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Hermes Agent

Connect Nous Research's Hermes Agent to Aurora as a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Aurora supplies inference; Hermes runs the agent tools and manages sessions.

Select Inference Endpoint
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Install and prepare​

Follow the Hermes installation guide for your operating system. Create an Aurora token.

Store this entry in ~/.hermes/.env (create the file if needed):

AURORA_API_TOKEN=<your-token>

If you use a Hermes profile or custom HERMES_HOME, use that profile's .env and config.yaml. Keep the secret file out of source control.

Configure the main model​

In ~/.hermes/config.yaml, replace the existing model value with this mapping:

model:
provider: custom
default: deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash
base_url: 
api_key: ${AURORA_API_TOKEN}
api_mode: chat_completions

Use the complete Aurora model ID. Hermes expands environment references in configuration from its environment and .env; api_mode: chat_completions selects the supported API explicitly.

For interactive setup, run hermes model outside a chat session, choose Custom endpoint, and enter the selected base URL, Aurora token, and model ID. Check the resulting configuration uses Chat Completions. The /model command inside a session switches existing providers; it does not perform initial setup.

Start and verify​

From the project directory:

hermes chat

Ask:

Read README.md and summarize the project in three bullets. Do not edit files.

Use an existing text file accessible to the configured terminal backend. Expect a file-tool result and a summary. With a Docker or remote backend, host files must be available in that backend's workspace.

Start a new session after editing the main model configuration. Existing chats can retain their model selection. Hermes manages streaming for the session.

Auxiliary models and troubleshooting​

Hermes has separate model slots for compression, titles, vision, and other tasks. Review them in Models → Show auxiliary, particularly on an existing install. Text tasks can use the main Aurora model; vision requires a vision-capable model, and speech or image generation needs a separately configured service.

  • Wrong endpoint: Set model.base_url in YAML. OPENAI_BASE_URL applies to Hermes' openai-api provider, not this custom-provider configuration.
  • Token unresolved: Check the active profile's .env and restart the client.
  • New model not taking effect: Open a new session or explicitly switch the active session with /model.
  • Tool or compression errors: Check the tool backend and auxiliary model assignments as well as the main connection.

See shared troubleshooting, Hermes custom endpoints, and model configuration.