Hermes Agent Desktop App — Official Installers for Mac and Windows

What Hermes Agent Provides

Hermes Agent by Nous Research is a multi-platform AI agent framework. It runs as a background service and exposes:

• A browser dashboard started with hermes dashboard on 127.0.0.1:9119 — config, keys, sessions, skills, cron and a Chat tab
• An OpenAI-compatible API server on port 8642 for programmatic access
• Platform integrations for Telegram, Discord, Slack, and others
• Built-in tools: web search (Tavily, Exa, Firecrawl), shell execution, FAL.ai image generation, approval policies, and cron jobs
• Persistent memory in MEMORY.md and USER.md, with optional external memory providers, kept across restarts

Hermes is server-side by design, which is why the desktop app does not replace the gateway — it connects to one. Path 1 below installs the app; paths 2 to 4 are the backends it can connect to. If you only want to try Hermes quickly, Path 1 plus the app's built-in default gateway is enough on its own.

Path 1: The Official Desktop App

Nous Research publishes a native Hermes Agent app at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com. It is a real installable application, not a browser wrapper. Graphical installers are published for two platforms:

• macOS 12 or newer — download the .dmg installer
• Windows 10 and 11 — download the .exe installer

On the Mac side, Apple Silicon is upstream's top-priority platform. Upstream's own docs disagree about Intel Macs (the install page calls them unsupported, while the platform page lists Intel builds), so check the current notes before relying on an Intel machine.

On both, the installer sets up the command-line hermes tool alongside the graphical app, so a separate CLI install is not needed. Inside the app you get Hermes itself: chat, profiles for keeping separate agents apart, the Kanban task board, the skills system, MCP server connections, persistent memory, and scheduled jobs.

Linux is the exception. There is no graphical installer for it. The terminal one-liner is what the Hermes docs describe as a command-line install “without Hermes Desktop” — it gives you the hermes CLI, the terminal UI and the browser dashboard. Run hermes desktop afterwards to add the native window. The same script covers Linux, macOS and WSL2; Android uses the Termux package instead:

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

The equivalent command-line-only install on Windows is iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1), run in PowerShell.

Choosing What the App Connects To

You pick the backend in Settings → Gateways → Connection mode (older builds call the page Gateway), and you can change it there later. A brand-new install with no agent on the machine puts that choice in front of you at startup instead, and a Repair install can bring it back — but once Hermes is set up, Settings is the way in. The connection modes are:

• Use default gateway — the gateway the app manages itself on your machine. Nothing to configure; start here if you are just trying it out.
• Hermes Cloud — sign in to a Nous Research account and pick an agent hosted there.
• Remote gateway — point the app at a Hermes backend that is already running somewhere else and sign in. This is the mode to use with a managed instance (see Path 3).
• SSH — further down the same page, Registered gateways → Add can register an SSH host alongside local, remote and Hermes Cloud connections, then switch between them. Requires working key-based SSH access to that host.

Connecting the App to a Managed OpenClaw Launch Bot

If your Hermes agent runs on OpenClaw Launch, the desktop app can drive it directly — you get the native window, and the agent keeps running when your laptop is closed.

1. Open your dashboard, click Hermes Desktop in the Connect Platforms section, and pick the bot you want to connect. (The Desktop button on a bot's card is a different feature: a remote desktop for the bot, not the Hermes app.)
2. The panel shows three values, each with a copy button: a Remote URL, a Username, and a Connection password.
3. In the desktop app, go to Settings → Gateways → Connection mode (Gateway in older builds), choose Remote gateway, paste the Remote URL, then choose Sign in. If the app greets you with a setup choice instead — a fresh install, or after a Repair install — take Connect to existing Hermes and paste the same URL there.
4. Enter the Username and Connection password from the same panel.
5. Choose Save and reconnect. The app switches onto your hosted bot.

Path 2: Local Gateway as Desktop Companion

The simplest setup: run Hermes directly on your machine. The desktop app's default gateway already does this for you; this path is for when you install from the terminal and want the browser dashboard or the messaging gateway without the app.

Prerequisites

• macOS, Linux or WSL2 (native Windows uses the PowerShell installer above)
• Access to a model: an API key or subscription sign-in for a provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Nous Portal and others), or a local endpoint such as Ollama
• See the Hermes install guide for full prerequisites

Steps

1. Install Hermes Agent with the official script:

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

2. Run the setup wizard to connect your model provider:

   hermes setup

3. Open the browser dashboard, which serves http://127.0.0.1:9119:

   hermes dashboard

4. If you use Telegram, Discord or another platform, start the messaging gateway with hermes gateway, or install it as a background service with hermes gateway install.
5. Optional: install the dashboard tab as a PWA (see Power Tips below) so it opens as a standalone window with no browser chrome.

Path 3: Managed via OpenClaw Launch

If you want Hermes always online — accessible from any device, not tied to your laptop being on — the managed path on OpenClaw Launch is the lowest-effort option. Your agent runs on a cloud server and the gateway URL is a permanent HTTPS endpoint, not localhost.

1. Go to openclawlaunch.com and sign in or create a free account.
2. In the configurator, select Hermes Agent as your agent type.
3. Pick your model provider, optional integrations (Telegram, Discord, etc.), and click Deploy.
4. After a few seconds your bot appears on the dashboard. Use Quick Chat to talk to it, or Open Dashboard for its Hermes web dashboard, from your laptop, phone or tablet.
5. For the native window, connect the desktop app as described in Connecting the App to a Managed OpenClaw Launch Bot above.

Path 4: Self-Host with Docker on Your Laptop

Running Hermes in Docker is the cleanest local option: isolated from your system Python, easy to update, and straightforward to configure via environment variables. The container keeps running as long as Docker Desktop is open.

1. Install Docker Desktop for your OS and start it.
2. Pull the Hermes Agent image:

   docker pull nousresearch/hermes-agent:latest

3. Run the setup wizard once, interactively, so config and keys land in ~/.hermes on your machine:

   mkdir -p ~/.hermes
   docker run -it --rm -v ~/.hermes:/opt/data nousresearch/hermes-agent setup

4. Start the gateway and the dashboard in the background:

   docker run -d \
     --name hermes \
     --restart unless-stopped \
     -v ~/.hermes:/opt/data \
     -p 8642:8642 -p 9119:9119 \
     -e HERMES_DASHBOARD=1 \
     nousresearch/hermes-agent gateway run

5. Inside the container the dashboard binds to 0.0.0.0, so it requires a login: add HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME, HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD and HERMES_DASHBOARD_BASIC_AUTH_SECRET to ~/.hermes/.env, then open http://localhost:9119. Port 8642 is the OpenAI-compatible API server, not a UI. Your data persists in ~/.hermes across container restarts. On Docker Desktop, a fresh ~/.hermes is fine, but if you reuse an existing one from a native install, run docker exec hermes hermes doctor: its session database may need a one-time conversion that the upstream Docker docs describe.
6. Set Docker Desktop to Start on login so the container comes back once you sign in to your machine and Docker Desktop starts.

For a full Docker Compose setup with additional services (Postgres, Redis, browser sidecar), see the Hermes Docker Compose guide.

Power Tips

Install as a Browser PWA (Progressive Web App)

Both Chrome and Edge let you install any website as a standalone desktop app. When installed, the dashboard opens in its own window with no browser tabs, address bar, or toolbar — indistinguishable from a native desktop app.

• Chrome: Open 127.0.0.1:9119 (your local hermes dashboard), then use the menu: Cast, save, and share → Install page as app. The app appears in your OS app launcher.
• Edge: Menu → Apps → Install this site as an app.
• Safari (macOS): File → Add to Dock (macOS Sonoma+). Opens as a separate app in the Dock.

System Tray Integration

On macOS, you can use a tool like Mango or WebCatalog to wrap the dashboard URL into a system-tray app that is one click away at all times. On Windows, ToDesktop or Nativefier produce a lightweight Electron wrapper around any URL.

Autostart on Login

• macOS: Create a LaunchAgent plist at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ that runs hermes dashboard --no-open (or docker start hermes). For the messaging gateway, hermes gateway install sets up the launchd service for you.
• Windows: The desktop app manages its own backend. For a command-line install, add a shortcut to hermes dashboard --no-open in the Startup folder (Win+R → shell:startup).
• Linux: hermes gateway install creates a user service for the messaging gateway. For the dashboard, create a systemd user unit (~/.config/systemd/user/hermes-dashboard.service) that runs hermes dashboard --no-open, with WantedBy=default.target.

Keyboard Shortcut to Open the Gateway

Assign a global keyboard shortcut to open http://127.0.0.1:9119 in your default browser:

• macOS: Use Raycast or Alfred with an “Open URL” action bound to a hotkey.
• Windows: AutoHotkey with a one-liner: ^!h::Run, http://127.0.0.1:9119 (Ctrl+Alt+H).
• Linux: Bind a keybinding in your desktop environment settings to run xdg-open http://127.0.0.1:9119.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an official Hermes Agent desktop app?

Yes. Nous Research ships a native Hermes Desktop app, with graphical installers for macOS 12+ and Windows 10/11, from hermes-agent.nousresearch.com. This guide previously said no such app existed; that was true of earlier releases and is no longer the case. The browser-as-app approaches further down still work and are still useful — particularly for reaching the same agent from a phone or tablet, which the desktop app does not cover.

Does the desktop app mean my agent runs on my laptop?

Only if you point it at a local backend. The app is a front end that connects to a Hermes gateway, and that gateway can be the one it manages on your machine, one you run in Docker, or a managed instance in the cloud. If you want the agent to keep working while your laptop is closed — answering Telegram, running scheduled jobs — it needs to run somewhere that stays on, and you use the app's Remote gateway mode to reach it.

Can I access my local Hermes instance from my phone?

Yes, with some setup. The dashboard binds to 127.0.0.1 by default, so a phone cannot reach it until you either tunnel in over Tailscale or bind it to your LAN or Tailscale address with a username and password configured (a non-loopback bind always requires a login). See the Hermes web UI guide for both. For access from anywhere without that setup, use a managed instance on OpenClaw Launch — it is reachable over HTTPS behind your account login.

Does Hermes Agent work on Windows?

Yes, and the official .exe installer in Path 1 is now the easiest route. If you would rather keep the backend isolated, Docker Desktop (Path 4 above) also works — Docker handles all Linux dependencies transparently. Alternatively, use the command-line PowerShell installer from Path 1 if you do not want the app. See the dedicated Hermes Agent on Windows guide for step-by-step instructions.

Will my Hermes data persist if I restart the container or my machine?

With Docker, yes — as long as you mount a host directory (the -v ~/.hermes:/opt/data flag shown in Path 4). That directory lives on your machine, so it survives docker rm and reboots. When running Hermes natively (Path 2), session memory and config are stored in your home directory and persist across restarts automatically.

What is the difference between Hermes Agent and an OpenClaw Launch managed instance?

Hermes Agent is the open-source framework you run yourself (locally or via Docker). OpenClaw Launch is a managed hosting service that runs Hermes on a cloud server for you — no Python or Docker required, always online, accessible from any device. Both run the same Hermes agent and web dashboard; the difference is who manages the infrastructure.

What's Next?

• Hermes Agent Docker Compose — Full multi-service setup with Postgres, Redis, and browser sidecar
• Hermes Agent on Windows — Step-by-step Windows install guide
• Hermes Agent + Ollama — Point Hermes at a local model for fully offline, zero-API-cost operation
• Managed Hermes Hosting — Always-on cloud instance, no server management
• What Is Hermes Agent? — Overview of capabilities and architecture