hung the headless gateway. Re-wire callbacks at the top of the prompt-submit turn thread. - Secret: skills_tool short-circuited to the "secret entry unsupported" hint for any gateway surface, before invoking the callback. Interactive surfaces (desktop/TUI) register a secret-capture callback that routes to the secret.request overlay; only short-circuit when no callback exists, so messaging still gets the hint but the desktop prompts. * docs(desktop): drop Cursor references from approval comments * docs(desktop): drop Cursor reference from prompt-overlays comment * fix(skills): gate in-band secret capture on HERMES_INTERACTIVE, not callback presence The desktop/sudo PR switched the gateway secret-capture short-circuit from "any gateway surface" to "gateway surface with no callback registered". That made a messaging gateway (telegram/discord/...) attempt interactive in-band secret capture whenever any callback happened to be registered, instead of returning the safe "setup unsupported" hint — and broke test_gateway_still_loads_skill_but_returns_setup_guidance. Discriminate on HERMES_INTERACTIVE instead: the desktop app / TUI set it in _enable_gateway_prompts (alongside registering the secret.request callback), while messaging platforms never do. This is the same flag tools/approval.py uses to tell an interactive surface from a messaging one, so messaging keeps the hint and desktop/TUI still prompt. --------- Co-authored-by: Brooklyn Nicholson <brooklyn.bb.nicholson@gmail.com>
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), NovitaAI (AI-native cloud for Model API, Agent Sandbox, and GPU Cloud), 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, Singularity, Modal, and Daytona. 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, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
Quick Install
Linux, macOS, WSL2, Termux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
Windows (native, PowerShell)
Heads up: Native Windows runs Hermes without WSL — CLI, gateway, TUI, and tools all work natively. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux/macOS one-liner above works there too. Found a bug? Please file issues.
Run this in PowerShell:
iex (irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.ps1)
The installer handles everything: uv, Python 3.11, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg, and a portable Git Bash (MinGit, unpacked to %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\git — no admin required, completely isolated from any system Git install). Hermes uses this bundled Git Bash to run shell commands.
If you already have Git installed, the installer detects it and uses that instead. Otherwise a ~45MB MinGit download is all you need — it won't touch or interfere with any system Git.
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 fully supported — the PowerShell one-liner above installs everything. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux command works there too. Native Windows install lives under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes; WSL2 installs under~/.hermesas on Linux. The only Hermes feature that currently needs WSL2 specifically is the browser-based dashboard chat pane (it uses a POSIX PTY — classic CLI and gateway both run natively).
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
Skip the API-key collection — Nous Portal
Hermes works with whatever provider you want — that's not changing. But if you'd rather not collect five separate API keys for the model, web search, image generation, TTS, and a cloud browser, Nous Portal covers all of them under one subscription:
- 300+ models — pick any of them with
/model <name> - Tool Gateway — web search (Firecrawl), image generation (FAL), text-to-speech (OpenAI), cloud browser (Browser Use), all routed through your sub. No extra accounts.
One command from a fresh install:
hermes setup --portal
That logs you in via OAuth, sets Nous as your provider, and turns on the Tool Gateway. Check what's wired up any time with hermes portal info. Full details on the Tool Gateway docs page.
You can still bring your own keys per-tool whenever you want — the gateway is per-backend, not all-or-nothing.
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
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 🔌 computer-use-linux — Linux desktop-control MCP server for Hermes and other MCP hosts, with AT-SPI accessibility trees, Wayland/X11 input, screenshots, and compositor window targeting.
- 🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.