Hermes Agent by Nous Research is an open-source, self-improving autonomous AI agent. Hermes can be used as both a production tool and a research platform.
Its architecture centres on an agent loop, tool calling, persistent memory and a skills framework.
Hermes ships with over 40 built-in tools. It supports the agentskills.io standard and has a curated memory that persists across sessions.
Memory
Memory lets the agent remember your preferences, your projects, your environment, and things it has learned. The agent manages its own memory via the memory tool.
Two files make up the agent’s memory, MEMORY.md and USER.md.
Hermes ships with external memory provider plugins — including Honcho, OpenViking, Mem0, Hindsight, Holographic, RetainDB, ByteRover, and Supermemory. Plugins enable advanced functionality like semantic search and knowledge graphs.
The agent can also search its past conversations using the `session_search` tool. Sessions are stored in SQLite (~/.hermes/state.db) with full-text search.
Links
Website: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com
Documentation: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs