Hermes Agent Plugins Marketplace: What It Is, How To Use It, And Which Brain To Run It On

By Julian Goldie · 2026-10-07 · GoldieBench Blog

The Hermes Agent plugins marketplace is Nous Research's official Plugin Catalog, where you install free plugins into Hermes Desktop with one click.

It launched in mid-September 2026, and when I ran hermes plugins browse on 7 October it listed 469 curated plugins, with 9 official and 460 from the community.

That covers the "what is it" part.

The part nobody else is writing about is the brain underneath.

Hermes Agent is the body, and the model you plug in is the brain that decides when to use every new tool a plugin adds.

I run GoldieBench, where 40 models have produced 1,609 one-shot demos across 50 tasks, so this post explains the marketplace and then uses real board scores to show which brain I'd run a plugin-heavy Hermes on.

What the Hermes Agent plugins marketplace is

Hermes Agent is the free, open-source AI agent from Nous Research, and Hermes Desktop is its app for Mac, Windows and Linux.

The Plugin Catalog lives on the official docs site at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins.

Every listing shows stars, a category, the maintainer, when it was added and last updated, a version where the author has tagged one, the GitHub repo and the README.

Every listing also has an "Open in Hermes Desktop" button and the matching terminal command.

In my video I called it 500 free plugins, and 469 curated entries on 7 October is close to that.

🔥 Want the exact Hermes plugin stack setup I use?

Inside the AI Profit Boardroom I've got the full step-by-step video tutorials, the installable Agent OS, weekly coaching calls and 3,400+ members building real automations.

→ Get access here

How to read a listing before you install

Every page in the Hermes Agent plugins marketplace follows the same layout, and reading it properly takes about thirty seconds.

The star count is your fastest quality signal, so compare it against other plugins in the same category.

The added and updated dates tell you whether the maintainer is still active, which matters because Hermes ships updates fast.

The version number tells you whether the author has tagged a proper release.

The "Reviewed source" link shows the exact commit the catalog pinned, so you know which code you are installing.

The README tells you what the plugin does and what it needs from you, such as an API key.

Hermes Tailscale is a good example, because it showed 52 stars, version 0.0.6 and an update on 4 October 2026 when I checked.

You can filter the whole catalog by source, which means official or community, and by category.

The categories cover desktop, tools, memory, models, automation, web and browser, platforms, voice and general.

How to install a plugin from the Hermes plugin catalog

This is the one-click flow I showed in the video.

1. Open the plugin's page and read its README first.
2. Click "Open in Hermes Desktop", and Hermes Desktop opens an install dialog.
3. Choose where the plugin appears, such as in the desktop interface.
4. Check the GitHub repository the dialog shows you.
5. Choose which Hermes profile gets the plugin, then click Install.

The old way was the terminal, clicking around config files and, in my case, about three hours on GitHub for a skill that didn't even work.

The terminal route still exists, and I confirmed these command names with hermes plugins --help on my own install.

Every plugin from the video, and whether it leans on your model

This is the column that matters for a benchmark site.

Some plugins never touch your model, while others hand it a new tool that it has to choose to call.

The pattern is simple.

The more tool and platform plugins you add, the more decisions your brain makes on every single turn.

Which brain to run Hermes on once plugins add tools

I want to be straight about what the board measures.

GoldieBench gives every model the same one-shot prompt to build a game, a page, a simulation or a visual, then scores the rendered result from 0 to 10.

It does not run a dedicated tool-calling test, so these numbers tell you how capable a brain is at hard multi-step work, not how it scores on a plugin benchmark.

I still use the board as a guide, because a model that holds a hard multi-step build together is usually the safer bet for a crowded tool list, but you should test it on your own plugins.

Every number above matches the live model page when I checked it on 7 October 2026.

My routing rule for a plugin-heavy Hermes

If your plugins are mostly desktop add-ons like Newswire, Tailscale and Hermes Office, your brain choice barely matters, because those plugins hardly touch the model.

If you add search tools, a WhatsApp channel or a job-search agent, move up to a brain from the top of the board.

For long unattended runs with lots of tools, I'd use Claude Opus 5 or Kimi K3.

For bulk work on a budget, I'd use MiniMax M3 or GLM-5.2.

For private, offline work, I'd use Qwable 5 27B and keep the plugin list short, because a slower local model feels every extra tool.

The free cloud models are fine for testing a plugin, but Laguna XS 2.1 at 3.93 shows why I wouldn't hand one a big tool stack.

If you want the full brain ranking, my post on the best LLMs for Hermes Agent goes deeper, and the best local model for Hermes Agent covers the offline lane.

How I test a new plugin against my Hermes brain

Here is the routine I use before a plugin goes anywhere near my main profile.

First, I install it into a spare profile, because I already keep one Hermes profile per model so I can switch and compare.

Second, I run hermes plugins info to see whether it adds tools, hooks or environment variables.

Third, I give the agent three normal jobs that should use the new tool and three jobs that shouldn't.

Fourth, I watch whether the brain calls the tool at the right moments and leaves it alone the rest of the time.

Fifth, I swap the profile to a cheaper model and run the same six jobs again.

If the cheaper model handles the plugin cleanly, I keep it there and save money.

If it starts calling tools at random, I move that plugin's work back up to a stronger brain from the table above.

That small test tells you more about your own plugin stack than any single number on a leaderboard.

Old way versus new way, with the model in mind

The old way of extending Hermes cost you hours before the model ever saw a new tool.

You cloned repos, edited config by hand and restarted, and a broken install was hard to tell apart from a weak model.

The new way installs in one click, so the time you save can go into testing which brain handles the plugin best.

That is the real upgrade, because the catalog makes the plugin side cheap and leaves you free to get the brain side right.

The safety check that matters more than any score

This is the one thing I told everyone to check in the video.

Most plugins are community-made, so read the GitHub repository and README before you install anything.

The Newswire README explains that a "caution" result becomes a confirm prompt in the terminal, while the Desktop install refuses it and lists the findings.

A top-scoring brain will happily call a badly written tool, so a strong model is no excuse to skip the README.

Don't install everything

Every tool you add is one more option your model weighs on every turn.

A smaller brain with forty plugins can get clumsy, while the same brain with three plugins has far fewer ways to go wrong.

Pick two or three plugins that solve a real problem, test them in a spare profile, and add more only when you need them.

Also On Our Network

🌐 the operator install walkthrough for Hermes plugins

🌐 how businesses put Hermes plugins to work

🌐 every Hermes plugin scored in our verdict

🌐 the Hermes plugins quick-start for an Agent OS

🌐 Julian's ranked list of the best Hermes Agent plugins

Pick a brain that has earned its place on the board, add plugins one at a time, and you'll get the most out of the Hermes Agent plugins marketplace.

FAQ

Related reading

→ The Best Local Model For Hermes Agent — Decided By 45 Real Builds

→ The Best LLMs For Hermes Agent, Ranked By Real Work

→ The Best Free AI Model For Hermes Agent (All Three $0 Lanes)

🌐 Sister-site take: read this on agentos.guide

📺 Video notes + links to the tools 👉 AI Profit Boardroom

🆓 Get a FREE AI Course + Community + 1,000 AI Agents 👉 AI Money Lab

🎥 Learn how I make these videos 👉 agentos.guide