Hermes Agent v0.5.0 Supports 400+ Models, Hardens Supply Chain

What changed

Hermes Agent v0.5.0 (The Hardening Release) shipped March 28, 2026. Nous Portal now routes to 400+ models through a single provider endpoint. Hugging Face becomes a first-class inference provider with a setup wizard, live /models endpoint probe, and a curated agentic model picker mapping HF models to OpenRouter analogues. Four plugin lifecycle hooks land in the agent loop and CLI/gateway: pre_llm_call, post_llm_call, on_session_start, on_session_end. Telegram private chat topics support project-based conversations with per-topic skill binding. Supply-chain work removes the compromised litellm dependency, pins all dep version ranges, regenerates uv.lock with hashes, and adds CI scans for supply-chain attack patterns.

Why it matters

The litellm removal directly addresses the 2025 compromise: no external dependency whose security posture you cannot verify sits in the inference path anymore. Plugin lifecycle hooks turn token budgeting, PII redaction, logging, and cost tracking into composable extensions rather than core patches. Nous Portal at 400+ models gives you a managed alternative to OpenRouter through one billing relationship. Per-topic skill binding on Telegram lets you isolate workflows without spinning up multiple bots.

What to watch for

Upgrade is on the standard path; the litellm removal is transparent because existing calls route through Hermes's native provider interfaces. Verify that any custom integrations you previously layered over litellm now resolve through the native adapter. Test the new lifecycle hooks against a non-production session before wiring them to redaction or budgeting in production. Audit your CI to mirror the Hermes supply-chain scan patterns where applicable.