How to Host Hermes Agent on a VPS

Hermes Agent is an open-source (MIT) AI agent from Nous Research. The model runs at whichever AI provider you connect, so the server only needs to run the agent and its messaging gateway. A small VPS is enough for a single user.

This guide uses the commands from the official Hermes Agent README. If the README changes, follow the README.

What you need

• A Linux VPS with root or sudo access. Ubuntu LTS is a safe choice. See the VPS plans that support Hermes.
• An API key for a model provider, or a Nous Portal account.
• A messaging account if you want to talk to the agent from Telegram, Discord, Slack and similar apps.

How much RAM? The project doesn’t publish official hardware minimums. Community deployment guides suggest 1 GB of RAM for basic use and more if you enable browser automation, because the agent can drive a headless browser. If you plan to use browser tools, pick a plan with 2 GB or more.

1. Secure the server

Before you install anything, create a non-root user, use SSH keys, and turn on a firewall. On Ubuntu:

adduser hermes
usermod -aG sudo hermes
ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw enable

Log back in as the new user for the rest of this guide.

2. Install Hermes Agent

Run the official installer, then reload your shell:

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

Piping a script into bash runs it with your permissions. If you’d like to see what it does first, download it and read it before running.

3. Configure your model and tools

The setup wizard configures everything in one pass:

hermes setup

You can also set things individually with hermes model (provider and model) and hermes tools (enabled tools). Run hermes doctor if something doesn’t work.

4. Connect a messaging platform

hermes gateway setup
hermes gateway start

5. Keep it running after you log out

A process started in your SSH session stops when you disconnect. To run the gateway as a service, find the binary path and create a systemd unit:

command -v hermes   # note the full path, e.g. /home/hermes/.local/bin/hermes
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/hermes-gateway.service

[Unit]
Description=Hermes Agent gateway
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=hermes
ExecStart=/full/path/to/hermes gateway start
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now hermes-gateway
journalctl -u hermes-gateway -f

Check the README for whether gateway start stays in the foreground in your version. A systemd service needs a foreground process.

6. Maintenance

• Update with hermes update, and apply OS security updates with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.
• Back up the Hermes configuration directory in your home folder. It holds your API keys and settings, so store backups encrypted.
• Set a spending limit at your model provider. Your hosting bill is fixed, but model usage isn’t.

Managed alternative

If you’d rather not maintain a server, Hostinger offers Managed Hermes. Compare the costs with the hosting cost calculator.