Hermes
Desktop
A native Mac app for Hermes Agent. Connect directly on this Mac or over SSH. Browse sessions, edit files, and run a real terminal with no gateway and no second copy of your data.
What you can do
Every part of Hermes, in one window. Work against the real Hermes store — never a synchronized mirror.
The surfaces where you actually have a conversation with the agent.
Sessions
Search transcripts, pin work, start a new chat, or resume in the terminal. Chat runs the real Hermes TUI through the active local or SSH connection.
Terminal
Inside the app, with tabs and themes for multi-profile, multi-agent work.
Where Hermes's work gets coordinated, scheduled, and saved for next time.
Kanban
Create, assign, comment, block, and complete tasks. Multi-agent coordination lives here.
Cron Jobs
The real jobs Hermes runs. Create, edit, pause, resume, run now, or delete.
Workflows
On your Mac, scoped to each connection and profile. Run one and it opens a fresh terminal tab with the first turn ready.
The files that define how Hermes works, and the ones it works on.
Files
Canonical Hermes files and SKILL.md on the active machine. Conflict checks run before save.
SKILL.md filesSkills
Discover, read metadata, create new skills, edit existing ones — anchored to the active Hermes skills store.
Memory
Edit the files that store what Hermes knows about you, what it remembers, and how it acts. Plain text in the active Hermes store, with conflict checks before save.
See what Hermes is doing, and keep the parts you want.
Usage
Token totals, top sessions, top models, and recent activity for the active profile.
Settings
Active connection, active profile, discovered profiles, diagnostics, and the paths Hermes is using.
Profiles
The Hermes profiles available through the active connection. Keep the ones you use, retire the ones you don't.
Install
Use Hermes directly on this Mac, or connect to another machine over SSH.
Download the app
Get HermesDesktop.app.zip from the latest GitHub release.
Move it to Applications
Unzip, then drag HermesDesktop.app into Applications and replace the old copy if asked.
Right-click → Open
On most supported macOS versions, right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm. macOS 26.5.1 has an additional checksum-first workaround below.
- macOS 14 or newer
python3available where Hermes runshermesavailable through the prepared shellPATH- For SSH mode only: non-interactive SSH already works from this Mac
Help
The same questions people ask after they install. If yours isn't here, open an issue on GitHub.
Where is my data stored?
On the machine where Hermes runs, in the standard location: ~/.hermes. A named profile uses ~/.hermes/profiles/<name>. Direct-local mode uses this Mac's real files; SSH mode leaves them on the remote host. The app does not create a synchronized mirror.
The only things the app stores locally are your saved connection profiles and preferences, in ~/Library/Application Support/HermesDesktop/.
Why does macOS say the app can't be verified or is damaged?
Hermes Desktop is currently ad-hoc signed and not notarized by Apple. The Gatekeeper warning is expected for this distribution model and does not by itself mean that macOS found malware.
On most supported macOS versions, click Done (not "Move to Bin"), then right-click HermesDesktop.app in Applications and choose Open. If available, you can also use Open Anyway in Privacy & Security.
On some Macs running macOS 26.5.1 (build 25F80), Gatekeeper may instead say that the app is damaged and offer no override. Only for that version and exact alert, first compare the downloaded zip with HermesDesktop.app.zip.sha256 from the same GitHub Release. Do not continue if the values differ.
After moving the verified app to Applications, run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/HermesDesktop.app"
open "/Applications/HermesDesktop.app"
This removes browser quarantine from Hermes Desktop only; it does not disable Gatekeeper globally and does not require sudo. The free alternative is to inspect the source and run ./scripts/build-macos-app.sh; a local build does not inherit browser download quarantine.
Why is "Test" failing on my connection?
Test is a preflight. In direct-local mode it checks that commands can run with your current macOS account and that python3 is available. In SSH mode it also checks reachability and non-interactive authentication.
For SSH hosts, the most common cause is a password prompt or host-key confirmation. Run ssh your-host in Terminal once first to complete that setup.
What does the "Hermes profile" setting do?
It scopes the app to ~/.hermes/profiles/<name> instead of the default profile. It's not just a label — every section in the app follows the active connection and profile.
Leave it empty to use the default ~/.hermes. The app still discovers other profiles available through the active connection.
How do I update?
Download the latest HermesDesktop.app.zip from the releases page and replace the app in Applications. Your saved connections and preferences are kept — they live in ~/Library/Application Support/HermesDesktop/, outside the app bundle.
Where are the logs?
Workflow launch diagnostics are written to ~/Library/Application Support/HermesDesktop/Diagnostics/workflow-launch-latest.log.
For everything else, open Console.app on the Mac and filter by the subsystem HermesDesktop.
Where do I report a bug or ask for a feature?
Open an issue on GitHub: dodo-reach/hermes-desktop/issues.
Useful to include: macOS version, app version (from the in-app About), what you expected vs what happened, and the diagnostics log if the problem is in a workflow launch.
GitHub stars
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