How to run Hermes Agent on a server

Hermes Agent, the open-source agent from Nous Research, keeps memory and skills and talks to you over Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal or email. On a laptop it goes quiet when the lid closes. On a server it answers at 3 a.m. Commands below are from the official docs as of October 2026.

What you need

• A Linux machine that stays on: a VPS, a home server, or a cloud computer. The installer also runs on macOS and WSL2.
• Git, curl and tar on that machine. The installer brings its own Python, Node, ripgrep and FFmpeg.
• A model provider with a model that has at least 64k tokens of context: Nous Portal, OpenAI (including a ChatGPT or Codex subscription), Anthropic, OpenRouter, Google AI Studio, a local model and others.
• Optional: a Telegram account, to talk to it from your phone.

1. Install Hermes

Sign in to the server as a normal user, not root, and run the official installer:

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
hermes doctor

By default it also installs a Chromium browser and computer-use support. On a small server that only needs chat and the terminal, you can skip them with the installer’s --skip-browser and --skip-computer-use options. Hermes keeps everything it knows in ~/.hermes.

2. Choose a model

hermes setup

The wizard asks for a provider and credentials. To change them later, run hermes model. With a ChatGPT or Codex subscription, choose that option and sign in with the device code it shows. Keys go in ~/.hermes/.env and settings in ~/.hermes/config.yaml.

3. Connect Telegram

1. In Telegram, message @BotFather, send /newbot, and keep the token it gives you.
2. Get your numeric user ID from @userinfobot.
3. Run the gateway setup and choose Telegram:

hermes gateway setup

Or put both values in ~/.hermes/.env:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=<token from BotFather>
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=<your numeric user ID>

Then start it with hermes gateway and message your bot. Users who aren’t on the allowlist are refused.

4. Keep it running

hermes gateway runs in the foreground and stops when your SSH session ends. Install it as a service instead:

# a user service; keep it running after you log out
hermes gateway install
sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER

# or, on a VPS that should bring it back at boot (Linux)
sudo hermes gateway install --system

hermes gateway status

The docs recommend the system service for a VPS or headless host. In a container, run hermes gateway run as the main process with a restart policy instead.

5. Lock it down

An agent that answers messages and runs commands deserves care. From the security docs:

• Keep the allowlist. Never set GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS=true on a server. Approve new people with hermes pairing approve.
• Run it as a non-root user.
• Leave approvals on. The default smart mode asks before risky commands; --yolo turns that off.
• Isolate the commands it runs. The Docker terminal backend runs commands in a locked-down container instead of on the server itself.
• Watch the logs in ~/.hermes/logs/.

6. Back up and update

hermes backup              # an archive of ~/.hermes, credentials included
hermes update --backup     # update, taking a backup first

Restore on a new machine with hermes import <backup.zip>. The backup contains your keys, so store it like a password.

Don’t want a server? Two other options

• Hermes Cloud. Nous runs it for you in its own container with a persistent workspace, through a Nous Portal plan, billed per second while it runs plus storage. See Nous Portal.
• A cloud computer. Your own machine, without the server administration. That’s what Cube is.

Hermes on Cube

Cube is a Linux computer in the cloud that stays on when your laptop closes. Hermes Agent is one of the 22 agents you can install in one click.

1. Open your computer, then Agents & Tools, and install Hermes Agent. Cube runs the official installer.
2. In a terminal on the computer, run hermes setup and choose your model. A ChatGPT or Codex subscription works.
3. Set up Telegram with hermes gateway setup, then start hermes gateway in its own terminal. Cube’s terminals keep running after you close the app or your laptop, so the gateway stays up.

What to know:

• There’s no sudo on Cube computers yet, so the system-service install from step 4 isn’t available. Running the gateway in a Cube terminal does the same job.
• If you pause the computer, or credit runs out, running processes stop and your files stay. After Resume, start hermes gateway again. Your memory, skills and settings in ~/.hermes are still there.
• Back up with hermes backup, and download your files from Machine when you want a copy on your Mac.

The smallest computer costs $12 a month running all the time, and new accounts start with $25 of free credit.