Hermes Agent is not installed by clicking a download button. It runs in a terminal — a text-based window where you type commands — and the install involves a few steps that assume some familiarity with the command line. Most people do not have that familiarity.

The workaround is simple: use a web AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, or any other) to guide you through it in real time. You describe your computer and your operating system, paste the error messages you see, and the AI tells you what to type next. This guide explains how to do exactly that.

See also: full Hermes Agent installation guide for the complete technical walkthrough, and Hermes Agent security guide before you connect your accounts.

Why there is a terminal involved

Hermes Agent is open-source software — meaning the code is freely available and you run it yourself, rather than using a hosted service. Open-source tools like this are almost always installed and run from a terminal because they are built by developers who assume a technical audience, and because terminals are universal — the same commands work regardless of what computer you are using.

The good news is that for the install, you do not need to understand what the commands do. You need to be able to open a terminal, copy text accurately, paste it, and press Enter. If you can do that, you can install Hermes.

How to open a terminal on your computer. On a Mac, press Cmd + Space and type "Terminal", then press Enter. On Windows, press Win + X and click "Terminal" or "PowerShell". On Linux, press Ctrl + Alt + T. That is the application you will be working in.

The idea: use AI to install AI

The approach is this: you open a conversation with ChatGPT (or Claude, or any other AI assistant you already use) and tell it your situation. You describe your computer, what you are trying to install, and where you are in the process. When you get a result — whether that is a success message or an error — you paste it into the chat and ask what to do next.

This works well because install errors are precise. The terminal prints exactly what went wrong, and an AI assistant can read that output and tell you the specific command to fix it. You do not need to understand the error yourself.

Here is a starting prompt you can copy and adapt:

Starter prompt

I want to install Hermes Agent on my computer. I'm using a [Mac / Windows PC / Linux machine]. I'm not a programmer. I have a terminal open. Can you walk me through the install step by step, and explain what each step does in plain English? If something goes wrong, I'll paste the error here and you can help me fix it.

Replace the bit in brackets with your actual operating system. Then follow along with whatever the AI tells you, pasting error output whenever you see it.

Which AI assistant to use. ChatGPT (chatgpt.com), Claude (claude.ai), and Grok (grok.com) all work well for this. If you already have an account with one of them, use that one. They all understand terminal commands and can interpret error messages accurately.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Here is the overall flow of what the install involves. Use this to understand the shape of the task — let the AI assistant handle the specific commands for your operating system.

1. Install prerequisites

Hermes requires a few pieces of software to be installed first: Git (for downloading the code), Python or Node (depending on the version), and sometimes a package manager like pip or npm. The AI will tell you which ones you are missing and how to install them. On a Mac, this usually involves a tool called Homebrew; on Windows, it may involve Winget or downloading installers directly.

2. Download Hermes

Once prerequisites are in place, you use a git clone command to download the Hermes code to your computer. The AI will give you the exact command. This puts a folder called hermes-agent (or similar) somewhere on your computer.

3. Install dependencies

You then navigate into that folder and run an install command — something like npm install or pip install -r requirements.txt. This downloads the additional code libraries that Hermes needs to run. It can take a few minutes and produces a lot of output; that is normal.

4. Add your API key

Hermes needs at least one AI model API key to do anything. The most common starting point is an OpenAI key. You create a file called .env in the Hermes folder and add a line like OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key-here. The AI assistant will tell you exactly how to do this, including where to get the key from the OpenAI dashboard.

5. Run Hermes

Finally, you run a start command — something like npm start or python main.py. If everything is set up correctly, you will see a prompt in the terminal and can begin chatting with Hermes directly.

How long does this take? Most people who follow this process get through it in 30–60 minutes on their first attempt. The largest variable is whether any install steps fail and how many rounds of error-fixing are needed. The AI assistant makes this significantly faster than trying to diagnose errors on your own.

When something goes wrong

Install steps fail fairly often on first attempt, and that is entirely normal. The key is knowing how to respond when they do.

Paste the full error into the chat. Do not try to interpret it yourself. Copy the entire error message — not just the last line — and paste it to your AI assistant. Error messages that look intimidating are often straightforward to fix once an AI reads them.

Include your operating system version. Some errors happen only on specific versions of Windows or macOS. Mentioning this upfront, or when an error appears, helps the AI give you the right solution rather than a general one.

One command at a time. If the AI gives you several commands in a row, run them one at a time and paste the output after each one. This makes it easy to identify exactly which step caused a problem.

Ask it to explain anything you are unsure about. If you are asked to run a command you do not understand, ask what it does before running it. A good AI assistant will explain it clearly. You are not obligated to run commands you do not understand.

Do not copy commands from random websites. The AI assistant will give you commands based on the official Hermes installation documentation. If you find other guides online that give you different commands, check with the AI before running them. Malicious install scripts do exist, and caution here is warranted.

Once Hermes is running, the next step is understanding what it can actually do for you. The Hermes Agent features guide for non-technical users covers the main capabilities in plain language, including how to set up soul.md, schedule tasks, and switch between AI models.