How to install Hermes Agent and open the portal

You can have Hermes Agent running in under two minutes. That is the claim on the Installation page, and the documented path is short: a desktop package on macOS or Windows, or one installer script. Hermes Agent is the self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. After the install, the docs home names the fastest follow-up: hermes setup --portal.

Install the desktop package

On Windows or macOS, the easy way to install both the command-line and desktop applications is to download the Hermes Desktop installer from the Hermes website and run it.

On Windows, open the .appinstaller download with Windows App Installer. It installs the signed MSIX bundle and records its update source. Microsoft Store packages have separate Store ownership.

On macOS, open the DMG, then copy Hermes.app to Applications. The ZIP artifact carries the signed app used by the automatic updater. The macOS installer is Apple Silicon only. macOS on x86 (Intel) processors is not a supported platform.

Bundled packages contain the agent, Python, supported dependencies, and prebuilt interfaces. First launch does not build that base runtime. Provider access and optional integrations can still require network access.

A Hermes-Setup bootstrap installer is different. It downloads a source installation and builds the desktop app.

There is no separate remote-only Desktop download. To use Desktop with a Hermes backend on another machine, install one of the packages above and connect it from Settings → Gateways.

Install the CLI only

For a command-line only install without Hermes Desktop, Linux, macOS, and WSL2 share one script:

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

On native Windows, run this in PowerShell:

iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)

To install and run Hermes Desktop after a command-line only install, run:

hermes desktop

aarch64 Android uses a different installer. Use the Termux APT package, and configure its signed repository before pkg install hermes-agent. The desktop and server scripts are not the Termux installation path.

What the source installer does

The scripts clone the source, bootstrap uv, and delegate dependency preparation to PM. PM provides pinned Python, Node.js, npm, ripgrep, and FFmpeg. The source installation selects the all Python extra, not every optional extra.

PM also installs the browser and computer-use tools by default: agent-browser and its pinned Chromium, and cua-driver (the computer-use driver, on macOS, Windows, and glibc Linux). If a download fails, the install still completes and prints the command to retry. The default browser driver (browser-harness, the engine of the Browser Use CLI) is a regular Python dependency, so every install, the Desktop app included, already has it. Other optional tools use their own feature-specific installation paths.

To leave the browser tools out, pass --skip-browser on POSIX or -SkipBrowser on Windows. For the computer-use driver, pass --skip-computer-use or -SkipComputerUse. Hermes remembers these choices. Later installs and hermes update do not add them back. Run hermes pm install agent-browser or hermes pm install cua-driver to install them and undo the choice.

The scripts create a launcher and prepare the data directory. Interactive runs also invoke setup and gateway configuration. --non-interactive on POSIX, or -NonInteractive on Windows, skips stages that need input. The optional --include-desktop / -IncludeDesktop stage builds the desktop from source.

On a terminal, the scripts show one status line per step and write git, uv, and build output to logs/install.log under the Hermes data directory. A failed step prints its last lines and the log path. If CI or GITHUB_ACTIONS is set, if output is redirected, if you pass --verbose or -Verbose, or if HERMES_INSTALL_VERBOSE=1 is set, the scripts stream everything instead.

Where the files land

POSIX source script: code in ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/, a ~/.local/bin/hermes wrapper, and user data in ~/.hermes/.
Windows source script: code in %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\hermes-agent\, the CLI under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin\, and user data in %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\.
Desktop bundle: code inside the installed app package, packaged launchers and Windows execution aliases, and the platform default Hermes data directory.
Termux APT: code in $PREFIX/lib/hermes-agent/, symlinks in $PREFIX/bin/, and user data in ~/.hermes/.

HERMES_HOME selects user data. The POSIX script's --dir selects its source checkout independently. Windows provides -HermesHome and -InstallDir. Running the POSIX script as root does not select an automatic FHS layout. It uses root's home unless you provide an explicit source path.

Do not remove the data root to repair an application installation. PM's tool store and per-install Python generations have separate lifetimes; the Installation page points those locations at Package management.

The same layout table lists Docker as code in /opt/hermes/, an image entrypoint and hermes shim, and mounted /opt/data/.

Start a chat, then open the portal

Reload your shell, then start chatting. The Installation page shows:

source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc
hermes             # Start chatting!

Those lines are the bash and zsh examples. On native Windows, the documented CLI entry point is %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin\.

After installing, run the portal shortcut:

hermes setup --portal

One OAuth covers a model plus all four Tool Gateway tools: web search, image generation, TTS, and browser. The docs home points the rest of that flow at Nous Portal.

To change settings later, the Installation page lists these dedicated commands:

hermes model          # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools          # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes gateway setup  # Set up messaging platforms
hermes config set     # Set individual config values
hermes config get     # Inspect individual config values

The Installation page also documents a full setup wizard for later reconfiguration. hermes setup --portal is the documented fast path when you want that one OAuth instead of choosing a provider and tools separately. Hermes also works with Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, or any endpoint, so the portal command is the shortcut, not the only option.

What to do next

Install with the desktop package or the script for your OS, confirm hermes starts a chat, then run hermes setup --portal. If a source install fails, read the last lines it prints and logs/install.log under the Hermes data directory. Use the Installation page for ownership, data locations, and Windows-specific notes, and the docs home for the portal shortcut.