Hermes Agent — from Nous Research — is an open-source, self-hosted AI agent that learns from experience and supports MCP out of the box. It's trending because it pairs a self-improving skills system with first-class tool access. Here's what it is and how MCP fits.
What is Hermes Agent?
Unlike a stateless chatbot, Hermes Agent has a learning loop: it creates skills from experience, refines them in use, and builds a persistent, cross-session model of you. Highlights:
- Persistent cross-session memory — it remembers across conversations.
- Self-improving skills — it turns repeated work into reusable skills.
- Multi-platform messaging — Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp.
- 40+ built-in tools plus anything you add via MCP.
- Runs anywhere — from a $5 VPS to serverless.
Where MCP comes in
Hermes Agent speaks the Model Context Protocol natively. That means every MCP server in the ecosystem becomes available to it without code changes — connect GitHub, Postgres, a browser, your filesystem, or any of the tool servers in our directory, and Hermes can use them immediately. New MCP servers plug in the same way.
If you understand MCP clients like Claude Desktop or Cursor, the mental model is identical: Hermes is the host, MCP servers are the tools. See what is an MCP server for the building block.
Connecting an MCP server
Hermes reads MCP server definitions from its config (the same mcpServers-style shape used elsewhere). For a filesystem server, for example:
{
"mcpServers": {
"filesystem": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/project"]
}
}
}
Check the Hermes docs for the exact config location in your deployment. The server commands themselves are identical to any other client — see MCP config file location.
Self-hosting caveats
Because Hermes is self-hosted and can act autonomously across messaging platforms and tools, treat its permissions carefully: scope MCP servers to least privilege, prefer read-only where possible, and review any community server before connecting it. See how to vet an MCP server and MCP security best practices.
Going further
Hermes is a host, so the value is in the servers you give it. Browse curated loadouts for tested stacks, or the developer tools category. New to building servers? Start with build your first MCP server.