How to uninstall Hermes Agent completely

What a Hermes install puts on your computer

It helps to know the pieces before removing them, because they live in different places. With the standard install script, Hermes keeps two things apart:

• Your data, called the Hermes home. On Linux, macOS and WSL2 it is ~/.hermes; on native Windows it is %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes. It holds config.yaml, the .env file with your API keys, auth.json with sign-in tokens for providers, plus memories, skills, sessions, scheduled jobs and logs. Extra profiles live under profiles/ inside it.
• The program, a source checkout. By default the installer puts it inside the home as ~/.hermes/hermes-agent (or %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\hermes-agent), unless you chose another folder.
• The hermes command, a small launcher in ~/.local/bin. On Windows the launchers sit in %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin, and the installer adds that folder to your user PATH.
• A background service, if you installed the messaging gateway as one: a systemd unit called hermes-gateway.service on Linux, a LaunchAgent called ai.hermes.gateway.plist on macOS, or a Scheduled Task called Hermes_Gateway on Windows. Named profiles normally share it; a profile you installed as its own service has the profile name added.
• Profile shortcuts: every profile you create can add a command with its own name to ~/.local/bin.

WSL2 counts as Linux here. If you installed Hermes both inside WSL2 and natively on Windows, you have two separate installs with two separate homes, and each one is removed from its own side.

Step 1: back up what you might want later

Even if you are sure you are done with Hermes, a copy of your memories, skills and conversations costs little and cannot be recreated once deleted. Hermes has two built-in ways to make one:

• hermes backup makes a full zip of the Hermes home, all profiles included. By default it is saved in your user folder as ~/hermes-backup-<timestamp>.zip, outside ~/.hermes, so it survives a full uninstall. It leaves out the program itself, downloaded runtimes and models, caches and browser profiles. It does include .env and auth.json, so treat the zip like a password file. It exits with an error and names the files it skipped if anything could not be copied; read that list before you delete the original.
• hermes profile export <name> packs a single profile into a .tar.gz without its credentials, which is the safer choice for sharing. Its default output folder is inside the Hermes home, which a full uninstall deletes, so give it a path elsewhere with -o.

To bring a full backup back on a fresh install later, use hermes import with the zip.

Step 2: run hermes uninstall

For a normal install made with the install script, the built-in command does most of the work. See what it would touch first; a dry run changes nothing:

hermes uninstall --dry-run

Then run hermes uninstall in a terminal. It shows what is installed and offers three choices:

1. Keep data removes the program but leaves the Hermes home in place, so a reinstall picks up your settings, keys and history.
2. Full uninstall also deletes the Hermes home: configuration, API keys, sessions, scheduled jobs and logs, plus any named profiles stored inside it. It separately asks whether to stop those profiles and remove their services and shortcuts. Declining that cleanup does not preserve their data.
3. Cancel.

Either way you type yes to confirm. In both modes the uninstaller:

• stops any running gateway and removes its systemd, launchd or Scheduled Task service;
• removes the hermes, hermes-acp and hermes-agent launchers from ~/.local/bin and /usr/local/bin, and any node, npm or npx shortcuts that point into Hermes’s own Node.js;
• removes Hermes-specific PATH lines from your shell startup files;
• removes the Desktop app and its build files, and Hermes caches outside the home;
• deletes the program folder.

On Windows it also cleans up the Hermes entries in your user PATH and the user variables older installers set. Keep data leaves the Hermes bin folder on PATH even though the launchers in it are gone; a full uninstall removes that entry too. Open a new PowerShell window afterwards so the changes apply.

A few options are useful:

• --yes skips confirmation prompts. With hermes uninstall --full --yes, the entire Hermes home, including named profiles’ data, is deleted, but their services and shortcuts are not cleaned up; delete named profiles first to remove those too (see below). In this version, --full alone still shows the interactive menu; select option 2 for Full uninstall.
• hermes uninstall --gui removes only the Desktop app and keeps the agent.
• hermes uninstall --data does the opposite: it erases the current home’s data and leaves the program installed. It is the one mode that works on installs Hermes does not own, such as Docker.

If you use profiles, remove them before a full uninstall with hermes profile delete <name>. That deletes the profile’s folder, its shortcut command and its gateway service in one go. Our guide to Hermes Agent profiles explains how they are laid out.

Step 3: check for leftovers on your system

After the command finishes, a few things can remain. Some are deliberate, some are outside what the uninstaller looks at.

Linux and WSL2

• Your data, if you chose Keep data: delete ~/.hermes yourself once you have your backup. Keep data also leaves ~/.local/share/hermes if it exists.
• A system-wide service: a gateway installed as a system service lives in /etc/systemd/system, and the uninstaller only warns about it when not run with sudo. Remove it with sudo systemctl disable --now hermes-gateway, delete the unit file, then run sudo systemctl daemon-reload.
• Profile services: the uninstaller removes the default profile’s unit. List any others with systemctl --user list-unit-files 'hermes-gateway*' and remove them with hermes -p <name> gateway uninstall before the program is gone, or with systemctl afterwards.
• The PATH line: the installer added a line to ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc or ~/.profile under a comment reading “Hermes Agent command”. The uninstaller drops the comment, but the line itself only adds ~/.local/bin to your PATH, which many other tools use, so it stays. Leave it unless you added that folder only for Hermes. Fish users should look in ~/.config/fish/config.fish, which the uninstaller does not check.

macOS

• The uninstaller removes every gateway LaunchAgent, including ones with the older io.nousresearch.hermes-agent.gateway name. LaunchAgents that run the web dashboard are only removed in full mode, so after Keep data check ~/Library/LaunchAgents for files with “hermes” in the name.
• Hermes-named entries in ~/Library/Caches, ~/Library/Logs and similar folders are cleared in both modes. The Desktop app’s own data in ~/Library/Application Support/Hermes is kept unless you choose the full uninstall.

Windows (native)

• With Keep data, %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes stays, holding your settings, keys and history. Delete it once you have your backup. The Hermes docs warn that deleting this folder also deletes your data, so do it as the last step, not as a way to repair an install.
• If a gateway still starts at sign-in, look in Task Scheduler for Hermes_Gateway and in your Startup folder for a matching .vbs or .cmd file.

If Hermes came from a package manager instead of the install script, first run hermes uninstall --data if you want your data erased, then remove the program with that tool: Termux uses pkg uninstall hermes-agent, and a Nix install is removed from your flake or profile (for example nix profile remove). If you are not sure how it was installed, the Hermes Agent install guide lists the methods.

Docker installs and the Hermes Desktop app

Docker

In a Docker install the program is inside the image, so hermes uninstall refuses to remove it and points you to Docker instead. With the container named hermes as in the Hermes docs:

docker rm -f hermes
docker rmi nousresearch/hermes-agent

If you used the Docker Compose file from the Hermes repository, run docker compose down in its folder; that file defines both a hermes and a hermes-dashboard container, and the image it builds is called hermes-agent. Your data is not in the container. It is in the folder you mounted at /opt/data, usually ~/.hermes on the host, which you delete separately. If you used a named volume instead, remove it with docker volume rm and its name. Our Hermes Agent Docker guide covers that layout.

Hermes Desktop

How you remove the Desktop app depends on how you got it. If it was built from a script install (with hermes desktop or the Hermes-Setup installer), open Settings, About, and use the Uninstall section. It offers the Chat GUI only, the GUI plus the agent while keeping your data, or everything, matching hermes uninstall --gui, hermes uninstall and hermes uninstall --full. The app closes to finish the job.

The downloadable packages are owned by the operating system instead, and the app says so on the same page:

• Windows (App Installer or Microsoft Store): Settings, Apps, Installed apps, then uninstall Hermes.
• macOS: quit the app and drag Hermes.app from Applications to the Trash.
• Linux: delete the AppImage from wherever you saved it, or remove a .deb or .rpm with your package manager, for example sudo apt remove hermes.

Removing a packaged app does not delete your configuration, chats and keys; the About page shows the folder they are in. Delete it yourself after backing up, along with the app’s own data folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Hermes on macOS, %APPDATA%\Hermes on Windows or ~/.config/Hermes on Linux.

Step 4: revoke the keys and tokens you gave it

Deleting .env and auth.json removes your copies of the keys. It does not switch them off. Anyone who has a copy, from an old backup, a synced folder or a shared screen, can still use them. If you are leaving Hermes for good, cancel them where they were issued:

• Model provider keys (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek and so on): delete the key in that provider’s dashboard.
• Telegram bot: use /revoke in BotFather to revoke a compromised token, or /deletebot if you want to delete the bot.
• Discord, Slack and other chat apps: revoke or regenerate the bot token where you created the bot, and remove the bot from any server or workspace where you no longer want it.
• WhatsApp: on your phone, open WhatsApp, Settings, Linked Devices, and remove the device Hermes used.
• Connected accounts and MCP servers: revoke any access you granted to Google, GitHub or similar services from that account’s security or connected-apps page.

Remember that your hermes backup zip still contains these secrets. Once the keys are revoked it matters less, but keep it somewhere private or delete it when you no longer need it.

Troubleshooting a stubborn uninstall

• The terminal still finds hermes. Open a new terminal, or run source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc), as the uninstaller suggests. If it is still there, run which hermes (or Get-Command hermes -All in PowerShell) to see where it comes from. The uninstaller only removes launchers it recognises as its own in ~/.local/bin and /usr/local/bin, so a copy from another install method stays.
• The uninstaller says it needs a terminal. Without --yes or --dry-run it has to ask questions, so it refuses to run from a script or pipe. Run it in an interactive terminal, or add --yes once you are sure.
• It refuses to remove the code. The install belongs to something else: Docker, Nix, Termux’s package manager or a packaged Desktop app. The message names the right removal step, and hermes uninstall --data still clears your data.
• The gateway keeps coming back. Something is still starting it: a system-wide systemd unit, a profile’s service, a dashboard LaunchAgent, a Windows Scheduled Task, or a Docker container with a restart policy. Work through the checks in Step 3 and the Docker section.
• Hermes.app reappeared on a Mac. If you kept a script install and dragged the app to the Trash, the next hermes update puts it back. Use hermes uninstall --gui to remove it for good.
• “Could not remove” warnings. The uninstaller carries on past files it cannot delete and names each one. Close anything that might be using them, such as the Desktop app or an editor open in that folder, and delete them by hand.

Uninstalling Hermes on ReadyHermes

On ReadyHermes your Hermes Agent runs on our servers, so there is nothing on your computer to uninstall. What you can do instead, all from the workspace:

• Pause it: Bot tools, Power, Stop. The assistant stops replying everywhere, in the web chat and in connected chat apps. Stopping does not cancel your plan.
• Keep a copy: Bot tools, Backup downloads a .zip of the parts you select: settings, personality and instructions, skills, session files and workspace files. It does not include Hermes’s built-in memories folder. Known credential files are excluded and configuration secrets are redacted, but secrets written into conversations or other included files can remain. Bot tools needs an active plan or trial, so download it before your access ends. Separately, Privacy & data, Download data gives you a JSON file with your account details, preferences and saved conversation history.
• Disconnect chat apps: in Channels you can disconnect Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, WeChat or Lark. As with a self-run install, also revoke the bot token or linked device on that platform if you are leaving.
• Stop paying: Billing, Manage billing opens the billing portal, where you can cancel. You keep full access until the end of the period you paid for. After a plan ends, a stopped assistant is kept for 7 days in case you come back.
• Delete everything: Privacy & data, Delete account. After you type your email to confirm, it permanently deletes your account, its saved conversation and preferences, and your assistant, and sets any active subscription to cancel so you are not charged again. It cannot be undone.

If you are removing Hermes from your own machine because keeping it running, updated and online got to be a chore, a hosted assistant is one way to keep using it without that work, and you can try one free for an hour. If you simply no longer need an agent, the steps above are all you need. Our comparison of self-hosting and managed hosting sets out the trade-offs either way.