How to Set Up Hermes Agent on Ubuntu 24.04 ✓ VERIFIED

2026-08-07 · 14 min read · Hermes Agent · Setup

Hermes Agent by Nous Research is a powerful CLI AI agent that can browse the web, execute code, manage files, and interact with APIs. This guide walks through a complete installation on a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 server.

Prerequisites

You need a server with at least 4GB RAM and Python 3.10+ installed. An API key from your preferred LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, or OpenRouter) is required.

Step 1: Install Python and pip

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv

Verified: Tested on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Python 3.12.3.

Step 2: Install Hermes via pip

pip install hermes-agent

This installs the hermes CLI and all dependencies.

Step 3: Run initial setup

hermes setup

The setup wizard will guide you through configuring your API provider and model. Choose your provider and enter your API key when prompted.

Warning: If using DeepSeek, ensure your account has sufficient balance. OpenRouter is recommended as a fallback provider.

Step 4: Verify installation

hermes --version
hermes run "echo hello world"

Next Steps

After installation, explore adding MCP servers, configuring custom tools, and setting up skills. Check out our other tutorials for advanced configurations.