Is Hermes Agent open source?

Yes, Hermes Agent is released under the MIT license by Nous Research. You can freely self-host it on your own VPS.

What VPS configuration does Hermes Agent need?

Plan for 4 GB of RAM to build the image and comfortably run the agent and its dashboard. The project is known to be lightweight and works on small configurations once installed.

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Hermes Agent

The open-source AI agent from Nous Research that learns from you — self-hosted, MIT, sovereign.

4 GB RAM 2 vCPU Available

Source code

Tech stack

DockerPython

Minimum RAM4 GB

Minimum CPU2 vCPU

Compatible OSubuntu-24.04

Hermes Agent is the open-source AI agent from Nous Research, launched in early 2026 and now one of the fastest-growing agent projects on GitHub. Its distinctive trait: it "grows with you" — it creates skills from experience, refines them through use, searches its own past conversations and builds a model of who you are across sessions.

Under the MIT license, Hermes Agent self-hosts on a simple VPS. All of its memory and learning live within your infrastructure (`~/.hermes` volume), and you connect the LLM provider of your choice. It's a sovereign alternative to proprietary cloud AI agents: no dollar subscription, no memory of your exchanges stored with a third party.

Key features

Self-learning agent: creates and refines its skills from experience

Persistent memory: remembers your exchanges from one session to the next

Searches its past conversations to respond better

LLM provider of your choice, local models possible

Lightweight: runs on an entry-level VPS

Open source (MIT), by Nous Research

When to use this solution?

An assistant that knows you

An agent that retains your preferences, your projects and your context over the weeks, instead of starting from scratch with each conversation.

Automation that improves

Hermes learns from every completed task and builds reusable skills, gaining autonomy over time.

Sovereign and private AI

Memory and learning stay on your VPS; no agent data is entrusted to a proprietary cloud service.

Deploy Hermes Agent on your VPS

Guide optimized for ServOrbit Cloud VPS.

Order the VPS

Choose a ServOrbit Cloud VPS (4 GB RAM recommended for the build and execution) running Ubuntu 22.04.

Install from source

Hermes Agent is built from the official repository: the script clones the project, builds the Docker image and launches the stack (docker compose up -d).

Sign in for the first time

Hermes has no login page: it is a command-line agent. Connect to the VPS over SSH, set your LLM key in /opt/hermes-agent/.env, restart the stack with docker compose up -d, then start the agent with docker exec -it hermes hermes.

Configure the LLM provider

Fill in the .env file (copied from .env.example) with the provider and the key of the model you want to use.

Access the dashboard

The Hermes dashboard only listens locally on the VPS: open an SSH tunnel from your machine (ssh -L 9119:127.0.0.1:9119 root@<vps-ip>), then go to http://localhost:9119. There is no reverse proxy and no certificate for you to install — and that is deliberate: bound to the loopback, this dashboard asks for NO password, yet it grants access to your API keys and to a terminal on the VPS. Never publish it on a domain without adding authentication of your own.

Let the agent learn

Over the course of your exchanges, Hermes enriches its memory and its skills (~/.hermes volume) — back up this volume to preserve the learning.

Frequently asked questions

Hermes Agent is an open-source (MIT) AI agent developed by Nous Research. Self-hostable, it stands out for its continuous learning: it creates skills from experience and remembers your exchanges from one session to the next.

Unlike a proprietary cloud assistant, Hermes runs on your own infrastructure: its memory and learning stay within your VPS (~/.hermes volume), with no dollar subscription and no data entrusted to a third party.

All of Hermes's memory and skills are stored in the ~/.hermes volume. Back up this directory (or mount it on a persistent volume) to retain the learning across redeployments.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Hermes Agent? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Markdown

[![Deploy Hermes Agent on ServOrbit](https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg)](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=hermes&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hermes)

HTML

<a href="https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=hermes&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hermes"><img src="https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy Hermes Agent on ServOrbit" height="40"></a>

The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

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Activate Hermes Agent on your infrastructure.

Dedicated Cloud VPS — IPv4 included, European datacenter, support included. Your data never leaves your server.

Recommended configuration: 4 GB RAM · 2 vCPU

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