Installing Hermes Agent on a Mac mini

What Hermes Agent is

Hermes Agent is an open source agent from Nous Research, under the MIT license. It keeps memory between sessions and writes its own skills as it learns your work. A gateway connects it to Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp and other chat apps (github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent, October 2026).

You can use it as a terminal chat, like other coding agents. Or you can leave the gateway running and message it from your phone. The second way is why people want it on an always-on Mac.

Requirements

• Apple silicon. The install docs say the macOS installer is Apple silicon only, and Intel Macs are not supported (October 2026).
• Python 3.11 to 3.14, git and curl. The installer stages its own Python, Node, ffmpeg and ripgrep, so a clean Mac is fine.
• A model. Hermes works with Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Nous Portal and many others. Its provider docs list API keys, browser sign-in and some subscription plans. It also accepts any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint, such as Ollama.

Install it

This is the documented command for macOS. Reload your shell after it.

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

For a script or a remote shell, the installer takes flags that skip the questions and the optional browser and computer-use tools. We used them for our test.

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash -s -- --non-interactive --skip-browser --skip-computer-use

We ran it twice on GitHub hosted macOS 26 machines on October 2, 2026. It took about 2 minutes once and 6.5 minutes the other time, mostly downloads. The version check printed this.

$ hermes --version
Hermes Agent v0.21.5+5635.g5bba024 (2026.9.24) · upstream 5bba024d

It helps to know what landed where. The installer cloned the code into a hermes folder in your home directory. It put its own copies of Python 3.14.7, Node, ffmpeg and ripgrep in a tools folder inside it. The hermes command went into the local bin folder in your home directory. It also added 58 bundled skills, including ones for Apple Notes, Reminders and iMessage. Those are a reason to run Hermes on a Mac rather than a Linux box.

Now pick a model and run the setup wizard.

hermes model
hermes setup
hermes doctor

Coming from OpenClaw? The README lists a command that imports your OpenClaw settings.

hermes claw migrate

Keep the gateway running 24/7

First connect your chat apps. Then install the gateway as a service. On macOS that is a launchd agent.

hermes gateway setup
hermes gateway install
hermes gateway start
hermes gateway status
tail -f ~/.hermes/logs/gateway.log

We ran the install command on a test machine with no chat apps set up yet. Its user is named runner. The status check confirmed that launchd was running the gateway.

$ hermes gateway install
Installing launchd service to: /Users/runner/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.hermes.gateway.plist
✓ Service installed and loaded!
$ hermes gateway status
✓ Service definition matches the current Hermes install
✓ Gateway is supervised by launchd (PID 14390)
  Auto-start at login and auto-restart on crash are available.

The service file is set to run at load, so it comes back at every login. It also restarts the gateway if it exits with an error. One catch from the messaging docs. If you install new tools later, run the install command again so the service picks up the new PATH.

Like any LaunchAgent, it needs a logged-in user. Turn on automatic login, then turn off sleep.

sudo pmset -a sleep 0
sudo pmset -a disksleep 0
sudo pmset -a displaysleep 10

For a terminal session that survives a dropped connection, run the interactive agent inside tmux. The steps are in our tmux guide. They work the same for Hermes.

Security notes

• The gateway denies everyone until you allow them. Set an allowlist of user IDs, or approve people one at a time with pairing codes. Codes expire after an hour.
• Approvals have three modes: manual, smart and off. Off is the same as the yolo flag. Keep it on manual until you trust your setup.
• Keep API keys in the env file in the hermes folder, readable only by you. Never commit it.
• For more isolation, the security docs show how to run commands in a Docker container instead of on the Mac itself.

# in ~/.hermes/.env
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789

# or approve one person by pairing code
hermes pairing approve telegram XKGH5N7P
chmod 600 ~/.hermes/.env

Some protections hold even in yolo mode, per the docs. A hard blocklist stops commands like a recursive delete of the whole disk. Its file tools refuse to write into the ssh and aws folders.

Running it on a MacRun Mac

Our agent plan gives you a dedicated Mac mini with sleep off. Its login session comes back on its own after a reboot. Claude Code and Codex come preinstalled. Hermes does not. You install it with the script above using your admin rights. If you point Hermes at a cloud model, the base 16 GB M6 is plenty.

Who should not rent a Mac for this. Hermes runs on Linux too. If you do not need Xcode, Apple Notes or iMessage, a Linux server is cheaper. And MacRun is for developer work, so use it for coding, builds and repo chores, not a personal life assistant.

See what the agent plan includes on the agent Mac page.