The best Hermes Agent skills in 2026 are obsidian, google-workspace and claude-code, and my verdict is that obsidian is the one to switch on first.
A Hermes Agent skill is a reusable instruction pack, stored as a SKILL.md file, that the agent loads only when a task calls for it.
Hermes Agent is the free, open-source agent from Nous Research, and it ships with a bundled catalogue of skills plus an optional one.
I've scored ten of them out of 10 on usefulness, setup effort and reliability.
This post gives you the ranked list, a feature-by-feature reference for the whole skills system, and an honest verdict on the limits.
Top 3 Picks At A Glance
- 🥇 obsidian scores 9.2/10, and it is the best Hermes Agent skill overall because it gives the agent a memory you own.
- 🥈 google-workspace scores 8.9/10, and it is the best skill for everyday admin across Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sheets.
- 🥉 claude-code scores 8.6/10, and it is the best skill for coding because Hermes manages while Claude Code builds.
What Hermes Agent Skills Are And Who Makes Them
Skills are plain text instruction packs that sit in ~/.hermes/skills/ on your machine.
Nous Research ships the bundled and optional skills with Hermes, and the community publishes more through registries.
The format follows the open agentskills.io standard, so a skill isn't locked to one product.
Two lines separate skills from the other parts of Hermes.
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 properly for one kind of task.
Skills exist because an agent without them has to rediscover the right method on every run.
If you want my rankings for the other two layers, read the best Hermes Agent plugins and the best Hermes Agent tools.
How I Ranked These Hermes Agent Skills
I scored each skill out of 10 on three things.
The first is usefulness, which means how much real work it removes in a normal week.
The second is setup effort, where a skill that works straight away scores higher than one that needs an outside tool.
The third is reliability, which means how consistently the skill produces a result I'd trust.
These verdict scores are my own judgement from using Hermes, and they are not a benchmark.
I only ranked skills that ship in the official bundled or optional catalogues, so you can verify every one.
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The 10 Best Hermes Agent Skills, Ranked
1. obsidian — Verdict 9.2/10
The obsidian skill lets Hermes read, search, create and edit notes in an Obsidian vault.
It works directly on files, so there's nothing to connect beyond telling Hermes where the vault lives.
I rank it first because my own agents share one vault as their memory, and that changed how useful they are.
Best for: A long-term memory of your clients, goals and decisions.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View obsidian in the bundled catalog
2. google-workspace — Verdict 8.9/10
The google-workspace skill covers Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Contacts, Sheets and Docs through a sign-in Hermes manages.
It comes with a daily brief procedure and a reference for Gmail search operators.
It loses a few points because the Google sign-in takes longer than a skill with no setup at all.
Best for: Morning briefs and inbox and calendar admin.
Price: It's free and bundled, and you need a Google account.
→ View google-workspace in the bundled catalog
3. claude-code — Verdict 8.6/10
The claude-code skill teaches Hermes to delegate coding tasks to Anthropic's Claude Code CLI.
Hermes bundles matching codex and opencode skills, so you can pick the coding tool you already pay for.
Best for: Features and pull requests built under Hermes's direction.
Price: The skill is free, but Claude Code needs a Claude plan or an API key.
→ View claude-code in the bundled catalog
4. grounded-citations — Verdict 8.4/10
The grounded-citations skill attaches a numbered citation and a sources list to every claim taken from an outside page.
A ledger script controls the numbering, and claims from the model's own memory get flagged as unverified.
Best for: Research and reports where accuracy matters more than speed.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View grounded-citations in the bundled catalog
5. youtube-content — Verdict 8.2/10
The youtube-content skill extracts a YouTube transcript and reshapes it into chapters, summaries, threads or blog posts.
Best for: Repurposing video into written content.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View youtube-content in the bundled catalog
6. humanizer — Verdict 8.0/10
The humanizer skill identifies and removes signs of AI-generated writing.
It's based on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" guide, which gives it a concrete checklist to work from.
Best for: A final pass on any draft before it goes out.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View humanizer in the bundled catalog
7. github — Verdict 7.8/10
The github skill handles pull requests, issues, reviews and repositories through the gh command-line tool.
Best for: Developers who want the agent to run repository chores.
Price: It's free and bundled, and the gh tool is free.
→ View github in the bundled catalog
8. competitor-news-monitor — Verdict 7.6/10
The competitor-news-monitor skill tracks a declared set of companies and reports only new, material developments with evidence.
It runs on a schedule after a one-time setup.
Best for: A recurring competitor digest.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View competitor-news-monitor in the bundled catalog
9. himalaya — Verdict 7.2/10
The himalaya skill manages email over IMAP and SMTP from the terminal.
It scores lower on setup because you must install and configure the Himalaya CLI yourself.
Best for: Mailboxes outside Google.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ View himalaya in the bundled catalog
10. duckduckgo-search — Verdict 7.0/10
The duckduckgo-search skill provides free web search with no API key.
It's built as a fallback, so it only shows itself when the main web search tool isn't available.
Best for: A new install with no paid search key.
Price: It's free, and it lives in the optional catalogue.
→ View duckduckgo-search in the optional catalog
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The Best Hermes Agent Skills Compared At A Glance
| Rank | Skill | Usefulness | Setup ease | Reliability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | obsidian | 9.5 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.2 |
| 2 | google-workspace | 9.5 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 8.9 |
| 3 | claude-code | 9.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 8.6 |
| 4 | grounded-citations | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.4 |
| 5 | youtube-content | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| 6 | humanizer | 7.5 | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.0 |
| 7 | github | 8.0 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 7.8 |
| 8 | competitor-news-monitor | 7.5 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 7.6 |
| 9 | himalaya | 7.5 | 6.0 | 8.0 | 7.2 |
| 10 | duckduckgo-search | 7.0 | 8.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 |
The verdict column is a weighted judgement and not a straight average, because usefulness counts most for me.
Feature-By-Feature Reference For The Skills System
The individual skills matter less than the system around them, so here is each feature in one line.
| Feature | What it does | Command or location |
|---|---|---|
| Skill folder | Holds every skill as plain files | ~/.hermes/skills/ |
| List | Shows installed skills, sources and status | hermes skills list |
| Browse and search | Finds skills across registries | hermes skills browse and hermes skills search |
| Inspect | Previews a skill before installing | hermes skills inspect |
| Install | Adds a skill after a security scan | hermes skills install |
| Enable and disable | Switches individual skills on or off | hermes skills config |
| Update | Checks and pulls upstream changes | hermes skills check and hermes skills update |
| Audit | Re-scans installed hub skills | hermes skills audit |
| Slash commands | Runs any skill by name in chat | /skill-name |
| Stacking | Loads up to five skills in one message | /skill-one /skill-two task |
| Bundles | Groups several skills under one command | hermes bundles create |
| Preload | Loads a skill from the first message | hermes -s skill-name |
| Learn | Writes a skill from a source or workflow | /learn |
| Project skills | Loads skills that live inside a repo | hermes skills trust |
| Publish | Shares your skill to a registry | hermes skills publish |
Where skills come from
The hub searches official optional skills, the skills.sh directory, GitHub repositories, ClawHub and LobeHub.
Official optional skills install with identifiers such as official/research/duckduckgo-search.
You can also install straight from a direct link to a SKILL.md file.
How loading works
Hermes uses a pattern the docs call progressive disclosure.
The agent first sees only a short list of names and descriptions, which the docs put at roughly 3,000 tokens.
It opens the full skill only when a task needs it, and it opens extra reference files only when a question needs them.
That design is why you can keep a lot of skills installed without paying for all of them on every message.
How To Install And Enable A Skill
Run hermes skills list first, because the bundled skills are copied in when you install Hermes.
Run hermes skills search with a keyword to find a skill you don't have.
Run hermes skills inspect with the identifier to read it before you commit.
Run hermes skills install with the identifier, and confirm when the scan finishes.
Run hermes skills config to switch any skill on or off afterwards.
The Skills Hub page in the official docs also has an "Install in Hermes" button that hands the same install to the desktop app.
How To Write Your Own Skill
The quickest way is /learn, which accepts a folder, a web page, a PDF, pasted notes or the workflow you just ran.
Hermes collects the material with its existing tools and writes the SKILL.md for you.
Large sources such as books become knowledge-base skills with an index and one file per chapter.
I documented a real run in my Book Brain Engine guide.
The manual way is to create ~/.hermes/skills/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md yourself.
The file starts with a header that holds a name, a description and a version.
The body then uses four sections called When to Use, Procedure, Pitfalls and Verification.
Hermes can also create and patch skills by itself with the skill_manage tool, and a write-approval setting puts you in the loop.
The Honest Downsides Of Hermes Agent Skills
Skills are instructions and not code, so they can't add an ability your tools don't already have.
Several of the best ones depend on an outside tool, which adds setup time that the skill list doesn't show.
A weaker model follows a long procedure less faithfully, and that's my experience rather than a measured result.
Community skills carry risk, because a malicious skill is a set of bad instructions aimed at your agent.
The built-in scan and the trust step for project skills reduce that risk, but they don't replace reading the file.
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How To Choose The Right Hermes Agent Skill For You
Choose obsidian if you want the agent to remember your business.
Choose google-workspace if most of your day is email, meetings and documents.
Choose claude-code, codex or opencode if you build software and want Hermes to delegate.
Choose grounded-citations and humanizer together if you publish research or content.
Choose duckduckgo-search if you're starting out and don't have a search key.
Related Reading
- The best Hermes Agent plugins ranks the code add-ons that extend Hermes.
- The best Hermes Agent tools ranks the built-in functions skills rely on.
- The Hermes Agent plugins marketplace reviews where plugins come from.
- My Herald OS review covers a free interface that sits on top of Hermes.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The operator's setup walkthrough for these Hermes skills
- 🌐 Which Hermes skills do real business work
- 🌐 A quick-start for skills inside an Agent OS
- 🌐 How the models behind Hermes skills score on GoldieBench
FAQ: Best Hermes Agent Skills
What is the best Hermes Agent skill in 2026?
My top pick is obsidian, because it gives Hermes a memory of your business that you own.
It needs almost no setup, and it is bundled for free.
How many skills does Hermes Agent come with?
Hermes ships a bundled catalogue plus a larger optional catalogue that you install on demand.
The exact count changes with each release, so check the catalog pages in the official docs.
Are third-party Hermes skills safe to install?
Every hub install goes through a built-in security scan.
I still preview community skills with hermes skills inspect, because a skill is a set of instructions your agent follows.
What is the difference between Hermes skills, plugins and tools?
A tool is a function the model can call, and a plugin is installed code that adds tools, hooks or integrations.
A skill is a markdown instruction file that teaches Hermes how to use those tools for one job.
Can Hermes Agent write its own skills?
Yes, the /learn command writes a skill from a source or a workflow.
Hermes can also save skills by itself, and a write-approval setting lets you review them first.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built Goldie Agency into a seven-figure SEO and link building agency.
- I've grown my YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I run GoldieBench, where I score AI models on real one-shot builds.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery", which is available on Amazon.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
My verdict is simple: switch on obsidian first, add google-workspace and claude-code next, and you'll have the best Hermes Agent skills working for you.
