Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent tops open-source AI agents with 87,327 GitHub stars. You install it in 60 seconds on your VPS and chat with it across 16 platforms like Telegram and Discord. It runs autonomous tasks with persistent memory and self-generates Python skills from your workflows.

What Hermes Agent does:

• •16 Messaging Platforms Handles Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, SMS, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, Mattermost, Home Assistant, Webhooks, iMessage via BlueBubbles, and WeChat. v0.9.0 added iMessage and WeChat, now covering the Chinese and Apple messaging ecosystems.
• •3-Layer Persistent Memory Stores session data, long-term facts, and skill-specific knowledge. Recalls details across conversations without resets. Memory providers are pluggable -- swap in Honcho, vector stores, or custom backends.
• •Auto-Generated Skills Turns completed tasks into reusable Python functions stored in persistent memory. DSPy and GEPA self-optimize prompts and skills over time without manual tuning.
• •Local Web Dashboard Run 'hermes web' for a browser-based UI to monitor sessions, browse skills, configure gateways, and manage backups. Launched in v0.9.0 -- no config files needed to get a visual overview.
• •Fast Mode (/fast) Priority-queue processing for OpenAI and Anthropic models including GPT-5.4 and Claude. Toggle /fast to cut latency on time-sensitive tasks without switching providers.
• •Background Process Monitoring Set watch_patterns to track long-running builds, deployments, or tests without polling. Auto-notified when a pattern matches or the process finishes.
• •Worktree Parallelism and Browser Use Run multiple git tasks in isolated parallel worktrees. Built-in Browser Use integration handles browser automation tasks without leaving the agent.
• •Remote Execution Backends Deploys tasks to Docker, Modal, SSH, Singularity, or Daytona. MCP OAuth 2.1 connects to any MCP server your stack exposes via the CLI.
• •Pluggable Context and Model Switching Swap context engines and memory providers via hermes plugins. CLI /model command switches live among 400+ models from OpenRouter, Ollama, Nous Portal, Hugging Face, Google AI Studio, xAI Grok, Anthropic, OpenAI, Xiaomi MiMo, and Qwen.

Pricing:

• •Hermes Agent free under MIT license, no subscription fee ever.
• •Self-hosted VPS $5/month server (CPU + Ollama for local models) puts total hosting at $5-$20/month depending on instance size and traffic.
• •Nous Portal LLMs free tier (~10k tokens/month for personal use); OpenRouter pay-as-you-go runs DeepSeek-V3 at $0.30/M tokens.
• •BYOK bring your own API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok, Gemini, and more; LLM costs are billed directly by your chosen provider.

Limitations:

• •Always-On Server Required Hermes cannot run on a laptop that sleeps or a phone. You need a dedicated VPS or always-on machine. Budget $5-$20/month for a reliable host.
• •Gateway Config Is Technical The 60-second bash install is smooth, but connecting Telegram, Discord, or Slack requires creating bot tokens and editing YAML config files. Not a click-and-go setup.
• •No Native iOS App Termux runs Hermes natively on Android. iOS users need a Mac with BlueBubbles for iMessage access -- a two-device setup with its own complexity.
• •LLM Provider Costs Are Separate Hermes is free software but you pay your AI provider. OpenRouter costs $0.30/M tokens for DeepSeek-V3; OpenAI and Anthropic cost significantly more at heavy usage.