Paperclip Adapter for Hermes Agent

A Paperclip adapter that lets you run Hermes Agent as a managed employee in a Paperclip company.

Hermes Agent is a full-featured AI agent by Nous Research with 30+ native tools, persistent memory, session persistence, 80+ skills, MCP support, and multi-provider model access.

Key Features

This adapter provides:

8 inference providers — Anthropic, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Nous, OpenAI Codex, ZAI, Kimi Coding, MiniMax
Skills integration — Scans both Paperclip-managed and Hermes-native skills (~/.hermes/skills/), with sync/list/resolve APIs
Structured transcript parsing — Raw Hermes stdout is parsed into typed TranscriptEntry objects so Paperclip renders proper tool cards with status icons and expand/collapse
Rich post-processing — Converts Hermes ASCII banners, setext headings, and +--+ table borders into clean GFM markdown
Comment-driven wakes — Agents wake to respond to issue comments, not just task assignments
Auto model detection — Reads ~/.hermes/config.yaml to pre-populate the UI with the user's configured model
Session codec — Structured validation and migration of session state across heartbeats
Benign stderr reclassification — MCP init messages and structured logs are reclassified so they don't appear as errors in the UI
Session source tagging — Sessions are tagged as tool source so they don't clutter the user's interactive history
Filesystem checkpoints — Optional --checkpoints for rollback safety
Thinking effort control — Passes --reasoning-effort for thinking/reasoning models

Hermes Agent Capabilities

Feature	Claude Code	Codex	Hermes Agent
Persistent memory	❌	❌	✅ Remembers across sessions
Native tools	~5	~5	30+ (terminal, file, web, browser, vision, git, etc.)
Skills system	❌	❌	✅ 80+ loadable skills
Session search	❌	❌	✅ FTS5 search over past conversations
Sub-agent delegation	❌	❌	✅ Parallel sub-tasks
Context compression	❌	❌	✅ Auto-compresses long conversations
MCP client	❌	❌	✅ Connect to any MCP server
Multi-provider	Anthropic only	OpenAI only	✅ 8 providers out of the box

Installation

npm install hermes-paperclip-adapter

Prerequisites

Hermes Agent installed (pip install hermes-agent)
Python 3.10+
At least one LLM API key (Anthropic, OpenRouter, or OpenAI)

Quick Start

1. Register the adapter in your Paperclip server

Add to your Paperclip server's adapter registry (server/src/adapters/registry.ts):

import * as hermesLocal from "hermes-paperclip-adapter";
import {
  execute,
  testEnvironment,
  detectModel,
  listSkills,
  syncSkills,
  sessionCodec,
} from "hermes-paperclip-adapter/server";

registry.set("hermes_local", {
  ...hermesLocal,
  execute,
  testEnvironment,
  detectModel,
  listSkills,
  syncSkills,
  sessionCodec,
});

2. Create a Hermes agent in Paperclip

In the Paperclip UI or via API, create an agent with adapter type hermes_local:

{
  "name": "Hermes Engineer",
  "adapterType": "hermes_local",
  "adapterConfig": {
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4",
    "maxIterations": 50,
    "timeoutSec": 300,
    "persistSession": true,
    "enabledToolsets": ["terminal", "file", "web"]
  }
}

3. Assign work

Create issues in Paperclip and assign them to your Hermes agent. On each heartbeat, Hermes will:

Receive the task instructions
Use its full tool suite to complete the work
Report results back to Paperclip
Persist session state for continuity

Configuration Reference

Core

Field	Type	Default	Description
`model`	string	`anthropic/claude-sonnet-4`	Model in `provider/model` format
`provider`	string	(auto-detected)	API provider: `auto`, `openrouter`, `nous`, `openai-codex`, `zai`, `kimi-coding`, `minimax`, `minimax-cn`
`timeoutSec`	number	`300`	Execution timeout in seconds
`graceSec`	number	`10`	Grace period before SIGKILL

Tools

Field	Type	Default	Description
`toolsets`	string	(all)	Comma-separated toolsets to enable (e.g. `"terminal,file,web"`)

Available toolsets: terminal, file, web, browser, code_execution, vision, mcp, creative, productivity

Session & Workspace

Field	Type	Default	Description
`persistSession`	boolean	`true`	Resume sessions across heartbeats
`worktreeMode`	boolean	`false`	Git worktree isolation
`checkpoints`	boolean	`false`	Enable filesystem checkpoints for rollback

Advanced

Field	Type	Default	Description
`hermesCommand`	string	`hermes`	Custom CLI binary path
`verbose`	boolean	`false`	Enable verbose output
`quiet`	boolean	`true`	Quiet mode (clean output, no banner/spinner)
`extraArgs`	string[]	`[]`	Additional CLI arguments
`env`	object	`{}`	Extra environment variables
`promptTemplate`	string	(built-in)	Custom prompt template
`paperclipApiUrl`	string	`http://127.0.0.1:3100/api`	Paperclip API base URL

Prompt Template Variables

Use {{variable}} syntax in promptTemplate:

Variable	Description
`{{agentId}}`	Paperclip agent ID
`{{agentName}}`	Agent display name
`{{companyId}}`	Company ID
`{{companyName}}`	Company name
`{{runId}}`	Current heartbeat run ID
`{{taskId}}`	Assigned task/issue ID
`{{taskTitle}}`	Task title
`{{taskBody}}`	Task instructions
`{{projectName}}`	Project name
`{{paperclipApiUrl}}`	Paperclip API base URL
`{{commentId}}`	Comment ID (when woken by a comment)
`{{wakeReason}}`	Reason this run was triggered

Conditional sections:

{{#taskId}}...{{/taskId}} — included only when a task is assigned
{{#noTask}}...{{/noTask}} — included only when no task (heartbeat check)
{{#commentId}}...{{/commentId}} — included only when woken by a comment

Architecture

Paperclip                          Hermes Agent
┌──────────────────┐               ┌──────────────────┐
│  Heartbeat       │               │                  │
│  Scheduler       │───execute()──▶│  hermes chat -q  │
│                  │               │                  │
│  Issue System    │               │  30+ Tools       │
│  Comment Wakes   │◀──results─────│  Memory System   │
│                  │               │  Session DB      │
│  Cost Tracking   │               │  Skills          │
│                  │               │  MCP Client      │
│  Skill Sync      │◀──snapshot────│  ~/.hermes/skills│
│  Org Chart       │               │                  │
└──────────────────┘               └──────────────────┘

The adapter spawns Hermes Agent's CLI in single-query mode (-q). Hermes processes the task using its full tool suite, then exits. The adapter:

Captures stdout/stderr and parses token usage, session IDs, and cost
Parses raw output into structured TranscriptEntry objects (tool cards with status icons)
Post-processes Hermes ASCII formatting (banners, setext headings, table borders) into clean GFM markdown
Reclassifies benign stderr (MCP init, structured logs) so they don't show as errors
Tags sessions as tool source to keep them separate from interactive usage
Reports results back to Paperclip with cost, usage, and session state

Session persistence works via Hermes's --resume flag — each run picks up where the last one left off, maintaining conversation context, memories, and tool state across heartbeats. The sessionCodec validates and migrates session state between runs.

Skills Integration

The adapter scans two skill sources and merges them:

Paperclip-managed skills — bundled with the adapter, togglable from the UI
Hermes-native skills — from ~/.hermes/skills/, read-only, always loaded

The listSkills / syncSkills APIs expose a unified snapshot so the Paperclip UI can display both managed and native skills in one view.

Development

git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-paperclip-adapter
cd hermes-paperclip-adapter
npm install
npm run build

License

MIT — see LICENSE