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Use Hermes when your project or agent type is Hermes. The Bridge provider id is hermes. Hermes is an open agent stack with a CLI and optional messaging gateway. In CtrlNode, tasks run through the Bridge like other CLIs — primary path is hermes acp (Agent Client Protocol), with hermes chat as a fallback.

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Install on the Bridge host

Confirm the CLI is on PATH:
On Windows, use the same Python environment you use for other agent tools, then restart the terminal before running ctrlnode.

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CtrlNode setup

  1. Project — set default agent type to Hermes (CLI badge in the project sidebar).
  2. Team — create an agent with type Hermes.
  3. Bridge — ensure ctrlnode is connected; CtrlNode sends sync_hermes_agents with your agent ids.

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How dispatch works

Task work mode still applies:
  • OUTPUT ONLY — deliverables under this task’s folder in {BASE_PATH}/.ctrlnode/tasks/...
  • WORK DIRECTORY — agent can read and change the project’s work directory (or Bridge workspace home if the project has no path set)
See Task work modes.

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Where Hermes stores data

Other providers do not write under .ctrlnode/agents/. Codex uses .ctrlnode/.codex-agents/{agentId}/. HERMES_HOME in .env is only an emergency global override of ~/.hermes.

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Environment variables

Provider API keys follow Hermes documentation (configure in the Hermes profile or global Hermes config as required by your install).

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hermes mcp serve

Not used for CtrlNode task dispatch. hermes mcp serve is for messaging gateways (Telegram, Discord, etc.), not for local dispatch_task from the Bridge.

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Troubleshooting