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Coding agent (CLI) · Nous Research

Hermes Agent

Nous Research's open-source agent, described by its docs as a general autonomous agent rather than an IDE copilot, with a terminal UI, a desktop app and a messaging gateway. Works with the model provider you choose.

Reviewed by the Termdex team · facts checked 2026-10-21 against 15 vendor sources · how we check

Official site

Hermes Agent review

Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open-source agent. Its docs say it is not "a coding copilot tethered to an IDE", so treat it as a general agent, closer in spirit to Goose than to Claude Code. It has a terminal interface and a messaging gateway, and the homepage says the same agent can be reached from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal or email. We read the vendor's site, docs, README, licence and GitHub data on 12 November 2026. We did not install or run it.

Install, models and cost

The software is MIT licensed and free. The docs list a curl script for Linux, macOS and WSL2, a PowerShell script for native Windows, and desktop packages for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows. Android has a prerelease Termux package. GitHub showed 262,677 stars and release v0.23.1, published 10 November.

You choose the provider, including local endpoints, and the quickstart says models need at least 64,000 tokens of context. Nous also sells Portal plans, which its homepage lists as Free ($0, free models only), Plus ($20 a month), Super ($100) and Ultra ($200). The billing page would not load for us, so check prices there.

The docs list subagent delegation, scheduled jobs, git worktrees (a /worktree command and a -w flag) and MCP, as a client and, through a plugin, a server. A Mistral Vibe plugin on its marketplace is a community add-on, unaffiliated with Nous or Mistral, and separate from the Mistral Vibe CLI.

Things to weigh

Hermes Agent at a glance: on macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, free, MIT licence.
Platforms, price and licence at a glance, from the vendor pages we read.

Facts: platforms, price and licence

platforms
macOSWindowsLinuxAndroidSupport page (seen 2026-11-12): Tier 1 = macOS Apple Silicon (Hermes Desktop or install.sh), Windows 10/11 (install.ps1 or MSIX desktop; MSIX needs Windows 11 22H2+), Linux/WSL2 (install.sh), Docker. Intel macOS desktop bundles are unsupported (Intel Macs can still install the CLI). Tier 2 (best effort) = Nix and Android/Termux aarch64 via a signed APT repo, described as a prerelease package. No iOS app and no standalone web build were found. Android means the Termux CLI package, not a store app.
price
FreeThe software is free under MIT (homepage and LICENSE, seen 2026-11-12). Optional Nous Portal plans listed on the homepage: Free $0 (free models only), Plus $20/month, Super $100/month, Ultra $200/month; paid tiers include one hosted cloud agent. The portal billing page returned HTTP 429, so plan details were not confirmed there. Model provider costs apply if you bring your own key.
source
Open sourceLicence: MIT
github
NousResearch/hermes-agent 262.9k stars, seen 2026-11-13

Hermes Agent features

✓ documented · – absent or not in its feature list · ? not verified

Hermes Agent strengths

  • MIT licence, free software, active repo (release v0.23.1 on 2026-11-10; 262,677 stars on 2026-11-12 per the GitHub API)
  • Provider-agnostic per the docs: Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, custom or local endpoints, switched with hermes model
  • Documented MCP support as client and, via the mcp-serve plugin, as server, plus subagent delegation, a cron-style scheduler and a documented git worktree workflow (/worktree new, hermes -w)
  • Several isolation options documented: Docker and other container backends, an approval system with smart/manual/off modes, and a hardline command blocklist

Hermes Agent weak points

  • Docs position it as a general autonomous agent, not a coding copilot tethered to an IDE
  • approvals.mode: off disables all safety prompts, the local backend has no isolation, and the write denylist does not stop shell commands reaching those paths (security docs)
  • Intel Mac desktop bundles are unsupported; Android/Termux and Nix are Tier 2 best-effort, and the Termux package is prerelease
  • Vendor pages disagree on sandbox backends: homepage lists five (local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal), README lists six plus plugin backends, the tools docs list eight

Who Hermes Agent is for

best for
People who want a free, MIT-licensed agent they can run on a laptop, VPS or container and also reach from chat apps, with their choice of model provider.
look elsewhere if
Anyone who specifically wants an IDE-integrated coding assistant.

Lists that include Hermes Agent

Sources and what we could not verify

Checked 2026-10-21. Prices and features change; the vendor's page is the authority.

Not verified