How to install Hermes Agent on Mac, Windows and Linux

Pick your install method

There are four official routes. Choose by your machine and by whether you want a window or a terminal.

Android phones (64-bit ARM) can run it too, through a signed package repository for Termux. That is a separate path with its own guide in the Hermes docs, and Android may stop the agent when it runs in the background.

Not supported: pip install hermes-agent, uv tool install, Homebrew and the AUR. Those packages may exist, but the Hermes team does not support them, so use one of the routes above.

Option 1: the desktop app

Download the package from the official Hermes Agent website. It bundles the agent, its own Python and its dependencies, so there is nothing else to install first.

• Mac: open the DMG and drag Hermes into Applications. This package is for Apple Silicon only.
• Windows: open the .appinstaller file and let Windows App Installer do the rest. It needs Windows 11 version 22H2 or later.

The app keeps itself updated. Our guide to the Hermes desktop app covers what it can do and its main limit.

Option 2: Mac, Linux or WSL2 in one command

Open a terminal and run:

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

You need Git, curl, tar and a SHA-256 checksum tool on the machine, which most Macs and Linux systems already have. The script fetches its own tools: a pinned Python 3.14, Node.js, ripgrep and FFmpeg, plus a browser it can drive and a computer-use helper. You do not need to install Python first, and a Python you already have is left alone.

On Linux, a few system pieces are still up to you. On a minimal server the installer may add one library itself (libatomic1 on Ubuntu and Debian) and asks for your sudo password once if it does. The browser it drives also needs the usual system libraries for Chromium, and anything built from source may need a compiler. Those come from your distribution’s package manager, not from the Hermes installer.

When it finishes, reload your shell and start the agent:

source ~/.bashrc     # on a Mac with zsh: source ~/.zshrc
hermes

Option 3: Windows with PowerShell

Hermes runs natively on Windows 10 and 11, without WSL. Open PowerShell and run this; it does not need administrator rights:

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

It installs into %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes and brings its own Python, Node.js and the other tools. If Git is missing it uses a private copy, without touching your system. When it is done, open a new PowerShell window and type hermes.

If you prefer Linux tools, you can run the Mac and Linux command inside WSL2 instead. That copy lives in ~/.hermes inside WSL and is separate from a native Windows install.

One Windows-specific snag: some antivirus programs, Windows Defender and Bitdefender among them, flag uv.exe in the Hermes bin folder as malware. The Hermes team says this is a false positive (uv is the Python package manager Hermes uses). If it gets quarantined, add an exclusion for the %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin folder rather than for the single file, because the file changes with every update.

First run: connect an AI model

Hermes is the agent, not the AI model. On first run it needs a provider to send its thinking to. The setup wizard asks you to pick one:

hermes setup

• Quick Setup signs you in to a Nous Portal subscription, which covers the model and tools such as web search in one go.
• Full Setup lets you bring your own keys: OpenRouter, Anthropic for Claude, a ChatGPT or Codex subscription, and many more.
• Blank Slate starts with almost everything switched off, for people who want to enable each tool by hand.

You can change provider later with hermes model. For running a model on your own machine (Ollama, vLLM or SGLang), pick a custom endpoint there. If you plan to use Claude, our Hermes Agent with Claude guide compares the options.

The Hermes docs give one good rule here: get a single normal chat working before you add anything else. Chat apps, scheduled jobs and extra tools are much easier to set up on top of an agent that already answers.

Keep it running after you close the terminal

Typing hermes gives you a chat in the terminal, which stops when you close it. To reach the agent from Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord or another chat app, set up its gateway and install it as a background service:

hermes gateway setup     # pick your chat apps
hermes gateway install   # background service (systemd, launchd or a Windows Scheduled Task)
hermes gateway status

On a Linux server, sudo hermes gateway install --system makes it start at boot even when nobody is logged in.

The catch is the machine itself. A service on your laptop still stops when the laptop sleeps, so scheduled jobs are missed and chat messages wait unanswered. For an agent that works while you are away, it has to live on a computer that never sleeps: a home server, a rented server, or a hosted agent.

Common install problems

To update an install made with the one-line installers, run hermes update. The desktop app updates itself, and Termux and Nix installs update through their own package managers. With Docker, pull the newer image and recreate the container from it.

Or skip the install

If what you want is the agent rather than the install, ReadyHermes runs your own Hermes Agent for you. You create an account and it is ready in about 10 seconds, already connected to an AI model, on a machine that stays on. You use it in your browser or from Telegram, WhatsApp and other chat apps, and it works in your Gmail, Calendar and Docs.

• Nothing to download, so it works the same from a Mac, Windows PC, Chromebook or phone.
• No API key needed to start: every plan includes some AI each month.
• Still yours to dig into: root SSH, file access and backups are in Bot tools.

Weighing it up? Read what Hermes Agent is, or compare running it yourself with managed hosting.