Hermes Agent

Self-improving AI agent by Nous Research — runs CLI conversations, manages memory and skills, and supports a Telegram/Discord gateway for remote access.

Overview

Hermes Agent is a Python-based AI agent framework. It stores skills and memories across sessions, supports scheduled automations, and can spawn subagents for parallel workloads. Models run via external API (OpenRouter, Anthropic, DeepSeek, etc.) — no GPU needed.

Container: CT 130 IP: 192.168.144.63 Resources: 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 2 GB swap, 20 GB disk (cts zfspool) Ports:

8642 — Hermes gateway API server (chat, models, streaming)
8787 — Hermes community web UI (external: https://hermes-ui.janvv.nl, Cloudflare Access-protected)
9119 — Hermes built-in dashboard (https://hermes.janvv.nl) Dashboard (LAN): http://192.168.144.63:9119 Binary: /usr/local/bin/hermes Venv: /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/venv/ Data dir: /data/hermes (on ssd_pool via LXC bind mount)

Installation

pct exec 130 -- bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

HERMES_HOME=/data/hermes is set in /etc/environment so data persists on the ssd_pool mount.

Configuration

API keys and settings live in /data/hermes/.env. Edit directly:

pct exec 130 -- nano /data/hermes/.env

Or use the CLI:

pct exec 130 -- hermes config set <key> <value>

Model is configured in /data/hermes/config.yaml.

API_SERVER_ENABLED=true is set in .env to enable the gateway API on port 8642.

Maintenance

Three systemd services run as user jan, start on boot.

Service	Port	systemd unit
Gateway (API + messaging)	8642	`hermes-gateway.service`
Web UI (community)	8787	`hermes-webui.service` (system)
Dashboard	9119	`hermes-dashboard.service`

Gateway (port 8642 — API server; also handles Telegram):

pct exec 130 -- systemctl status hermes-gateway
pct exec 130 -- systemctl restart hermes-gateway
pct exec 130 -- journalctl -u hermes-gateway -f

Dashboard (port 9119, the built-in web UI):

pct exec 130 -- systemctl status hermes-dashboard
pct exec 130 -- systemctl restart hermes-dashboard
pct exec 130 -- journalctl -u hermes-dashboard -f

Web UI (port 8787, community web UI — system service):

pct exec 130 -- sudo systemctl status hermes-webui
pct exec 130 -- sudo systemctl restart hermes-webui
pct exec 130 -- sudo journalctl -u hermes-webui -f

Update Hermes Agent:

pct exec 130 -- bash -c 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash'
pct exec 130 -- systemctl restart hermes-gateway hermes-dashboard
pct exec 130 -- sudo systemctl restart hermes-webui

Interactive session:

pct enter 130
hermes

Notes

hermes-ui.janvv.nl serves the community web UI (port 8787), protected by Cloudflare Access (Google/OTP auth required before reaching the origin).
hermes.janvv.nl serves the built-in Hermes dashboard (port 9119).
The built-in Hermes OAuth auth-gate is not active (no provider registered).
API_SERVER_ENABLED=true in .env is required for the gateway API server on 8642
SOUL.md is at /data/hermes/SOUL.md — defines the agent's identity
Do NOT set display.personality in config.yaml — it overrides SOUL.md identity
If bot identity is wrong, check: (1) display.personality in config.yaml, (2) stale state.db/sessions.json

Testing Results (2026-06-01)

All endpoints verified functional on both external and internal paths:

Endpoint	Backend	External	Internal
https://hermes-ui.janvv.nl	Web UI (:8787)	200 OK, SSL ok	200 OK, SSL ok
https://hermes.janvv.nl	Dashboard (:9119)	200 OK, SSL ok	200 OK, SSL ok

Certificate details: Let's Encrypt via Cloudflare DNS-01 challenge.

hermes-ui.janvv.nl: expires 2026-08-27
hermes.janvv.nl: expires 2026-08-30

Infrastructure verified: