In Hermes desktop, profiles become bots with their own model, memory, and skills

Hermes Desktop profiles become specialized bots with their own model, memory, skills, routines, and group chats through Bot Mode.

Hermes Desktop profiles become specialized bots with their own model, memory, skills, routines, and group chats.

One agent for research, another for coding, and a third for organization: Bot Mode turns Hermes Desktop profiles into a roster of named bots accessible from a dedicated tab. The feature is built into the app and enabled by default, with no additional installation required.

Each bot retains its own role, model, memory, skills, credentials, appearance, and conversation history. It can use any model and provider combination supported by Hermes, receive custom instructions through a `SOUL.md` file, and activate only the tools, skills, or MCP servers required for its specialty. An existing profile can be cloned or used as the foundation for a new agent.

Bot Mode does not introduce a new technical layer. A bot remains an isolated Hermes profile, with its own files and configuration. The interface assigns it a persistent primary conversation called Bot Chat. A reset command compacts the context instead of opening a new session, preserving the relationship over time. Secondary conversations remain available separately.

Scheduled routines are attached directly to the bot responsible for running them. An agent can, for example, summarize an inbox every morning or produce a recurring report, with the results returning to its own conversation history. These tasks use Hermes’ cron system and remain visible from the command line.

Multiple bots can join a group chat with two to six members. Agents address one another by name, respond when they have something useful to add, and call on the user when human judgment is required. Each message can trigger up to three rounds of discussion, with a maximum of ten responses to keep conversations from running indefinitely.

Delegation also works from a standard conversation. A mention such as `@researcher` sends the request to the relevant bot, waits for its response, and reports it back with attribution. Groups and direct messages can bring together agents running on different machines, while each profile keeps its memory, sessions, and routines on the device hosting it.

The same system remains accessible from the terminal: `hermes -p chat` opens the agent, while `hermes cron list` displays its routines. Disabling Bot Mode hides the interface without deleting profiles, conversations, or scheduled tasks.

The feature still comes with a few limitations reported in the official repository. Open issues describe routing and stability problems affecting some profiles hosted on remote machines, along with a model provider configuration issue in certain group chats. These incidents concern specific setups and do not challenge the announced functionality of individual bot conversations.