Install and Use Official Plugins with Hermes Agent

What Hermes Official Plugins provides

Hermes Official Plugins is the first-party plugin collection for Hermes Agent, maintained by Nous Research. Each directory in the repository contains a self-contained integration that can be installed through the Hermes plugin catalog.

Hermes Agent is a self-improving AI agent that can retain useful information across sessions, develop skills from experience, and run through interfaces such as the terminal, Hermes Desktop, Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, and Signal. It supports multiple model sources, including Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, and custom endpoints.

The project keeps the universal parts of Hermes in the core, including the agent loop, memory, skills, gateway, model routing, and tool runtime. Product-specific and vendor-specific capabilities remain separate plugins.

Why Hermes uses plugins

• Smaller installations: You install only the integrations you need.
• Independent fixes: A plugin can receive a reviewed update without waiting for a new Hermes core release.
• Clear ownership: Nous maintains official plugins, while vendors and independent authors maintain community plugins.
• Reviewed versions: Catalog entries are pinned to reviewed commits, so installation and updates use known revisions.
• Efficient downloads: Hermes fetches only the selected plugin directory through a blobless sparse clone.

Prerequisites and Hermes installation

You need a working Hermes Agent installation before adding these plugins. On a supported system, run the installation script shown in the Hermes README:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

After installation, confirm that the command-line interface is available:

hermes --help

Individual plugins can have additional requirements. For example, Spotify requires your own Spotify developer application for login, Blender requires Blender 5.1 or later with its MCP add-on, and Snyk requires Node.js, npm, and a Snyk account. Review a plugin's catalog information before installing it.

Explore the plugin catalog

The Hermes plugin catalog contains reviewed official and community integrations. Use the search command to browse available entries:

hermes plugins search

Inspect a specific plugin before installation:

hermes plugins info spotify

The information entry describes what the plugin does, its requirements, and the reviewed commit to which it is pinned. Hermes Desktop users can access the same catalog under Capabilities → Plugins.

Install and update a plugin

1. Search for the integration you want:

   

   hermes plugins search

2. Read its requirements and metadata:

   hermes plugins info spotify

3. Install the reviewed version:

   hermes plugins install spotify

4. When a newer reviewed pin becomes available, update the plugin:

   hermes plugins update spotify

An update follows the catalog to its next reviewed commit. It does not automatically install an arbitrary repository revision.

Choose an official plugin

Home Assistant

The Home Assistant plugin adds a gateway platform and four tools for listing entities, reading states, listing services, and calling services. Hermes can monitor the event bus, react to selected state changes, control devices through the REST API, and reply through Home Assistant notifications.

hermes plugins install homeassistant

Its tools are ha_list_entities, ha_get_state, ha_list_services, and ha_call_service. Cron jobs can target Home Assistant with deliver=homeassistant.

Spotify

The Spotify plugin provides tools for playback, Spotify Connect devices, the queue, search, playlists, albums, and the user's library.

hermes plugins install spotify
hermes spotify login

The login command performs a loopback PKCE login using your own Spotify developer application. Spotify Premium is required for playback control.

Claude Subscription DirectSDK

This experimental model provider runs Hermes turns through the official Claude Code CLI using a Claude Pro or Max subscription. Hermes retains its own agent loop, tools, approval handling, and compaction while the plugin uses the authenticated claude binary as a request-scoped model client.

hermes plugins install claude-subscription-directsdk

After installation, open hermes model and select Claude Subscription DirectSDK (Experimental). If Claude Code is unavailable, the plugin refuses to run and provides an installation hint.

Telegram Business Mode

Telegram Business Mode turns Hermes into an observe-with-approval assistant for a Telegram Business account. It can draft customer replies, but every reply requires owner approval before it is sent.

hermes plugins install hermes-telegram-business

Memory Wiki

Memory Wiki adds a dashboard and Hermes Desktop tab that organizes local session history into subject pages and daily logs. It also offers a read-only audit panel for MEMORY.md and USER.md. The plugin reads local history and does not write to it.

hermes plugins install hermes-memory-wiki

Blender

The Blender plugin combines the official Blender Lab MCP server with a Blender workflow skill. It requires Blender 5.1 or later with its MCP add-on, as well as Git and uv. It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux.

hermes plugins install blender

The Blender tools run Python inside Blender. Use only trusted workflows and review operations that can modify your scene.

Snyk

The Snyk plugin uses Snyk's first-party MCP server and includes the snyk-security-scan workflow skill. It can scan source code, dependencies, container images, infrastructure-as-code configurations, and software bills of materials.

hermes plugins install snyk

It requires Node.js, npm, and a Snyk account. Authentication is performed through a browser using snyk_auth.

TouchDesigner

The TouchDesigner plugin connects to a live TouchDesigner session through 404.zero's free twozero MCP server, which runs inside TouchDesigner. It includes a workflow skill and more than 20 reference files covering topics such as operators, GLSL, audio-reactive projects, and instancing.

hermes plugins install touchdesigner

TouchDesigner support is listed for macOS and Windows.

Accent Picker

Accent Picker is a Hermes Desktop plugin that adds an OKLCH color wheel to the status bar. Dragging the picker retints the theme in real time, allowing theme authors to test accent colors in place. The selected color is temporary scratch state and is not persisted.

hermes plugins install accent-picker

Migrate an older installation

Several official plugins previously lived in Hermes core or separate repositories. The required migration depends on how you originally installed them.

• Built-in Home Assistant or Spotify: Run hermes update. The first start after updating can install the catalog plugin while preserving the existing configuration, environment variables, and login.
• Catalog installation: Run hermes plugins update <name>. The catalog now points to the official plugins repository and keeps your files during the move.
• URL-based installation: Reinstall once from the catalog with hermes plugins install <name> --force. This is necessary because the older standalone repositories are archived and no longer receive fixes.

Understand the repository structure

Each top-level plugin directory is a complete package. Python plugins commonly contain a manifest, registration code, dependencies, and tests. Portable MCP-based plugins can use plugin.json, mcp.json, and a skills directory, while Desktop plugins can include JavaScript under a desktop directory.

hermes-official-plugins/
├── assets/
├── homeassistant/
│   ├── plugin.yaml
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   └── tests/
├── blender/
├── accent-picker/
└── ...

The catalog identifies a plugin with a repository, subdirectory, and pinned commit. As a result, installing Spotify does not download the Home Assistant plugin.

Test a plugin locally

For development, clone Hermes Agent and the official plugin repository beside each other:

git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent
git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-official-plugins
cd hermes-official-plugins/spotify
HERMES_AGENT_REPO=../../hermes-agent PYTHONPATH=../../hermes-agent python -m pytest -q

The official plugins are tested against the current Hermes core on Linux, macOS, and Windows for every push and pull request. Nightly testing is also used to detect core changes that break plugins.

To install a local checkout into a working Hermes environment, pass the directory path and force replacement:

hermes plugins install ./spotify --force

Advanced tips

• Inspect before installing: Use hermes plugins info <name> to check dependencies and the reviewed commit.
• Prefer catalog names: Catalog installations follow future reviewed pins more cleanly than direct URL installations.
• Use force carefully: The --force option is useful for migration and local testing, but verify that you are replacing the intended installation.
• Respect approval boundaries: Plugins such as Telegram Business Mode deliberately require approval before sending replies.
• Review powerful integrations: Tools that execute code in applications, such as Blender, should be used only with trusted workflows.
• Report issues in the right repository: Open plugin-specific issues in the official plugins repository and include the plugin name in the title, such as [spotify] .... Report core problems in the Hermes Agent issue tracker.

Release and build plugins

For maintainers, merging a plugin change into the repository's main branch does not by itself update catalog users. A release is completed by opening a pull request against Hermes Agent and changing the plugin's sha: value in plugin-catalog/<name>.yaml. The catalog pin acts as the release version.

To create your own integration, begin with the Hermes plugin guide and the example plugins. Standard plugins are plain Python packages with a plugin.yaml manifest. Finished plugins can be submitted to the Hermes catalog for review.

Conclusion

Hermes Official Plugins provides a controlled way to extend Hermes Agent without placing every integration in the core. Search the catalog, inspect a plugin's requirements, install its reviewed pin, and use the update command to move to later reviewed revisions. Developers can also clone the repository, run plugin-specific tests, and install local directories for real-world testing.