What Is Hermes Bot Mode and How Does It Work?
Hermes Bot Mode is a new free feature in Hermes that gives you a roster of named agents on a side panel instead of a long list of chat sessions. Each agent has its own name, title, description, personality, memory, and even its own AI model. It's designed as a free alternative to Grok Bot, and when someone pointed out it looks exactly like Grok Bot, the co-founder Technium said, "That's the point."
Before Bot Mode, Hermes worked in sessions. You opened a chat, gave it a task, and it worked. But with six sessions open, they all looked the same. Bot Mode flips that by giving each agent a face, a name, and a job. You see them all side by side in one panel, making it easy to manage different tasks like inbox summaries, content research, and competitor tracking.
Main Features of Bot Mode
Bot Mode brings several features that make it useful every day. The biggest is agent-to-agent messaging. When a message arrives, the receiving agent knows exactly which agent sent it, and each agent's personality file teaches it the protocol, including how to reply.
- Mentions: Type @researcher in any chat, and your main agent hands the message off to that agent, waits for the answer, and reports back.
- Routines: Each agent has a routines panel where you can set recurring tasks like "summarize my inbox every morning" or "check my niche for new developments at noon."
- Per-agent models: In the advanced menu, you can pin a specific AI model to each agent. Your research agent can run one model, your writing agent another, and your inbox agent can run a small fast local model.
- Separate memory: Each agent keeps its own history, so your research agent remembers what it researched, and your content agent remembers your style.
How to Set Up Bot Mode
Setting up Bot Mode is simple. Creating an agent takes just three fields: a name, a title, and a description. Installing it is as easy as copying a folder onto the machine running Hermes.
- Open Hermes on your computer.
- Create a new agent by entering its name, title, and description.
- Optionally, go to the advanced section and pin a specific AI model to that agent.
- Set up routines for each agent to run scheduled tasks.
- Copy the agent OS zip file (if you have it) into Hermes to load pre-built profiles, personality files, and routines.
If you want the exact setup shown in the episode, you can get the full agent OS zip file from aiprofitboardroom.com. After the beta, Bot Mode will ship built into the app, so you won't even need to copy folders.
How to Use Bot Mode with Agent Messaging
Using Bot Mode changes how you interact with your AI. Instead of opening separate chats, you work with named agents. The key feature is agent-to-agent messaging. For example, you're chatting with your main agent about a blog post. You type @researcher and ask it to pull the latest facts on the topic. Your main agent passes the message to the researcher agent. The researcher uses its own memory and model to dig up the facts, sends the answer back, and your main agent folds it into your draft. You watched one conversation, but two agents did the work.
Each agent also has a routines panel. You can tell your inbox agent to summarize your inbox every morning. When you wake up, the summary is already sitting in that agent's chat history. You can set a routine to check your niche for new developments every day at noon, and pull fresh content ideas every Monday. The results land in the right agent's chat, so everything is organized.
Bot Mode vs Grok Bot Comparison
The episode compares Hermes Bot Mode directly to Grok Bot. Grok Bot runs on XAI's models, inside XAI's cloud, on their infrastructure, under their rules. Hermes Bot Mode is open source under an MIT license. It's free, it runs on your own computer, and every agent can use whatever model you wantโa big frontier model, a free model, or a local model that never touches the internet.
Grok Bot doesn't give you that choice. With Bot Mode, you control everything. Each agent can have a different model, so your research agent might use a powerful cloud model while your inbox agent uses a small local model. This flexibility is a major advantage. The design also means Bot Mode is built on the foundation of Hermes, not around it. It uses profiles that already existed, so it won't break with future updates.
Bot Mode Is Built on Existing Profiles
One of the smartest design decisions in Bot Mode is that an agent is just a Hermes profile. Profiles already existed, each with its own isolated setup, config, memory, skills, credentials, and chat history, all stored in its own folder on your machine. Bot Mode is a new interface layered on top of that. It requires no core patches, no extra storage, and no background processes running on your machine.
Technium confirmed this when someone asked how Bot Mode differs from profiles. He said it's just a new simplified experience for profiles. This matters because plugins that try to work around Hermes's core will break eventually. Bot Mode can't break that way because it only uses the standard surface Hermes already exposes. It's built on the foundation, not around it. So you can trust it will still work in six months.
Tips, Limits, and Mistakes to Avoid
When using Bot Mode, keep a few things in mind. Each agent has a sole MD file that defines its personality. You can write a custom one for each agent to control how it talks and behaves. Cloning an agent copies everythingโthe config, skills, personality file, and even memory. So if you've trained a research agent for weeks, you can duplicate it and point the copy at a different project. The new agent starts with everything the original learned.
- Tip: Use the advanced settings to pin different models per agent for better performance.
- Tip: Set up routines for repetitive tasks to save time.
- Limit: Don't expect bot mode to work around Hermes's coreโit's built on standard features.
- Mistake: Avoid leaving agents without personality files; they may behave inconsistently.
- Mistake: Don't skip the clone feature if you need a similar agentโit saves setup time.
Who Should Use Bot Mode and Why It Matters
Hermes Bot Mode is for anyone who juggles multiple AI tasks and wants them organized. It gives each task a face, a chat, and a schedule, all in one panel. If you're someone who manages an inbox, does content research, and tracks competitors, Bot Mode keeps everything separate and clear. The free, open-source nature means you don't have to rely on a cloud service or pay for it.
It matters because it brings agent-like functionality to your own computer with full control. You can choose which model each agent uses, run local models for privacy, and set up routines that work automatically. The episode also shows it's already integrated into their agent OS, with profiles, personality files, and routines ready to go. If you want the full setup, you can get the agent OS zip file from aiprofitboardroom.com, plus a 30-day roadmap, coaching calls, and daily tutorials.
