Hermes with Ollama emerges as a versatile desktop AI agent

Hermes is a desktop AI app that pairs with the open-source Ollama runtime to run models locally. Rather than a simple chat interface, it behaves as an autonomous agent with integrations for tools, a terminal, messaging channels, memory, skills, scheduled jobs and a continuous learning loop, all while keeping models and computation on a local machine.

A Hermes agent combines several elements: memory for storing information, skills as reusable playbooks, a "soul" that captures voice and preferences, crons for scheduled automations, and searchable session recall. Together these parts form a reasoning loop that reads prompts, chooses tools, calls skills, updates memory and decides the next action.

Installation can be done via the official installer or through Ollama; the Ollama route proved easier and can be used with free OSS models. After installing and launching Hermes the app lets you select and onboard models, then shows real-time progress as it works.

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