Tools reference

Complete list of all built-in tools with descriptions and API key requirements.

All tools listed here are part of _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS and are available in the hermes-cli and all platform presets. Tools with unsatisfied requirements are silently excluded from the agent’s tool list at startup.

Run hermes doctor to check which tools are active.

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Web

Tool	Description	Required keys
web_search	Search the web and return relevant results. Supports multiple backends (Parallel, Firecrawl, Tavily).	PARALLEL_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY, or TAVILY_API_KEY
web_extract	Extract and summarize content from a URL. Uses an auxiliary LLM to produce a clean text summary.	Same as web_search

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Terminal & process

Tool	Description	Required keys
terminal	Execute shell commands in the configured backend (local, SSH, Docker, Modal, etc.). Supports background execution with background=true and check_interval.	None
process	Manage background processes: list running processes, check status, stream output, or kill a process by ID.	None

Dangerous commands (e.g. rm -rf, curl | bash) trigger an approval prompt unless approvals.mode is off or the command matches command_allowlist.

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File operations

Tool	Description	Required keys
read_file	Read a file from the filesystem. Supports path expansion and binary file detection.	None
write_file	Write content to a file. Creates parent directories as needed.	None
patch	Apply targeted edits to a file using fuzzy string matching. Safer than full rewrites for small changes.	None
search_files	Search file contents by regex pattern and/or list files matching a glob. Returns matches with line numbers.	None

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Vision & media

Tool	Description	Required keys
vision_analyze	Analyze an image and return a description or answer a question about it. Passes the image to an auxiliary multimodal model.	OPENROUTER_API_KEY or multimodal provider
image_generate	Generate an image from a text prompt using FLUX via FAL.ai. Returns the image URL.	FAL_KEY
text_to_speech	Convert text to audio. Supports Edge TTS (free), ElevenLabs (premium), OpenAI TTS, and NeuTTS (local).	None for Edge TTS; ELEVENLABS_API_KEY or VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY for premium

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Browser automation

Browser tools control a Chromium browser session. Local browser works out of the box; cloud browser requires Browserbase credentials.

Tool	Description	Required keys
browser_navigate	Navigate to a URL in the browser.	None (local); BROWSERBASE_API_KEY + BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID (cloud)
browser_snapshot	Take a screenshot of the current browser page and return it as a vision-ready image.	Same as above
browser_click	Click an element on the page identified by a selector or coordinates.	Same
browser_type	Type text into an input element.	Same
browser_scroll	Scroll the page up, down, or to a specific position.	Same
browser_back	Navigate back in browser history.	Same
browser_press	Press a key (e.g. Enter, Escape, Tab).	Same
browser_close	Close the current browser session.	Same
browser_get_images	Extract all images from the current page.	Same
browser_vision	Analyze the current browser screenshot using an auxiliary vision model.	Same + multimodal provider
browser_console	Read the browser console log (JavaScript errors, warnings, and output).	Same

Use /browser connect in the CLI to attach to a running Chrome instance via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) instead of launching a new session.

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Code & delegation

Tool	Description	Required keys
execute_code	Run a Python script that calls Hermes tools via an internal RPC interface. Intermediate tool results stay out of the LLM context window, reducing token usage for bulk operations.	None
delegate_task	Spawn a child agent with isolated context and a specified toolset. Supports single tasks and batches of up to 3 parallel subagents.	None

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Planning

Tool	Description	Required keys
todo	In-session task planning and tracking. Create, update, and check off tasks. State is reset with /new.	None
memory	Read and write persistent memory across sessions. Two stores: MEMORY.md (agent notes) and USER.md (user profile). Both are injected into the system prompt at startup.	None

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Skills

Tool	Description	Required keys
skills_list	List all installed skill documents available in ~/.hermes/skills/.	None
skill_view	Read the content of a specific skill document.	None
skill_manage	Create, edit, rename, or delete skill documents.	None

Installed skills also become slash commands automatically (e.g. a skill named code-review activates via /code-review).

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Session

Tool	Description	Required keys
session_search	Search past conversations by keyword using FTS5 full-text search. Returns matching sessions with AI-generated summaries.	Auxiliary LLM (auto-resolved)

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Communication

Tool	Description	Required keys
send_message	Send a message to a platform (Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.) from within a session. Gated on the gateway being active.	Gateway + platform token
clarify	Ask the user a clarifying question — supports multiple-choice or open-ended prompts. Blocks the agent loop until the user responds.	None

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Scheduling

Tool	Description	Required keys
cronjob	Create, list, update, pause, resume, run, and remove scheduled tasks from within a session.	None

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Honcho

Honcho tools require HONCHO_API_KEY and a configured ~/.honcho/config.json. Run hermes honcho setup to configure.

Tool	Description	Required keys
honcho_context	Retrieve the Honcho session context for the current user — a structured summary of past interactions.	HONCHO_API_KEY
honcho_profile	Read or update the user’s Honcho profile (preferences, facts, communication style).	HONCHO_API_KEY
honcho_search	Search the Honcho memory store for relevant past facts.	HONCHO_API_KEY
honcho_conclude	Save a summary of the current session to Honcho at conversation end.	HONCHO_API_KEY

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Home Assistant

Home Assistant tools require a HASS_TOKEN (long-lived access token) and HASS_URL pointing to your Home Assistant instance.

Tool	Description	Required keys
ha_list_entities	List all entities in Home Assistant, optionally filtered by domain or area.	HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL
ha_get_state	Get the current state and attributes of a Home Assistant entity.	HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL
ha_list_services	List available Home Assistant services for a domain.	HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL
ha_call_service	Call a Home Assistant service (e.g. light.turn_on, switch.toggle).	HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL

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AI

Tool	Description	Required keys
mixture_of_agents	Aggregate responses from multiple models in parallel for stronger reasoning and answer quality.	OPENROUTER_API_KEY