Nix & NixOS Setup

# Run the desktop app
nix run github:NousResearch/hermes-agent#desktop

# Or install persistently
nix profile install github:NousResearch/hermes-agent#desktop

# run the tui
nix run github:NousResearch/hermes-agent -- setup
nix run github:NousResearch/hermes-agent -- --tui

# or install it in your profile
nix profile install github:NousResearch/hermes-agent
hermes setup
hermes --tui

git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
nix develop
hermes setup

# /etc/nixos/flake.nix (or your system flake)
{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    hermes-agent.url = "github:NousResearch/hermes-agent";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, hermes-agent, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.your-host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        hermes-agent.nixosModules.default
        ./configuration.nix
      ];
    };
  };
}

# configuration.nix
{ config, ... }: {
  services.hermes-agent = {
    enable = true;
    settings.model.default = "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4";
    environmentFiles = [ config.sops.secrets."hermes-env".path ];
    addToSystemPackages = true;
  };
}

# Check service status
systemctl status hermes-agent

# Watch logs (Ctrl+C to stop)
journalctl -u hermes-agent -f

# If addToSystemPackages is true, test the CLI
hermes version
hermes config       # shows the generated config

{
  services.hermes-agent = {
    enable = true;
    container.enable = true;
    # ... rest of config is identical
  };
}

# base.nix
services.hermes-agent.settings = {
  model.default = "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4";
  toolsets = [ "all" ];
  terminal = { backend = "local"; timeout = 180; };
};

# personality.nix
services.hermes-agent.settings = {
  display = { compact = false; personality = "kawaii"; };
  memory = { memory_enabled = true; user_profile_enabled = true; };
};

{ config, ... }: {
  services.hermes-agent = {
    enable = true;
    container.enable = true;

    # ── Model ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    settings = {
      model = {
        base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1";
        default = "anthropic/claude-opus-4.6";
      };
      toolsets = [ "all" ];
      max_turns = 100;
      terminal = { backend = "local"; cwd = "."; timeout = 180; };
      compression = {
        enabled = true;
        threshold = 0.85;
        summary_model = "google/gemini-3-flash-preview";
      };
      memory = { memory_enabled = true; user_profile_enabled = true; };
      display = { compact = false; personality = "kawaii"; };
      agent = { max_turns = 60; verbose = false; };
    };

    # ── Secrets ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    environmentFiles = [ config.sops.secrets."hermes-env".path ];

    # ── Documents ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    documents = {
      "USER.md" = ./documents/USER.md;
    };

    # ── MCP Servers ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    mcpServers.filesystem = {
      command = "npx";
      args = [ "-y" "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem" "/data/workspace" ];
    };

    # ── Container options ──────────────────────────────────────────────
    container = {
      image = "ubuntu:24.04";
      backend = "docker";
      hostUsers = [ "your-username" ];
      extraVolumes = [ "/home/user/projects:/projects:rw" ];
      extraOptions = [ "--gpus" "all" ];
    };

    # ── Service tuning ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
    addToSystemPackages = true;
    extraArgs = [ "--verbose" ];
    restart = "always";
    restartSec = 5;
  };
}

services.hermes-agent.configFile = /etc/hermes/config.yaml;

{
  sops = {
    defaultSopsFile = ./secrets/hermes.yaml;
    age.keyFile = "/home/user/.config/sops/age/keys.txt";
    secrets."hermes-env" = { format = "yaml"; };
  };

  services.hermes-agent.environmentFiles = [
    config.sops.secrets."hermes-env".path
  ];
}

# secrets/hermes.yaml (encrypted with sops)
hermes-env: |
    OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
    TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456:ABC...
    ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

{
  age.secrets.hermes-env.file = ./secrets/hermes-env.age;

  services.hermes-agent.environmentFiles = [
    config.age.secrets.hermes-env.path
  ];
}

{
  services.hermes-agent = {
    authFile = config.sops.secrets."hermes/auth.json".path;
    # authFileForceOverwrite = true;  # overwrite on every activation
  };
}

{
  services.hermes-agent.documents = {
    "USER.md" = ./documents/USER.md;  # path reference, copied from Nix store
  };
}

{
  services.hermes-agent.mcpServers = {
    filesystem = {
      command = "npx";
      args = [ "-y" "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem" "/data/workspace" ];
    };
    github = {
      command = "npx";
      args = [ "-y" "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github" ];
      env.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN = "\${GITHUB_TOKEN}"; # resolved from .env
    };
  };
}

{
  services.hermes-agent.mcpServers.remote-api = {
    url = "https://mcp.example.com/v1/mcp";
    headers.Authorization = "Bearer \${MCP_REMOTE_API_KEY}";
    timeout = 180;
  };
}

{
  services.hermes-agent.mcpServers.my-oauth-server = {
    url = "https://mcp.example.com/mcp";
    auth = "oauth";
  };
}

# Container mode
docker exec -it hermes-agent \
  hermes mcp add my-oauth-server --url https://mcp.example.com/mcp --auth oauth

# Native mode
sudo -u hermes HERMES_HOME=/var/lib/hermes/.hermes \
  hermes mcp add my-oauth-server --url https://mcp.example.com/mcp --auth oauth

hermes mcp add my-oauth-server --url https://mcp.example.com/mcp --auth oauth
scp ~/.hermes/mcp-tokens/my-oauth-server{,.client}.json \
    server:/var/lib/hermes/.hermes/mcp-tokens/
# Ensure: chown hermes:hermes, chmod 0600

{
  services.hermes-agent.mcpServers.analysis = {
    command = "npx";
    args = [ "-y" "analysis-server" ];
    sampling = {
      enabled = true;
      model = "google/gemini-3-flash";
      max_tokens_cap = 4096;
      timeout = 30;
      max_rpm = 10;
    };
  };
}

Host                                    Container
────                                    ─────────
/nix/store/...-hermes-agent-0.1.0  ──►  /nix/store/... (ro)
~/.hermes -> /var/lib/hermes/.hermes       (symlink bridge, per hostUsers)
/var/lib/hermes/                    ──►  /data/          (rw)
  ├── current-package -> /nix/store/...    (symlink, updated each rebuild)
  ├── .gc-root -> /nix/store/...           (prevents nix-collect-garbage)
  ├── .container-identity                  (sha256 hash, triggers recreation)
  ├── .hermes/                             (HERMES_HOME)
  │   ├── .env                             (merged from environment + environmentFiles)
  │   ├── config.yaml                      (Nix-generated, deep-merged by activation)
  │   ├── .managed                         (marker file)
  │   ├── .container-mode                  (routing metadata: backend, exec_user, etc.)
  │   ├── state.db, sessions/, memories/   (runtime state)
  │   └── mcp-tokens/                      (OAuth tokens for MCP servers)
  ├── home/                                ──►  /home/hermes    (rw)
  └── workspace/                           (agent working directory)
      ├── SOUL.md                          (from documents option)
      └── (agent-created files)

Container writable layer (apt/pip/npm):   /usr, /usr/local, /tmp

services.hermes-agent.extraPlugins = [
  (pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "stephenschoettler";
    repo = "hermes-lcm";
    rev = "v0.7.0";
    hash = "sha256-...";
  })
];

services.hermes-agent.extraPythonPackages = [
  (pkgs.python312Packages.buildPythonPackage {
    pname = "rtk-hermes";
    version = "1.0.0";
    src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
      owner = "ogallotti";
      repo = "rtk-hermes";
      rev = "v1.0.0";
      hash = "sha256-...";
    };
    format = "pyproject";
    build-system = [ pkgs.python312Packages.setuptools ];
  })
];

# Enable Discord, Telegram, Slack
services.hermes-agent.extraDependencyGroups = [ "messaging" ];

# Enable a memory provider
services.hermes-agent = {
  extraDependencyGroups = [ "hindsight" ];
  settings.memory.provider = "hindsight";
};

services.hermes-agent = {
  extraPlugins = [ my-plugin-src ];          # plugin source
  extraPythonPackages = [ pkgs.python312Packages.redis ];  # its Python dep
  extraPackages = [ pkgs.redis ];            # system binary it needs
};

{
  inputs.hermes-agent.url = "github:NousResearch/hermes-agent";
  outputs = { hermes-agent, nixpkgs, ... }: {
    nixpkgs.overlays = [ hermes-agent.overlays.default ];
    # Then:
    #   pkgs.hermes-agent.override { extraPythonPackages = [...]; }
    #   pkgs.hermes-agent.override { extraDependencyGroups = [ "hindsight" ]; }
  };
}

services.hermes-agent.settings.plugins.enabled = [
  "hermes-lcm"
  "rtk-rewrite"
];

cd hermes-agent
nix develop

# Shell provides:
#   - Python 3.12 + uv (deps installed into .venv on first entry)
#   - Node.js 26, ripgrep, git, openssh, ffmpeg on PATH
#   - Stamp-file optimization: re-entry is near-instant if deps haven't changed

hermes setup
hermes chat

cd hermes-agent
direnv allow    # one-time
# Subsequent entries are near-instant (stamp file skips dep install)

# Run all checks
nix flake check

# Individual checks
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.package-contents   # binaries exist + version
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.entry-points-sync  # pyproject.toml ↔ Nix package sync
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.cli-commands        # gateway/config subcommands
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.managed-guard       # HERMES_MANAGED blocks mutation
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.bundled-skills      # skills present in package
nix build .#checks.x86_64-linux.config-roundtrip    # merge script preserves user keys

/var/lib/hermes/                     # stateDir (owned by hermes:hermes, 0750)
├── .hermes/                         # HERMES_HOME
│   ├── config.yaml                  # Nix-generated (deep-merged each rebuild)
│   ├── .managed                     # Marker: CLI config mutation blocked
│   ├── .env                         # Merged from environment + environmentFiles
│   ├── auth.json                    # OAuth credentials (seeded, then self-managed)
│   ├── gateway.pid
│   ├── state.db
│   ├── mcp-tokens/                  # OAuth tokens for MCP servers
│   ├── sessions/
│   ├── memories/
│   ├── skills/
│   ├── cron/
│   └── logs/
├── home/                            # Agent HOME
└── workspace/                       # Agent working directory
    ├── SOUL.md                      # From documents option
    └── (agent-created files)

# Update the flake input (run from the directory containing flake.nix)
cd /etc/nixos && nix flake update hermes-agent

# Rebuild
sudo nixos-rebuild switch

# Both modes use the same systemd unit
journalctl -u hermes-agent -f

# Container mode: also available directly
docker logs -f hermes-agent

systemctl status hermes-agent
docker ps -a --filter name=hermes-agent
docker inspect hermes-agent --format='{{.State.Status}}'
docker exec -it hermes-agent bash
docker exec hermes-agent readlink /data/current-package
docker exec hermes-agent cat /data/.container-identity

sudo systemctl stop hermes-agent
docker rm -f hermes-agent
sudo rm /var/lib/hermes/.container-identity
sudo systemctl start hermes-agent

# Native mode
sudo -u hermes cat /var/lib/hermes/.hermes/.env

# Container mode
docker exec hermes-agent cat /data/.hermes/.env

nix-store --query --roots $(docker exec hermes-agent readlink /data/current-package)