A Hermes Agent bot is Hermes Agent connected to a chat app such as Telegram, Discord, Slack or WhatsApp, so you can message your own AI agent from any device.
It runs through the messaging gateway that ships inside Hermes Agent, the free, open-source agent from Nous Research.
The bot is the same agent you'd use in a terminal, with the same tools, memory and skills, answering in a chat window instead.
This page is the reference version, so each platform and each feature gets its own section, a plain explanation and a score.
The facts come from the official Hermes docs and the help text on my own install, and the scores are my on-paper opinion as someone who uses Hermes every day.
The Short Verdict On A Hermes Agent Bot
The gateway is one of the strongest parts of Hermes, and it costs nothing.
Telegram is the platform I'd choose first, and Slack is the one I'd choose for a company.
The safety defaults are better than I expected, because unknown users are locked out from the start.
The weak spots are the unofficial WhatsApp bridge, the amount of configuration available and the fact that a laptop bot goes quiet when the laptop sleeps.
My overall score for the Hermes Agent bot feature is 8.5 out of 10.
What A Hermes Agent Bot Is And Who Makes It
Hermes Agent is an AI agent that can use tools, run commands, remember things and work on a schedule.
Nous Research makes it, and it's open source under the MIT licence.
The official docs describe the messaging gateway as a single background process that connects to all your configured platforms, handles sessions, runs cron jobs and delivers voice messages.
A Hermes Agent bot is what you get when you connect that gateway to a chat app.
It solves a simple problem, which is that an agent stuck in a terminal can't help you when you're away from your desk.
How I Scored It
I score each platform and each feature out of 10 on three things.
The first is what the feature does according to the official docs.
The second is how much work it takes to set up.
The third is what can go wrong, including any warning the docs themselves give.
These are on-paper scores from someone who runs Hermes daily, and they aren't lab measurements.
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Every Hermes Agent Bot Platform, Scored
The docs list Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Email, Home Assistant, Mattermost, Matrix, DingTalk, Feishu/Lark, WeCom, Weixin, BlueBubbles for iMessage, QQ, Yuanbao, Microsoft Teams, LINE, ntfy and the browser.
I've scored the seven that most readers will consider.
| Platform | Score | How it connects | Why I gave that score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram | 9.5 | A bot token from BotFather | It is the simplest setup, and it supports voice, images, files, threads and streaming. |
| Slack | 9 | Socket Mode with two tokens | It needs no public address, and Hermes can generate the app manifest for you. |
| Discord | 9 | A Discord bot | It supports every feature in the docs table, including reactions. |
| Matrix | 8 | Any Matrix homeserver | It is open and supports optional end-to-end encryption, with more setup. |
| 7 | IMAP and SMTP | It needs no bot API, but it has no typing or streaming. | |
| Signal | 7 | The signal-cli daemon | It is the privacy pick, and it needs Java 17 or newer. |
| 6 | A built-in WhatsApp Web bridge | The docs warn that the unofficial route carries a small risk of account restrictions. |
Telegram: 9.5 out of 10
You create the bot by sending /newbot to @BotFather, and you get a token back.
The docs table marks Telegram as supporting voice, images, files, threads, typing indicators and streaming replies.
Voice memos are transcribed automatically.
The only missing column in the docs table is emoji reactions.
Slack: 9 out of 10
Slack connects through Socket Mode, which uses WebSockets rather than a public web address.
That means the bot works behind a firewall or on a laptop.
You need a bot token and an app-level token.
The command hermes slack manifest --agent-view --write generates an app manifest you paste into Slack, which sets up the scopes and slash commands in one go.
Discord: 9 out of 10
Hermes answers every direct message on Discord without needing a mention.
In server channels it only answers when you @mention it, unless you mark a channel as free-response.
The docs say it isolates session history per user inside a shared channel by default.
Matrix: 8 out of 10
Matrix is the open, federated option.
The docs say Hermes works with any homeserver and supports text, files, images, audio, video and optional end-to-end encryption.
It needs a mention in rooms by default, like Discord.
Email: 7 out of 10
The email adapter uses standard IMAP and SMTP, so it works with Gmail, Outlook and most other providers.
The docs tell you to use a dedicated mailbox and an app password.
Unknown senders are ignored unless you explicitly enable email pairing.
Signal: 7 out of 10
Signal connects through the signal-cli daemon running in HTTP mode.
It links as a secondary device, the way a desktop client would.
The setup has more moving parts than Telegram, which is why it scores lower.
WhatsApp: 6 out of 10
The built-in bridge emulates a WhatsApp Web session and doesn't use the official Business API.
The docs warn about a small risk of account restrictions and recommend a dedicated phone number.
They also describe a second route through the WhatsApp Business Cloud API, which needs a Meta Business account and a public webhook.
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Every Hermes Agent Bot Feature, Scored
| Feature | Score | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Setup wizard | 9 | hermes gateway setup walks you through each platform. |
| Access control | 9 | Unknown users are denied until they're allowlisted or paired. |
| Command approvals | 9 | Dangerous commands need /approve or /deny. |
| Background service | 9 | hermes gateway install keeps the bot running. |
| Scheduled delivery | 9 | Cron results are sent to your home channel. |
| Voice | 8 | Voice notes are transcribed, with a local option. |
| Chat commands | 8 | Slash commands control the model, session and jobs. |
| Group behaviour | 7 | It works well once privacy mode and mentions are set. |
| Files and media | 8 | Reports arrive as native attachments. |
| Admin and user tiers | 8 | Admins get every command, and users get the ones you allow. |
| Reliability | 8 | A delivery ledger re-sends replies after a crash. |
Setup wizard: 9 out of 10
One command configures every platform.
hermes gateway setup
The docs say it uses arrow-key selection, shows what is already configured and offers to start the gateway when you finish.
For Telegram, the dashboard and desktop app also have a "Create with QR" button on the Messaging page.
Access control: 9 out of 10
The docs say the gateway denies all users who aren't in an allowlist or paired through a direct message.
You can add numeric user IDs to a setting such as TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS.
You can also use pairing, where an unknown user receives a one-time code that you approve.
hermes pairing approve telegram XKGH5N7P
hermes pairing list
hermes pairing revoke telegram 123456789
Pairing codes expire after one hour.
Command approvals: 9 out of 10
Hermes checks each command against a list of dangerous patterns.
The default mode is smart, which approves low-risk commands, denies dangerous ones and asks you about uncertain ones.
You answer in the chat with /approve or /deny, and the default wait is 300 seconds.
Cron jobs deny dangerous commands by default.
The hermes pause command is a global emergency stop for new work.
Background service: 9 out of 10
These commands manage the service.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
hermes gateway |
It runs the gateway in the foreground. |
hermes gateway install |
It installs a background service through systemd or launchd. |
hermes gateway start |
It starts the installed service. |
hermes gateway stop |
It stops the service. |
hermes gateway restart |
It restarts the service. |
hermes gateway status |
It shows whether the gateway is healthy. |
hermes gateway list |
It lists every profile and its gateway status. |
On Linux, sudo hermes gateway install --system creates a service that starts at boot.
Scheduled delivery: 9 out of 10
The gateway runs the cron scheduler and checks for due jobs every 60 seconds.
You type /sethome in a chat to make it the home channel.
A job created with hermes cron create and the --deliver telegram flag then lands in that chat.
Voice: 8 out of 10
Telegram voice messages are transcribed and passed to the agent as text.
The local option uses faster-whisper with no API key, and hosted options exist too.
The /voice command controls spoken replies.
Chat commands: 8 out of 10
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/new |
It starts a fresh conversation. |
/model |
It shows or changes the model. |
/stop |
It stops the running agent. |
/bg |
It runs a prompt in a separate background session. |
/btw |
It asks a side question without interrupting the job. |
/usage |
It shows token usage for the session. |
/whoami |
It shows your access tier. |
Sessions don't reset after inactivity, so you type /new when you want a clean start.
Group behaviour: 7 out of 10
This is the feature with the most ways to trip up.
Telegram bots start with privacy mode on, which means the bot only sees slash commands and replies to its own messages in a group.
You turn Group Privacy off in BotFather and then remove and re-add the bot, or you make the bot an admin.
Setting telegram.require_mention: true keeps the bot quiet until someone tags it or replies to it.
Your allowlist still applies in groups.
If you run several Hermes bots in one group, each profile needs its own bot token.
Files and media: 8 out of 10
The gateway sends files as native attachments on platforms that support them.
The docs list images, audio, video, documents, office files and archives.
One catch applies to Docker users, because a file that only exists inside the container can't be sent until you mount a shared folder.
Admin and user tiers: 8 out of 10
Admins can run every slash command.
Regular users can chat normally and only run the commands you list.
The docs say the split is configured per platform and separately for direct messages and groups.
Reliability: 8 out of 10
Final replies are recorded in a delivery ledger.
If the gateway crashes between writing a reply and sending it, the next start re-sends it.
A reply that might be a duplicate is labelled as recovered, which I like, because it doesn't hide the uncertainty.
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How To Create A Hermes Agent Bot On Telegram
Here's the short version of the setup.
- You install Hermes Agent and connect a model.
- You send
/newbotto @BotFather, choose a name and a username ending in "bot", and copy the token. - You message @userinfobot to get your numeric user ID.
- You run
hermes gateway setup, choose Telegram and paste in the token and your ID. - You run
hermes gatewayand send a test message. - You run
hermes gateway installandhermes gateway startto keep it online.
Keep the token secret, and revoke it with /revoke in BotFather if it ever leaks.
What A Hermes Agent Bot Costs
| Part | Cost |
|---|---|
| Hermes Agent | It is free under the MIT licence. |
| A Telegram bot token | It is free from BotFather. |
| The model | It is free with a free Nous Portal model or a local model, and paid with stronger hosted models. |
| An always-on machine | It is free on a computer you own, and a monthly bill on a server. |
The docs note that bots need a model provider and tool providers, and that a Nous Portal subscription bundles them.
My best Hermes Agent VPS ranking and my FlyHermes review cover the hosting side.
Limits And Gotchas
- A cold boot drops Telegram messages that arrived while the gateway was offline, unless you set
drop_pending_on_cold_bootto false. - Two gateways can't poll the same Telegram bot token at once.
- The WhatsApp bridge can break when WhatsApp updates its web protocol, and the docs say to update Hermes and re-pair.
- A bot is only as good as the model behind it, because Hermes doesn't ship its own model.
- The amount of configuration is large, so start with the defaults.
Bot Mode And Hermes Bots, Briefly
Hermes Bot Mode is a different feature with a similar name.
It's a desktop plugin from Nous Research that turns your Hermes profiles into a roster of named bots.
Each bot has its own chat, memory, routines and optional model, and bots can message each other through the Agent Inbox.
I rebuilt that roster as a Bots tab inside my own Agent OS, where creating a bot takes a name, a title and a description.
In my recent Hermes video I mention creating a Hermes bot from an active profile, so an existing profile becomes a named bot.
My Hermes Agent Bot Mode review scores that feature on its own, and the original guide on agentos.guide shows it running.
Who Should Use A Hermes Agent Bot
A Hermes Agent bot suits you if you already run Hermes and want to reach it from your phone.
It suits a small team that wants one shared agent in a group chat.
It doesn't suit someone who wants a public customer-service bot with no supervision, because the agent has real tool access.
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Related Reading
- My Hermes Agent background review covers the service, cron and background sessions that keep a bot working.
- The best Hermes Agent tools ranks what the agent can do once you can reach it.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The full Hermes Telegram bot walkthrough for operators
- 🌐 Eight ways a business uses a Hermes bot
- 🌐 The Hermes bot quick-start for an Agent OS
- 🌐 How the models behind a Hermes bot score on GoldieBench
FAQ: Hermes Agent Bot
What is a Hermes Agent bot?
A Hermes Agent bot is Hermes Agent connected to a messaging platform through its built-in gateway.
The gateway is one background process that connects to your platforms, handles sessions, runs cron jobs and delivers voice messages.
Which platforms does a Hermes Agent bot support?
The official docs list Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Email, Home Assistant, Mattermost, Matrix, DingTalk, Feishu/Lark, WeCom, Weixin, BlueBubbles for iMessage, QQ, Yuanbao, Microsoft Teams, LINE, ntfy and the browser.
Which platform is best for a Hermes Agent bot?
My pick is Telegram, because it needs one free token and no public server.
Slack is my pick for a company that already works in Slack.
Is a Hermes Agent bot safe?
The defaults are sensible, because unknown users are denied and dangerous commands need approval.
You still need to keep the bot token secret and limit who has access.
Does a Hermes Agent bot cost money?
Hermes Agent and a Telegram bot token are both free.
The model can be free or paid, and an always-on bot needs a machine that stays switched on.
What is the difference between a Hermes bot and Hermes Bot Mode?
A Hermes bot on a messaging platform is the gateway feature.
Bot Mode is a separate desktop plugin that shows your Hermes profiles as a roster of named bots.
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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 run Goldie Agency, a 7-figure SEO and link building agency with 70+ people in Bangkok.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote the book "Link Building Mastery".
- I run GoldieBench, where I score AI models on real one-shot builds.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Start on Telegram, keep the allowlist tight, and you'll get the best of what I scored here from your own Hermes Agent bot.
