Platform Guide

Hermes Agent on Android: Chat From Your Phone, or Run It in Termux

Q: Can I keep the Hermes gateway running 24/7 on my phone?

Not reliably. The Termux package has no systemd service, and the upstream docs warn that Android can suspend or kill background Termux processes. Battery exemptions and termux-wake-lock help but do not guarantee uptime. For an always-on bot, run the gateway on a server.

Q: Can I use the Hermes web dashboard from my Android browser?

Yes, if it is reachable from your phone. hermes dashboard binds to 127.0.0.1 by default; binding to a network address like 0.0.0.0 requires a configured username/password or OAuth provider before it will start. The dashboard includes a chat tab you can use from a mobile browser.

Q: How is this different from the OpenClaw Android guide?

OpenClaw has a companion Android app that pairs with its gateway. Hermes has no Android app, so you reach Hermes through messaging platforms, its web dashboard, or the Termux package.

There is no Hermes Agent app in the Play Store. That does not mean Hermes is awkward on Android: it was built to live in the chat apps already on your phone. This guide covers the three real options, based on the current upstream Hermes docs, and explains why the phone usually works best as the client rather than the host.

Hermes vs OpenClaw on Android

These two agents take different approaches to phones, so it is worth picking the right guide first:

OpenClaw has a companion Android app that pairs with an OpenClaw gateway and adds phone-side features. See the OpenClaw Android guide.
Hermes Agent has no Android app. You use it from Android through a messaging platform, its web dashboard, or a Termux package. That is this page.

Your three options at a glance

Option	Where Hermes runs	What the phone does	Good for
1. Chat apps	A server, desktop or managed host	Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, ntfy and others	Almost everyone
2. Remote web dashboard	A server or home machine	Mobile browser	Config, sessions and chat without a messaging app
3. Termux package	On the phone itself	Terminal (CLI/TUI)	Tinkering; currently marked broken upstream

Option 1: Chat with Hermes through a messaging app

This is the path Hermes was designed around. The Hermes gateway is a long-running process that connects your agent to messaging platforms; the upstream docs list Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, SMS via Twilio, email, WeChat, Feishu, WeCom, DingTalk, ntfy and more. Each of those has an Android client, so once the gateway runs on a machine that stays online, your phone is just another chat window.

Telegram is the quickest to set up. On a self-hosted install, run:

hermes gateway setup

and choose Telegram, or put the values in your profile’s .env yourself:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789    # your Telegram user ID

The Hermes dashboard and desktop app also offer a Create with QR button on the Telegram page: scan it in Telegram on your phone and Hermes creates the bot, detects your user ID and writes both values for you. Keep the allowlist set so strangers who find your bot cannot use it. Full steps are in Hermes Agent + Telegram, with Discord and WhatsApp guides alongside.

If you would rather not use a chat account at all, Hermes also supports ntfy: subscribe to a topic in the ntfy Android app, publish to it to talk to the agent, and replies come back as notifications. Pick a hard-to-guess topic name, since public ntfy topics are open to anyone who knows them.

Everything the agent can do still happens on the gateway machine: files, shell commands, browser tools, cron jobs. The phone sends messages and receives replies, which is why this option does not care how powerful your phone is.

Option 2: Open the Hermes web dashboard in your phone’s browser

hermes dashboard starts a web UI on port 9119 with a chat tab, session history, skills, messaging setup and settings. By default it binds to 127.0.0.1, which only the host machine can reach. To use it from Android on the same network, bind it to a network address:

hermes dashboard --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9119 --no-open

Hermes deliberately fails closed here. Any non-loopback bind engages an auth gate, and the server refuses to start until an auth provider is configured. The simplest is the built-in username/password provider, set in the environment:

HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME=admin
HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=choose-a-strong-password
HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_SECRET=<32+ random bytes; openssl rand -base64 32>

Then open http://<host-lan-ip>:9119 on your phone and sign in. The dashboard’s workspace picker exists partly for this case: upstream describes it as the fix for driving Hermes from a phone when you want a chat to start in a specific project folder.

Two cautions. The dashboard reads and writes your .env, API keys included, so do not expose it to the open internet on plain HTTP; keep it on your LAN or behind a VPN or HTTPS tunnel. And if Hermes runs in WSL2 on Windows, reaching it from a phone needs a Windows-to-WSL port forward unless WSL mirrored networking is on; the upstream Windows/WSL quickstart walks through it.

Option 3: Run Hermes on the phone with Termux

Hermes does have an official Android install path: a signed APT repository for Termux, with a stable channel for tagged releases and a canary channel for prereleases. The package bundles its own Python, Node.js, uv, ripgrep and ffmpeg, so the phone does not compile anything during install.

Status check first. On 25 September 2026 the upstream docs added a warning that the Termux package does not work right now and that a fix is in progress. Until that banner is gone, expect the install to fail or produce a package that does not run. Read the official Termux guide for the current state and the full steps, including the signing-key fingerprint you must verify.

When it is working, the outline is:

pkg install curl gnupg
# add the signed Hermes repository and verify its key (see the official guide)
pkg update
pkg install hermes-agent
hermes setup
hermes --tui

Requirements and limits worth knowing before you start:

aarch64 only. The package targets arm64-v8a devices on Android API 24+, in the standard Termux app at its standard prefix. Other architectures and renamed Termux builds are not supported.
Do not use the desktop installer. The install.sh script and glibc Linux archives are not the Termux path.
Updates go through APT. Use pkg upgrade hermes-agent; hermes update refuses to modify an APT-owned install.
No local browser or Docker. The package leaves out Electron, local Chromium, desktop computer-use tools and a Docker daemon.
No phone-native voice. Termux:API microphone and clipboard adapters are not provided, so do not assume local voice or wake-word support.
Some skills will not load. Python on this target reports sys.platform == "android", so a dependency or skill gated to linux is not automatically available.

Running the gateway from Termux

Termux has no systemd, so there is no hermes gateway install service here. You run it in a session:

hermes gateway run

or push it to the background:

mkdir -p "${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/logs"
nohup hermes gateway run >> "${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/logs/gateway.log" 2>&1 &

The upstream docs are frank that Android can suspend or kill background Termux processes, and that battery exemptions and termux-wake-lock help without guaranteeing anything. A Telegram bot hosted on a phone will go quiet whenever Android decides it should.

Which option should you pick?

You want	Use
To message your agent from anywhere, any time	Option 1, with the gateway on a server or managed host
To change settings, browse sessions or chat without a messaging app	Option 2, the remote dashboard
A fully offline, on-device experiment	Option 3, once the Termux package is fixed
A dedicated Android app	OpenClaw instead — see the OpenClaw Android guide

For a deeper look at the terminal side of Hermes, see Hermes Agent CLI. For the laptop equivalent of this page, see Hermes Agent Desktop App.

On OpenClaw Launch

The pattern that works best on Android is gateway in the cloud, phone as client, and that is what managed Hermes hosting does. OpenClaw Launch runs Hermes in an isolated container that stays online, connects it to Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, WeChat or web chat from the dashboard, and needs no server, Termux session or wake-lock on your side. You then chat with it from the Android apps you already use, and your phone’s battery settings no longer matter. If you prefer to run it yourself, Deploy Hermes Agent covers the self-hosted route, and Best Hermes Hosting compares the options.

Hermes Agent Android FAQ

Is there a Hermes Agent Android app?

No. Nous Research does not publish a Hermes Agent app on Google Play or as an APK. The official Android path is a Termux package, which gives you the Hermes CLI and TUI inside a terminal, not a phone-style app. Most people use Hermes on Android through a chat app such as Telegram, with the gateway running somewhere else. OpenClaw is different: it has a companion Android app, covered in the OpenClaw Android guide.

Can I install Hermes Agent in Termux?

There is an official signed Termux APT repository for aarch64 (arm64-v8a) devices, with stable and canary channels, installed with pkg install hermes-agent. However, on 25 September 2026 the upstream docs added a warning that the Termux package does not work right now and a fix is in progress. Check the Termux guide for its current status before you try.

Can I keep the Hermes gateway running 24/7 on my phone?

Not reliably. The Termux package has no systemd service, so you start the gateway yourself with hermes gateway run, and the upstream docs warn that Android can suspend or kill background Termux processes. Battery optimisation exemptions and termux-wake-lock help but do not guarantee it stays up. For a bot that answers while your phone sleeps, run the gateway on a server.

Can I use the Hermes web dashboard from my Android browser?

Yes, if the dashboard is reachable from your phone. hermes dashboard binds to 127.0.0.1 by default; binding it to a network address such as --host 0.0.0.0 engages an auth gate, and the server refuses to start until a username/password or OAuth provider is configured. The dashboard includes a chat tab and a workspace picker the docs describe for driving Hermes from a phone.

How is this different from the OpenClaw Android guide?

OpenClaw ships a companion Android app that pairs with an OpenClaw gateway and adds phone features like camera and canvas. Hermes has no such app, so on Android you reach Hermes through messaging platforms, its web dashboard, or Termux. If you want a dedicated app on your phone, read the OpenClaw Android guide; if you are set on Hermes, use this page.