How to install Hermes Agent

Install Nous Research's Hermes Agent on macOS, Linux, Windows, or Android: the one-line installer, what it sets up, and the setup wizard that connects your model.

Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open-source, self-improving personal agent. It runs persistently on your machine with memory across sessions, builds reusable skills from experience, and ships 40+ built-in tools including web search, browser automation, and vision. The install is genuinely one command; this guide explains what that command does and the setup choices after it.

Prerequisites

On macOS, Linux, WSL2, and Android (Termux) the only prerequisite is Git. You do not need to install Python, Node.js, ripgrep, or ffmpeg manually; the installer handles all of them.

Install

Linux / macOS / WSL2 / Android (Termux):

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (native PowerShell):

iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)

Prefer a GUI? The Hermes Desktop installer for macOS and Windows from the official site installs both the desktop app and the CLI.

What the installer does: installs the dependency chain (uv, Python 3.11, Node.js v22, ripgrep, ffmpeg), clones the repo, creates a virtual environment, sets up the global hermes command, and walks you through LLM provider configuration. Binaries land in ~/.local/bin/hermes (or /usr/local/bin/hermes in root mode) and data lives in ~/.hermes/.

First run

Reload your shell, then start chatting:

source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc
hermes

Configure your model and tools

hermes setup --portal # recommended: one OAuth covers a model plus the Tool Gateway tools
hermes model          # choose or switch LLM provider
hermes tools          # configure enabled tools
hermes setup          # full setup wizard

The --portal flow is the fastest: a single Nous Portal OAuth covers a model plus all four Tool Gateway tools (web search, image generation, TTS, browser).

If you'd rather bring your own model, Hermes works with any major provider or an OpenRouter key. Picking one is the highest-leverage decision for agent quality; see our data-backed best models for Hermes ranking, and best free models for Hermes if you want to run it without paying per token.

Where to go next

  • Chat with Hermes from your phone by connecting Telegram: Hermes Telegram setup.
  • Hermes builds skills from experience, but you can also install ready-made ones. Browse skills for Hermes in the directory.

Source: Hermes Agent installation docs (NousResearch/hermes-agent), checked June 2026.

Share:
Explore HermesIntegrations