Installation

Install Hermes

Open Terminal and run:

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

That single command installs the Hermes CLI. No Git, no Xcode, no package managers needed.

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Designer Tip:

If Terminal scares you, that’s the only command you need to run. Everything after this happens in the desktop app.

Pick a free model

1. Go to OpenRouter.ai and create an account
2. Generate an API key (free tier gives you access to several models)
3. Open Hermes and run:

hermes config set provider openrouter
hermes config set model openrouter/auto
hermes config set api_key YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY

The auto model picks the best available free model for each request. You can always switch later.

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Designer Tip:

Free models are good enough to get started. You can add paid models or set up 9Router once you’re hooked.

Open the desktop app

hermes desktop

That’s it. You’re looking at Hermes.

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Try This:

Type “hi” in the chat. Then try: “search the web for the latest design trends in 2026 and summarize the top 3.” Watch what happens.

What just happened?

You installed an AI agent, connected it to a free model, and opened a desktop app where you can chat with it. The agent can:

• Search the web: real-time results, not training data
• Read and write files: your designs, your code, your configs
• Generate images: from text descriptions
• Run terminal commands: build, deploy, automate
• Use skills: reusable workflows for specific tasks

Next steps

• First Conversation: try 3 things in your first 5 minutes
• Desktop & Dashboard: learn what’s where
• Skills: the 10 you actually need