This project is in active development. Features may change, and some things might break. If you run into a problem or have an idea, open an issue. Contributions are welcome!
Languages
- English:
README.md - 简体中文:
README.zh-CN.md
Hermes Desktop is a native desktop app for installing, configuring, and chatting with Hermes Agent — a self-improving AI assistant with tool use, multi-platform messaging, and a closed learning loop.
Instead of managing the CLI by hand, the app walks through install, provider setup, and day-to-day usage in one place. It uses the official Hermes install script, stores Hermes in ~/.hermes, and gives you a GUI for chat, sessions, profiles, memory, skills, tools, scheduling, messaging gateways, and more.
Install
Download the latest build from the Releases page.
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| macOS | .dmg |
| Linux (any) | .AppImage |
| Linux (Debian) | .deb |
| Linux (Fedora) | .rpm |
| Windows | .exe (NSIS installer) |
Windows (winget)
Once the manifest has been accepted into microsoft/winget-pkgs, you can install with:
winget install NousResearch.HermesDesktop
Until then, download the .exe from the Releases page.
Windows users: The installer is not code-signed. Windows SmartScreen will warn on first launch — click "More info" → "Run anyway".
Fedora (RPM)
sudo dnf install ./hermes-desktop-<version>.rpm
Fedora users: The
.rpmis not GPG-signed. If your system enforces signature checking, append--nogpgcheckto the install command. Auto-update is not supported for.rpmbuilds (limitation ofelectron-updater); reinstall the new.rpmto update.
macOS
macOS users: The app is not code-signed or notarized. macOS will block it on first launch. To fix this, run the following after installing:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Hermes Agent.app"Or right-click the app → Open → click Open in the confirmation dialog.
Features
- Guided first-run install for Hermes Agent with progress tracking and dependency resolution
- Local or remote backend — run Hermes locally on
127.0.0.1:8642, or connect the desktop app to a remote Hermes API server with URL + API key - Multi-provider support — OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google (Gemini), xAI (Grok), Nous Portal, Qwen, MiniMax, Hugging Face, Groq, and local OpenAI-compatible endpoints (LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp)
- Streaming chat UI with SSE streaming, tool progress indicators, markdown rendering, and syntax highlighting
- Token usage tracking — live prompt/completion token counts and cost display in the chat footer, plus a
/usageslash command - 22 slash commands —
/new,/clear,/fast,/web,/image,/browse,/code,/shell,/usage,/help,/tools,/skills,/model,/memory,/persona,/version,/compact,/compress,/undo,/retry,/debug,/status, and more - Session management — full-text search (SQLite FTS5), date-grouped history, resume and search across conversations
- Profile switching — create, delete, and switch between separate Hermes environments with isolated config
- 14 toolsets — web, browser, terminal, file, code execution, vision, image gen, TTS, skills, memory, session search, clarify, delegation, MoA, and task planning
- Memory system — view/edit memory entries, user profile memory, capacity tracking, and discoverable memory providers (Honcho, Hindsight, Mem0, RetainDB, Supermemory, ByteRover)
- Persona editor — edit and reset your agent's SOUL.md personality
- Saved models — CRUD management for model configurations across providers
- Scheduled tasks — cron job builder (minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, custom cron) with 15 delivery targets
- 16 messaging gateways — Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Mattermost, Email (IMAP/SMTP), SMS (Twilio/Vonage), iMessage (BlueBubbles), DingTalk, Feishu/Lark, WeCom, WeChat (iLink Bot), Webhooks, Home Assistant
- Hermes Office (Claw3d) — visual 3D interface with dev server and adapter management
- Backup, import & debug dump — full data backup/restore and system diagnostics from Settings
- Log viewer — view gateway and agent logs directly from the Settings screen
- Auto-updater — check for and install updates via electron-updater
- i18n ready — internationalization framework with English locale covering all screens, ready for community translations
- Test suite — SSE parser, IPC handlers, preload API surface, installer utilities, and constants validation with Vitest
Preview
| Office | Chat |
| Profiles | Tools |
| Settings | Skills |
How It Works
On first launch, the app:
- Asks whether you want to run Hermes locally or connect to a remote Hermes API server.
- Local mode: checks whether Hermes is already installed in
~/.hermes; if not, runs the official Hermes installer with dependency resolution (Git, uv, Python 3.11+). - Remote mode: prompts for the remote API URL and API key, validates the connection, and skips local install.
- Prompts for an API provider or local model endpoint.
- Saves provider config and API keys through Hermes config files.
- Launches the main workspace once setup is complete.
In local mode, chat requests go through http://127.0.0.1:8642 with SSE streaming. In remote mode, the app talks to your configured remote URL with the same streaming protocol. The desktop app parses the stream in real time, rendering tool progress, markdown content, and token usage as it arrives.
Screens
| Screen | Description |
|---|---|
| Chat | Streaming conversation UI with slash commands, tool progress, and token tracking |
| Sessions | Browse, search, and resume past conversations |
| Agents | Create, delete, and switch between Hermes profiles |
| Skills | Browse, install, and manage bundled and installed skills |
| Models | Manage saved model configurations per provider |
| Memory | View/edit memory entries, user profile, and configure memory providers |
| Soul | Edit the active profile's persona (SOUL.md) |
| Tools | Enable or disable individual toolsets |
| Schedules | Create and manage cron jobs with delivery targets |
| Gateway | Configure and control messaging platform integrations |
| Office | Claw3d visual interface setup and management |
| Settings | Provider config, credential pools, backup/import, log viewer, network settings, theme |
Supported Providers
LLM Providers
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| OpenRouter | 200+ models via single API (recommended) |
| Anthropic | Direct Claude access |
| OpenAI | Direct GPT access |
| Google (Gemini) | Google AI Studio |
| xAI (Grok) | Grok models |
| Nous Portal | Free tier available |
| Qwen | QwenAI models |
| MiniMax | Global and China endpoints |
| Hugging Face | 20+ open models via HF Inference |
| Groq | Fast inference (voice/STT) |
| Local/Custom | Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint |
Local presets are included for LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM, and llama.cpp.
Messaging Platforms
Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix/Element, Mattermost, Email (IMAP/SMTP), SMS (Twilio & Vonage), iMessage (BlueBubbles), DingTalk, Feishu/Lark, WeCom, WeChat (iLink Bot), Webhooks, and Home Assistant.
Tool Integrations
Exa Search, Parallel API, Tavily, Firecrawl, FAL.ai (image generation), Honcho, Browserbase, Weights & Biases, and Tinker.
Development
Prerequisites
- Node.js and npm
- A Unix-like shell environment for the Hermes installer
- Network access for downloading Hermes during first-run install
Install dependencies
npm install
Start the app in development
npm run dev
Run checks
npm run lint npm run typecheck
Run tests
npm run test npm run test:watch
Build the desktop app
npm run build
Platform packaging:
npm run build:mac npm run build:win npm run build:linux npm run build:rpm # Fedora/RHEL .rpm only
First-Time Setup
When the app opens for the first time, it will either detect an existing Hermes installation or offer to install it for you.
Supported setup paths in the UI:
OpenRouterAnthropicOpenAILocal LLMvia an OpenAI-compatible base URL
Local presets are included for:
- LM Studio
- Ollama
- vLLM
- llama.cpp
Hermes files are managed in:
~/.hermes~/.hermes/.env~/.hermes/config.yaml~/.hermes/hermes-agent~/.hermes/profiles/— named profile directories~/.hermes/state.db— session history database~/.hermes/cron/jobs.json— scheduled tasks
Tech Stack
- Electron 39 — cross-platform desktop shell
- React 19 — UI framework
- TypeScript 5.9 — type safety across main and renderer processes
- Tailwind CSS 4 — utility-first styling
- Vite 7 + electron-vite — fast dev server and build tooling
- better-sqlite3 — local session storage with FTS5 full-text search
- i18next — internationalization framework
- Vitest — test runner
Notes
- The desktop app depends on the upstream Hermes Agent project for agent behavior and tool execution.
- The built-in installer runs the official Hermes install script with
--skip-setup, then completes provider configuration in the GUI. - Local model providers do not require an API key, but the compatible server must already be running.
- Alternative npm registry routes are supported for environments with restricted network access.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Check out the Contributing Guide to get started. If you're not sure where to begin, take a look at the open issues. Found a bug or have a feature request? File an issue.
Related Project
For the core agent, docs, and CLI workflows, see the main Hermes Agent repository: