The Best Hermes Agent Skills In 2026: The Ranked List, Then The Models That Run Them Best

The best Hermes Agent skills in 2026 are obsidian, google-workspace and claude-code, and obsidian is my number one pick.

A Hermes Agent skill is a reusable instruction pack, saved as a file called SKILL.md, that Hermes loads only when a task needs it.

Hermes Agent is the free, open-source AI agent from Nous Research, and its bundled skills cost nothing.

Skills fix a simple problem, which is that an agent without them has to work out the right method from scratch on every run.

I'll give you the ranked list first, then how skills work, how to install and write them, the limits, and finally the models that follow skills best.

The top three Hermes Agent skills at a glance

• 🥇 obsidian is the best overall, because it lets Hermes read, search, create and edit the notes that hold your business knowledge.
• 🥈 google-workspace is the best for daily admin, because it covers Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sheets.
• 🥉 claude-code is the best for building, because it teaches Hermes to delegate coding work to the Claude Code CLI.

How I ranked the best Hermes Agent skills

These rankings are my own picks from using Hermes every day, and they are not GoldieBench scores.

GoldieBench measures models on one-shot builds, and it does not test skills at all.

I ranked each skill on how often I would reach for it in a normal week.

I also looked at how much setup it needs before it does something useful.

Finally, I asked whether the skill works on any model, including cheap and local ones.

The 10 best Hermes Agent skills, ranked

What each of the best Hermes Agent skills does

1. obsidian

The obsidian skill works directly on your note files, so there is no API or account to connect.

My own agents share one Obsidian vault as their memory, which is why this skill is first on my list.

2. google-workspace

The google-workspace skill uses a sign-in that Hermes manages, and it includes a daily brief procedure for your schedule and urgent email.

3. claude-code

The claude-code skill lets Hermes act as the manager while Claude Code does the coding.

Hermes also bundles a codex skill and an opencode skill for those two coding tools.

4. youtube-content

The youtube-content skill fetches a transcript and reshapes it into chapters, summaries, threads or blog posts.

5. grounded-citations

The grounded-citations skill uses a small ledger script to number its sources, so citations come from pages Hermes actually fetched.

It also flags claims that came from the model's own memory as unverified.

6. humanizer

The humanizer skill is based on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" guide, so it works from a concrete checklist.

7. github

The github skill runs pull requests, issues and reviews through the free gh command-line tool.

8. himalaya

The himalaya skill needs the separate Himalaya command-line tool, so it takes more setup than the Google skill.

9. competitor-news-monitor

The competitor-news-monitor skill is set up once in chat, and after that it runs on a schedule.

10. duckduckgo-search

The duckduckgo-search skill is an official optional skill, and it acts as a fallback when the main web search tool is not configured.

How Hermes Agent skills work

Every skill lives in a folder inside ~/.hermes/skills/, and the main file is always called SKILL.md.

The skills follow the open agentskills.io standard, so the format is not locked to Hermes.

Hermes uses a pattern the docs call progressive disclosure.

The agent first sees only a short list of skill names and descriptions, which the docs put at roughly 3,000 tokens.

It opens a full skill only when a task needs it, and it opens extra reference files only when a question needs them.

That is why you can keep many skills installed without paying for all of them on every message.

Skills vs plugins vs tools in two lines

A tool is a function the model can call, such as the terminal or web search, and a plugin is installed code that adds tools, hooks or integrations.

A skill is only instructions, and it teaches Hermes how to use those tools for one kind of job.

I rank the other two layers in the best Hermes Agent plugins and the best Hermes Agent tools.

How to install and enable a Hermes Agent skill

Most of my top ten need no install, because Hermes copies its bundled skills in when you set it up.

The hub also searches the skills.sh directory, GitHub repositories, ClawHub and LobeHub.

Every hub install goes through a security scan before anything is written.

How to use a skill in chat

Every installed skill becomes a slash command, so you type /obsidian and then your request.

You can stack up to five skills at the start of one message.

You can also ask in plain English, and Hermes will choose the right skill from its list.

If you use the same set together every day, hermes bundles create groups several skills under one command.

How to write your own Hermes Agent skill

The fastest route is the /learn command.

You type /learn and point it at a folder, a web page, a PDF, a book or the workflow you just walked Hermes through.

Hermes gathers the material with the tools it already has and writes the skill for you.

A large source such as a book becomes a knowledge-base skill, with a short index and one file per chapter.

I show a real run in my Book Brain Engine guide on agentos.guide.

You can also write a skill by hand by creating ~/.hermes/skills/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md.

The file starts with a header that holds a name, a description and a version.

The body then has four sections called When to Use, Procedure, Pitfalls and Verification.

Hermes can also save skills by itself with its skill_manage tool, and a write-approval setting lets you review those changes first.

Real examples of the best Hermes Agent skills at work

A solo owner types /google-workspace and asks for a morning brief, and Hermes returns the day's meetings, clashes and urgent emails.

An agency keeps one note per client in a vault, and Hermes reads that note with the obsidian skill before it starts any client task.

A creator pastes a video link with /youtube-content, gets a draft blog post, and then runs /humanizer so it sounds like their own voice.

A consultant sets up competitor-news-monitor once, and a cited digest of real competitor news arrives on a schedule.

A developer stacks /github and /claude-code in one message, so Hermes fixes a bug and opens the pull request.

Tips for getting more from Hermes Agent skills

Write short, specific descriptions for your own skills, because the description is what Hermes reads when it decides what to load.

Put long material in a references folder beside the skill, so the main file stays small.

Edit a bundled skill if it does not match how you work, because Hermes keeps your edited version when it updates.

Preload a skill with the -s flag when you know a whole session is about one job.

Run hermes skills audit now and then to re-scan the hub skills you have installed.

Limits and honest caveats

A skill is only instructions, so it cannot add an ability your tools do not already have.

Several skills depend on an outside tool, such as the Claude Code CLI, the gh CLI or the Himalaya CLI.

Community skills are instructions your agent will obey, so preview them and respect the security scan.

Skills that live inside a cloned project stay off until you run hermes skills trust.

Installing every skill you can find makes the list harder for the model to choose from, so I disable the ones I never use.

Which models run Hermes Agent skills best

Hermes Agent does not ship its own model, so every skill is followed by whichever model you plug in.

A skill is plain text, which means any model can read it.

The difference is how faithfully a model follows a long, multi-step procedure and calls the right tools along the way.

GoldieBench does not measure skill-following directly, so I cannot give you a skills score for any model.

What the board does measure is how well a model completes a complex build from one prompt, and that is the closest real data I have.

Those numbers are build scores from the live board on 10 October 2026, and they are not skill scores.

In my own use, the stronger models skip fewer steps in a long skill, and smaller local models do better with short, specific skills.

That is experience rather than benchmark data, so test your most important skill on the model you plan to run.

For the full model picture, read the best LLMs for Hermes Agent and the best local model for Hermes Agent.

Which Hermes Agent skill should you start with

Start with obsidian if your agent keeps forgetting your business.

Add google-workspace if your day runs on email and meetings.

Add claude-code when you want Hermes to manage real coding work.

Use the learn command to capture one process of your own as soon as you explain it twice.

Also On Our Network

• Agent Operatorshow I set up my top 10 Hermes skills step by step
• AI Income Deskwhich Hermes skills do real business work
• AI Tool Verdictten Hermes skills scored in a full verdict
• agentos.guidethe quick-start for skills inside an Agent OS
• agentos.guideThe Book Brain Engine: teach Hermes any book, on agentos.guide

Switch on obsidian first, pick a model that follows instructions well, and write one skill of your own, because that is how you get the most from the best Hermes Agent skills.