Quickstart

Get Hermes installed and running in under 2 minutes

Windows users: Native Windows is not supported. Install WSL2 first, then follow these steps inside your WSL2 terminal.

1. Install Hermes

   Run the one-line installer. It handles Python, Node.js, all dependencies, and the hermes command — no prerequisites except git.

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

   The installer clones the repo to ~/.hermes/hermes-agent, creates a virtual environment, installs all packages, and symlinks the hermes binary into ~/.local/bin.

2. Reload your shell

   Apply the PATH changes the installer added to your shell config:

   bash

   source ~/.bashrc
   
3. Run the setup wizard

   Configure your LLM provider and API key with the interactive wizard:

   hermes setup
   

   The wizard walks you through:

   1. Choosing an inference provider (Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Anthropic, and more)
   2. Entering your API key or logging in via OAuth
   3. Selecting a default model
   4. Optionally configuring the terminal backend, messaging platforms, and tools

   You can re-run any section later with hermes setup model, hermes setup tools, etc.

4. Pick a model

   To change your model at any time without re-running the full wizard:

   hermes model
   

   This opens an interactive provider and model picker. Your selection is saved to ~/.hermes/config.yaml.

5. Start chatting

   Launch the interactive terminal UI:

   hermes
   

   On first launch you’ll see the Hermes banner, your configured provider and model, and a prompt ready for your first message:

   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │  ⚕ Hermes Agent                                        │
   │  Model: anthropic/claude-opus-4.6  Provider: openrouter │
   └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
   
   > _
   

   Type your first message and press Enter. Hermes streams tool output and thinking in real time as it works.

What’s next

See Installation for advanced install options including manual setup, updating, and uninstalling.

See Your first conversation for a walkthrough of slash commands, tool output, and provider configuration.