Hermes Desktop

A native Windows desktop AI agent built with WinUI 3 and .NET 10 — featuring a soul identity system, 94 skills, multi-agent profiles, and 6 messaging platform integrations.

Screenshots

Dashboard	Chat

Agent	Skills

Memory	Integrations

Settings

Features

Soul Identity System

Hermes Desktop uses a persistent identity stack inspired by Claude Code's CLAUDE.md and the OpenClaw agent architecture:

• SOUL.md — Defines who the agent is: personality, values, working style, philosophical grounding
• USER.md — Stores information about you: expertise, preferences, how you work
• AGENTS.md — Project-specific rules, coding conventions, architecture patterns
• Mistakes Journal — Learned corrections from past errors (auto-extracted from transcripts)
• Habits Journal — Reinforced good patterns (auto-extracted via dream consolidation)
• 12 Built-in Soul Templates — Default, Creative, Teacher, Researcher, Minimalist, Pair Programmer, DevOps Engineer, Security Analyst, Startup CTO, Mentor, Claude Soul, Nous Hermes

The soul context is injected as Layer 0 in a 6-layer prompt architecture for optimal cache efficiency.

Multi-Agent Profiles

Create and switch between different agent configurations:

• Save named profiles pairing a soul document with a description
• One-click activation swaps the active soul identity
• Use different agents for different tasks (code review, creative writing, teaching, etc.)

94 Skills (74 Hermes + 20 Claude Code)

Markdown-based custom capabilities with YAML frontmatter, organized by category:

Category	Skills
Claude Code	simplify, commit, commit-push-pr, code-review, plan, TDD, systematic-debugging, pdf, docx, xlsx, pptx, frontend-design, mcp-builder, skill-creator, algorithmic-art, canvas-design, webapp-testing, security-audit, refactor, documentation
Software Development	code-review, plan, requesting-code-review, subagent-driven-development, systematic-debugging, test-driven-development, writing-plans
GitHub	codebase-inspection, github-auth, github-code-review, github-issues, github-pr-workflow, github-repo-management
Research	arxiv, blogwatcher, polymarket, research-paper-writing
MLOps	cloud, evaluation, huggingface-hub, inference, models, research, training, vector-databases
Productivity	google-workspace, linear, nano-pdf, notion, ocr-and-documents, powerpoint
Creative	ascii-art, ascii-video, excalidraw, songwriting-and-ai-music
Media	gif-search, heartmula, songsee, youtube-content
And more...	Apple, autonomous AI agents, data science, devops, email, gaming, MCP, note-taking, red-teaming, smart home, social media

13 Built-in Tools

Tool	Description
bash	Execute shell commands with timeout and background support
read_file	Read file contents with offset/limit pagination
write_file	Create or overwrite files with read-before-write enforcement
edit_file	Precise string replacement with uniqueness validation
glob	Fast pattern-based file search sorted by modification time
grep	Content search powered by ripgrep with regex support
web_search	Search the web and return structured results
web_fetch	Fetch and extract content from URLs
agent	Spawn sub-agents for parallel task execution
todo_write	Task list management with status tracking
ask_user	Prompt the user for input or confirmation
schedule_cron	Schedule recurring tasks with cron expressions
terminal	Interactive terminal session management

8 LLM Providers

• Nous (Hermes models)
• OpenAI (GPT-4o, o1, o3)
• Anthropic (Claude Sonnet, Opus)
• Qwen (Qwen 3.5, QwQ)
• DeepSeek (V3, R1)
• MiniMax (MiniMax-M2.7)
• OpenRouter (any model via router)
• Local (Ollama, LM Studio, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint)

Desktop Application (8 Pages)

Page	Description
Dashboard	KPI stat cards, platform/service status badges, model config, recent activity feed
Chat	Full agent chat with tool loop, thinking indicators, permission dialogs, right-side panels (Sessions, Files, Tasks, Replay)
Agent	Three tabs — Agents (create/manage profiles), Identity (edit SOUL.md, USER.md, view journals), Souls (browse 12 templates, preview, apply)
Skills	Searchable skill library with category filter chips, colored badges, sort options, card-based layout, full system prompt preview
Memory	Memory file browser with type badges and content preview, plus project rules (AGENTS.md) editor
Buddy	Companion display with ASCII art, stats, personality
Integrations	Configure 6 messaging platforms with the messaging gateway
Settings	Model provider configuration

UI Design System

• Dark theme with Hermes gold/caramel gradient accent (#C68E17 → #D4A017 → #FFD700)
• Mica backdrop with custom NavigationView theming
• 4 global button styles: Default (gold gradient), Ghost, Secondary, Danger
• Surface cards, inset cards, and consistent typography scale
• Resizable split panels in Chat

6 Messaging Integrations

• Telegram
• Discord
• Slack
• WhatsApp
• Matrix
• Webhook (generic HTTP)

Agent Capabilities

• Full Tool Loop — Agent.ChatAsync with 13 tools, permissions, soul injection, memory, and activity tracking
• 6-Layer Prompt Architecture — Soul (L0) → System Prompt (L1) → Session State (L2) → Context (L3) → Recent Turns (L4) → User Message (L5)
• Claude Code-Quality System Prompt — Comprehensive guidelines covering tool usage, coding best practices, git workflow, communication style, safety constraints
• MCP Server Integration — Connect external tool servers via Model Context Protocol
• Permission System — Rule DSL with 5 modes (Default, Plan, Auto, Bypass, AcceptEdits) and a WinUI dialog for user approval
• Context Runtime — Persistent memory, token budget management, automatic summarization
• Dream Consolidation — AutoDreamService extracts mistakes, habits, and user profile signals from transcripts
• Security — SSRF protection, secret scanning, shell command analysis
• Credential Pool — Provider key rotation across multiple API keys
• Session Persistence — JSONL transcript-first storage with crash recovery

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 (1809+) or Windows 11
• .NET 10 SDK
• Windows App SDK 1.7

Build and Run

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/RedWoodOG/Hermes-Desktop.git
cd Hermes-Desktop

# Build the solution
dotnet build

# Build and register the desktop app
cd Desktop/HermesDesktop
dotnet build

Then register and launch the MSIX package:

cd bin\x64\Debug\net10.0-windows10.0.26100.0\win-x64
Add-AppxPackage -Register AppxManifest.xml
# Launch from Start menu or shell:AppsFolder

Configuration

Create %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\config.yaml:

llm:
  provider: openai
  model: minimax-m2.7:cloud
  baseUrl: http://localhost:11434/v1
  apiKey: ""

# Or use a cloud provider
# llm:
#   provider: anthropic
#   model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
#   apiKey: sk-your-key-here

messaging:
  telegram:
    botToken: ""
  discord:
    botToken: ""

security:
  ssrf:
    enabled: true
  secretScanning:
    enabled: true

Project Structure

Hermes.CS/
├── src/                          # Core agent library (Hermes.Core)
│   ├── Core/                     # Agent, SystemPrompts, models, interfaces
│   ├── Tools/                    # 13 tool implementations
│   ├── LLM/                     # LLM client abstraction (8 providers)
│   ├── soul/                    # Soul system (SoulService, SoulRegistry,
│   │                            #   SoulExtractor, AgentProfileManager)
│   ├── agents/                  # Agent teams, coordination
│   ├── coordinator/             # Multi-agent orchestration
│   ├── memory/                  # Persistent memory system
│   ├── permissions/             # Permission rules and modes
│   ├── skills/                  # Skills system (SkillManager)
│   ├── tasks/                   # Task management
│   ├── transcript/              # Session persistence (JSONL)
│   ├── buddy/                   # Companion buddy system
│   ├── dream/                   # Auto-consolidation + soul extraction
│   ├── context/                 # Context runtime (PromptBuilder, budget)
│   ├── security/                # SSRF, secret scanning, shell analysis
│   └── Hermes.Core.csproj
├── Desktop/
│   └── HermesDesktop/           # WinUI 3 desktop application
│       ├── Models/              # View models (ChatMessageItem)
│       ├── Services/            # HermesChatService, HermesEnvironment
│       ├── Views/               # 8 full pages + panel controls
│       │   ├── DashboardPage    # KPI cards, status badges, activity feed
│       │   ├── ChatPage         # Agent chat + right panels
│       │   ├── AgentPage        # Identity, souls browser, agent profiles
│       │   ├── SkillsPage       # Searchable skill library with categories
│       │   ├── MemoryPage       # Memory browser + project rules
│       │   ├── BuddyPage        # Companion display
│       │   ├── IntegrationsPage # 6 messaging platform configs
│       │   ├── SettingsPage     # Model provider settings
│       │   └── Panels/          # Sessions, Files, Tasks, Replay
│       ├── Controls/            # CodeBlockView, PermissionDialog, ApprovalCard
│       └── HermesDesktop.csproj
├── skills/                      # 94 skill definitions (Markdown + YAML)
│   ├── claude-code/             # 20 Claude Code skills
│   ├── software-development/    # 8 dev workflow skills
│   ├── github/                  # 6 GitHub skills
│   ├── mlops/                   # 8 ML operations skills
│   ├── souls/                   # 12 soul templates
│   └── ...                      # 29 total categories
├── docs/                        # Architecture documentation
└── Hermes.CS.sln

Tech Stack

• .NET 10 — latest .NET runtime
• WinUI 3 — Windows App SDK 1.7, Mica backdrop
• C# 13 — primary constructors, collection expressions, pattern matching
• System.Text.Json — high-performance JSON serialization
• YamlDotNet — configuration parsing

Based On

This project is based on the NousResearch Hermes agent architecture. Hermes Desktop is a native Windows implementation of the Hermes agent design, bringing agentic AI capabilities to the desktop with a modern WinUI 3 interface. https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent — this is my way of showing appreciation to the team building it, just a fork from their vision. Please support them and give them love and use the product they worked so hard to create.

License

MIT