Hermes Agent Brew: The Homebrew Command, The Official Installer, And The Model To Connect

The Hermes Agent brew command is brew install hermes-agent, and it is a real formula in Homebrew core.

Nous Research lists Homebrew as an unsupported install method, so the official route is curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash.

Below you get both routes, the setup wizard, updating, uninstalling and the common errors.

I checked the install facts on 12 October 2026 against Homebrew's listing, the formula file and the official Hermes docs.

Near the end, I use live GoldieBench scores to help you choose the model you connect once Hermes is installed.

The short answer on Hermes Agent brew

The formula was at version 0.21.6 and the cask was at 0.21.2 when I ran brew info, which only reads information.

Homebrew's own analytics showed roughly 2,400 installs of the formula in the previous 30 days.

The official platform support page still lists "installs via brew" as unsupported.

That page says unsupported methods may break and that fixes for them will not be accepted.

My advice is to use the official script on any machine you depend on.

What Hermes Agent is

Hermes Agent is a free, open-source AI agent from Nous Research.

It runs commands, uses tools, keeps memory between sessions and connects to chat apps such as Telegram and Slack.

The code is MIT licensed and lives at github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.

Homebrew is the free package manager for macOS and Linux, and "brew" is the command you type to use it.

Do not confuse the Hermes names in Homebrew

Typing brew install hermes does not install Hermes Agent.

On my Mac it returns "No available formula with the name hermes" and suggests hermit.

Hermit is a project-tool manager from Cash App, and it is unrelated to Nous Research.

Meta also has a JavaScript engine called Hermes, which is a completely different project.

The names you want are hermes-agent for the command-line agent and hermes-desktop for the app.

You can check them without installing anything.

brew search hermes
brew info hermes-agent
brew info --cask hermes-desktop

What you need on a Mac first

The official script needs Git, curl, tar and a SHA-256 tool.

A Mac already has everything except Git, and Git arrives when you run xcode-select --install.

You do not need to install Python, Node or uv yourself.

The docs say the installer downloads its own pinned uv, and that Hermes's package manager provides pinned Python, Node.js, npm, ripgrep and FFmpeg.

The script ignores a uv that is already on your PATH.

Route 1: the official install script

This is the supported route, and it is the one my own Mac runs.

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

When I run hermes --version, it reports "Install method: git", which is what the official script sets up.

The docs say the code goes in ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/ and the command is a wrapper at ~/.local/bin/hermes.

Your data lives in ~/.hermes/.

The script installs the browser tools and the computer-use driver by default.

The flags --skip-browser and --skip-computer-use leave those out, and the docs say Hermes remembers the choice.

If a step fails, the installer saves its full output to logs/install.log in your Hermes data folder.

Route 2: the Hermes Agent brew install

If you want Homebrew anyway, this is the route.

I have not installed the Homebrew build on my own machine, because my install is the official one.

What follows comes from the formula file and brew info, so treat it as documented behaviour and not as something I ran.

brew update
brew install hermes-agent
hermes --version

The formula depends on Python 3.14, Node, ripgrep, libheif and a few Python libraries, and Homebrew installs those for you.

It installs three commands, which are hermes, hermes-agent and hermes-acp.

It generates shell completions as part of the install.

It keeps extra packages that Hermes installs later inside ~/.hermes, so a brew upgrade does not remove them.

The formula's own note says voice and text-to-speech conversion optionally uses FFmpeg, which is brew install ffmpeg.

The desktop app is a separate cask.

brew install --cask hermes-desktop

The cask places Hermes.app in your Applications folder.

Never keep both routes on one machine, because two copies of hermes on one PATH cause confusing bugs.

Run which -a hermes to list every copy your shell can find.

Run hermes setup after the install

The install gives you the program, and the wizard gives it a brain.

Both routes use hermes setup.

The docs call hermes setup --portal the fastest path.

My best Hermes Agent setup ranking shows six stacks you can build once the wizard is finished.

Updating: hermes update versus brew upgrade

The docs say hermes update is for a managed source checkout and does not rewrite files a package manager owns.

That is why a brew build should be updated with brew.

On the official route, hermes update --check shows whether a new release exists without installing it.

The official install follows the stable release channel by default.

On the brew route, a new version arrives when Homebrew updates the formula.

Uninstalling without losing your data

Run hermes backup before you remove anything.

The official uninstaller can keep your configuration and data by default, and hermes uninstall --full removes those too.

After a brew uninstall, your data is still in ~/.hermes.

That means you can remove the brew build, run the official script and keep your agent's memory.

My Hermes Agent backup post covers the backup and restore commands.

Switching from brew to the official install

This is the move I would make once Hermes becomes part of your daily work.

Run hermes backup first and note where the zip was saved.

Run brew uninstall hermes-agent to remove the Homebrew build.

Run which -a hermes and confirm that no copy is left on your PATH.

Run the official install command, then run source ~/.zshrc.

Run hermes doctor to confirm the new install can see your configuration.

hermes backup
brew uninstall hermes-agent
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
source ~/.zshrc
hermes doctor

Both routes use the same data folder, so your settings, memory and sessions stay where they are.

I have not run this exact switch myself, because my install has always been the official one.

The backup in the first step is your safety net if anything looks wrong afterwards.

Why Homebrew is unsupported, in plain words

Nous Research does not say the Homebrew formula is bad.

Their support page says they cannot support every possible install method, and it sorts methods into tiers.

The official script, Hermes Desktop and the Docker image sit in Tier 1.

Installs through Homebrew and through PyPI sit in the unsupported list.

The practical difference is who fixes a problem.

On a Tier 1 route, a broken install or update is the first priority for the Hermes team.

On the Homebrew route, the fix depends on Homebrew's maintainers updating the formula.

The update docs give one concrete example of what can go wrong.

They say Hermes runs only on Python 3.14, and that a Homebrew or PyPI package built on an older Python installs without its dependencies and does not import.

The current formula depends on Python 3.14, so that specific problem should not apply today.

It still shows why an unsupported package can lag behind the real thing.

Apple Silicon versus Intel Macs

The official support table lists macOS on Apple Silicon as Tier 1, and Intel Macs are not in that tier.

The docs say the macOS desktop installer is Apple Silicon only.

The platform page adds that an Intel Mac can install the command-line version and run hermes desktop from there.

The Homebrew formula lists pre-built bottles for Apple Silicon on three recent macOS versions and for Linux.

It lists no Intel Mac bottle.

Homebrew lives at /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon and at /usr/local on Intel.

Common Hermes Agent brew errors

When in doubt, run hermes doctor, because the docs say it tells you what is missing and how to fix it.

Linux, WSL and Windows

Homebrew also runs on Linux, and the formula ships Linux bottles for ARM and x86 machines.

The official script is Tier 1 on Linux and WSL2, so I would use that on a server.

Windows has its own official PowerShell command, which is iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1).

My Hermes Agent backend post explains where Hermes can run its commands after the install.

After the install: which model should you connect?

Neither install route decides how good your agent is.

Hermes Agent does not ship its own model, so the brain you pick in hermes setup does the real work.

This is where GoldieBench helps, because I score models on real one-shot builds and publish every result.

These are models I have covered in my earlier Hermes posts, with the averages from their live pages.

LongCat-2.0 has only 4 scored tasks, so I treat its average as provisional.

Laguna XS 2.1 is free, and its average shows what you give up on hard builds.

Qwable 5 27B Coder is the strongest proven local builder in that table, and it needs plenty of memory.

These scores measure one-shot builds, so they do not measure how well a model calls tools inside an agent.

A model can be average at building apps and still be a fine daily assistant.

The Homebrew formula itself is not on the board, because the board scores models and not install methods.

My best Hermes Agent model ranking goes deeper, and the local models page lists every local model I have run.

Which route I would pick

I would use the official script on any machine I rely on.

I would use the desktop download for anyone who does not want a terminal.

I would keep the Homebrew formula for a test machine where an unsupported build is an acceptable risk.

Also On Our Network

• Agent Operatorsevery Hermes brew and install command, step by step
• AI Income Deskwhich Hermes install a business should roll out to a team
• AI Tool VerdictHomebrew versus the official Hermes installer, scored
• agentos.guidethe five-minute Hermes install quick-start for your Agent OS
• agentos.guideJulian's best Hermes Agent setup guide

Install it the supported way, connect a model the board has actually tested, and you are finished with Hermes Agent brew.