Hermes Agent

Learn how to connect Hermes Agent to Agent Vault so it can make authenticated API requests without ever seeing your credentials.

Prerequisites

• A running Agent Vault instance (see installation guide)
• Hermes Agent installed

Quick start

Launch Hermes Agent with vault run. It wraps Hermes with a vault-scoped session, pre-configures HTTPS_PROXY and CA trust so outbound HTTPS routes through Agent Vault transparently, and installs the Agent Vault skills so Hermes knows how to discover services and raise proposals. If you haven’t logged in yet, you’ll be guided through setup automatically.

agent-vault vault run -- hermes

That’s it. Hermes Agent launches with Agent Vault access — no invite, no token pasting, no URL rewriting.

vault run also installs two Agent Vault skills at ~/.hermes/skills/agent-vault-cli/SKILL.md and ~/.hermes/skills/agent-vault-http/SKILL.md. These teach Hermes Agent how to discover services, proxy requests, and raise proposals through Agent Vault. The skills persist across sessions.

Target a specific vault

agent-vault vault run --vault myproject -- hermes

Try it out

Ask Hermes Agent to do something that requires an external API:

“Fetch my recent Stripe charges”

Here’s what happens — with zero pre-configuration:

1. Hermes Agent calls https://api.stripe.com/... directly. HTTPS_PROXY routes the call through Agent Vault
2. Agent Vault returns a 403 — Stripe isn’t configured yet
3. Hermes Agent reads the proposal_hint and creates a proposal requesting Stripe access
4. Hermes Agent presents you with an approval link
5. You click the link, paste your Stripe key, and click Allow
6. Hermes Agent retries — Agent Vault injects your Stripe credentials at the proxy boundary and the request succeeds

You didn’t pre-configure anything. The agent discovered what it needed, asked for approval, and handled the rest.

Alternative: invite-based setup

If you can’t use vault run (e.g. you’re connecting a remote or cloud-hosted Hermes instance), use the invite flow instead:

agent-vault agent invite hermes

This generates a one-time onboarding prompt and copies it to your clipboard. Paste it into Hermes Agent — it redeems the invite automatically and receives an agent token plus usage instructions inline.

Next steps

Agent protocol

Full request lifecycle end-to-end.

Services

Pre-configure services you know the agent will need.