Hermes Agent alternative
Updated October 7, 2026.
Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open source AI agent, released under the MIT license. You can run it on your own machine. The project site also offers optional Nous Portal credits and cloud hosting.
The main difference is simplicity. Like Grok Bot, Taskilo is just chat: you set up the bot and manage it from that chat. Hermes documents a desktop app and a command-line quickstart. Desktop onboarding can reach a first message without the CLI. The quickstart is an installer, a setup wizard, a model command, and config files. Messaging platforms are a separate gateway.
Taskilo self-hosting is coming soon. This comparison uses each project's public docs. It is not a measured benchmark.
Setup
Taskilo is in beta for web, desktop and mobile. Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Use Taskilo Cloud or visit the downloads page to get started.
Hermes Desktop is a native app on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It shares config, API keys, sessions, skills, and memory with the CLI. The desktop guide says first-run onboarding gets you to a first message in seconds, and Choose provider later skips provider setup. Settings cover providers, models, tools, credentials, MCP servers, the gateway, and sessions. The app starts its own local hermes serve backend. That chat does not require the CLI or the web dashboard.
The CLI quickstart is a separate path: a shell install (install.sh on Linux, macOS, and WSL2; a PowerShell script on Windows), then hermes setup (Quick Setup with Nous Portal, Full Setup, or Blank Slate) and hermes model. Secrets go in ~/.hermes/.env and other settings in ~/.hermes/config.yaml. The first terminal chat is hermes or hermes --tui. Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, and other platforms use hermes gateway setup and a gateway process you start separately. The desktop guide says that messaging gateway is a different process from the app's local backend.
Day-to-day management
Day to day, you manage Taskilo from the same chat. Schedules, memory, and approval boundaries stay with that bot. Optional connectors can attach Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage via Sendblue, and Feishu/Lark. They are not required to use the product.
Hermes Desktop manages providers, models, tools, credentials, and sessions in Settings. The CLI quickstart sends a broken setup through hermes doctor, hermes model, hermes setup, hermes sessions list, and hermes gateway status. Tool access is hermes tools. Cron, skills, and MCP servers are further configuration. Messaging platforms still need that separately running gateway.
Public descriptions as of October 7, 2026.
Taskilo
- Chat in the Taskilo app
- Web, desktop and mobile
- Self-hosting coming soon
Hermes Agent
- Desktop app and a CLI
- Config under ~/.hermes
- MIT
Use Taskilo Cloud with your account. Supported self-hosting is coming soon.
| Topic | Taskilo | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Taskilo is in beta for web, desktop and mobile. Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Use Taskilo Cloud or visit the downloads page to get started. | Desktop: first-run onboarding in the app, with Choose provider later if you skip a provider. The app shares ~/.hermes/ with the CLI and starts its own local backend. CLI: hermes setup and hermes model, then hermes or hermes --tui. Messaging platforms use hermes gateway setup and a separate gateway process. |
| Day-to-day management | You manage the bot from the same chat on the web, desktop, and mobile apps. Routines are readable Markdown and can run on a schedule. A bot can pause for approval at a boundary you set. | Desktop settings cover providers, models, tools, credentials, MCP, and sessions. The CLI recovery commands are hermes doctor, hermes model, hermes setup, and hermes gateway status. Chat apps need a gateway process kept running apart from the desktop's local backend. |
| Product | Persistent AI teammates. Taskilo is in beta. | Nous Research describes a self-improving agent: it creates skills from experience, keeps memory across sessions, and can run scheduled jobs. The README also documents a terminal UI and a messaging gateway. |
| Source | An open-source release is planned; it is not available yet. | MIT source on GitHub, built by Nous Research. |
| Model | Bring your own model credentials. Multiple providers are supported, including a custom model server. Each bot can use a different model. | You choose a provider with hermes model. The quickstart lists many, including Nous Portal, OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Google, a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and local servers such as Ollama and LM Studio. It says a model needs at least 64,000 tokens of context. |
| Computer | Sandboxed browser, terminal, files, and a graphical desktop. Docker is the default local computer, with optional E2B, Daytona, CreateOS, Box, or a trusted local computer. | The README lists seven terminal backends: local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, and Vercel Sandbox. The quickstart shows hermes config set terminal.backend for Docker or SSH. The security guide says dangerous-command checks are skipped inside Docker, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, and Vercel Sandbox, because the container is the boundary. |
| Connections | Composio or Pipedream Connect, or a Treg, remote MCP, or OpenAPI source you install. Connector credentials are encrypted on the server and are not returned by the API. | MCP servers are configured in config.yaml. The project site also describes web search, browser automation, vision, image generation, and text-to-speech, including a Nous Portal Tool Gateway that bundles several of those. |
| Where you talk to it | The Taskilo web, desktop, and mobile apps are the main surface. Optional connectors can attach Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage via Sendblue, and Feishu/Lark. | Hermes Desktop is a chat window that shares sessions with the CLI and TUI. The gateway adds Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, and other platforms, and the desktop guide says that gateway is a separate process. |
| Ongoing work | Each bot keeps conversations, memory, routines, and history. A bot can delegate to a peer bot or a short-lived subagent. | The README describes agent-curated memory, skills that can be created after a task, a built-in cron scheduler, and isolated subagents. Scheduled jobs can be delivered back to a connected platform. |
| Approval | A bot can pause for approval when a task crosses a boundary you set. Actions are recorded in an audit log. | The security guide documents approval for dangerous shell commands (approvals.mode defaults to smart), file-write checks, and allowlists for who can message the gateway. Container backends skip the dangerous-command check. Cron and other unattended sessions deny those commands unless you change that setting. |
How Taskilo works
- Use one Taskilo account across web, desktop and mobile.
- Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Visit the downloads page for current app availability.
- You bring the model credentials. Connector credentials are encrypted on the server and are not returned by the API.
- Routines are readable Markdown. A bot can pause for approval at a boundary you set, and actions are recorded in an audit log.
- The web app, the Electron desktop app, and the Expo mobile app are clients of the same API.
Get started
Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Use Taskilo Cloud or download the app to get started.
FAQ
Is Taskilo simpler to set up than Hermes Agent?
Taskilo is in beta for web, desktop and mobile. Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Use Taskilo Cloud or visit the downloads page to get started.
Is Taskilo a drop-in replacement for Hermes Agent?
No. Taskilo does not import Hermes config, skills, or gateway sessions. Taskilo self-hosting is coming soon. They differ in license, interface, and how much of the setup lives in a chat versus Hermes's CLI and desktop settings.
Do both keep the software on my machine?
Taskilo is in beta for web, desktop and mobile. Supported self-hosting is coming soon. Use Taskilo Cloud or visit the downloads page to get started.
Where do the Hermes details come from?
The Hermes column summarizes the Hermes Agent site, the quickstart, the configuration guide, the security guide, the desktop guide, and the project README on GitHub. This is Nous Research's Hermes Agent, not a different product with the same name. Check those pages before you rely on a specific command.