Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw: which one should you run?

Q: Can I switch from OpenClaw to Hermes, or back?

Yes. hermes claw migrate imports OpenClaw's persona, memories, skills, messaging settings and allowlisted API keys. OpenClaw's openclaw migrate hermes imports Hermes's config, memories, skills and supported credentials, and shows you a preview first.

OpenClaw and Hermes Agent are both free, MIT-licensed AI agents that run on your own computer and answer you in chat apps. The core difference: OpenClaw is a non-profit-run assistant built to reach you across many apps and devices, and to be shared by a team if you want, while Hermes Agent is Nous Research's single-user agent built around learning from you. Both connect to MCP servers, both run cloud or local models, and both install with one command, so the right pick depends on how you'll use it.

By Tyler Mayberry, creator of ibara and founder of Cirlet · Updated 29 September 2026

What is Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is an open-source AI agent made by Nous Research that you install on your own machine or server. Nous describes it as "the self-improving AI agent": it keeps a memory of you, writes its own reusable skills after hard tasks, and can search its own past conversations. You can use it in a terminal, in the Hermes Desktop app, or from chat apps such as Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp and Signal.

Nous Research is a venture-backed startup founded in 2023. In July 2026 TechCrunch reported it was raising at least $75 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, and that Nous sells a hosted version of Hermes on paid tiers from $20 to $200 a month. The self-hosted agent itself is free.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the chat apps you already use. Peter Steinberger built it with the community, and the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit, now looks after it. The Foundation employs the core team, signs releases and is funded by donors including Amazon, OpenAI and Red Hat. It sells nothing: no paid tier, hosted service or token.

At its centre is the Gateway, a background service that holds your sessions, tools and chat connections. One Gateway can serve one person on a laptop or a whole team.

Side-by-side comparison

Side by side, the two share a licence, MCP support and a wide choice of models; they differ most in who makes them and who they're built for. Every row comes from the projects' own docs and GitHub pages, checked on 29 September 2026. The links are under Sources.

	OpenClaw	Hermes Agent
Made by	OpenClaw Foundation (non-profit) and community	Nous Research (venture-backed company)
Licence	MIT	MIT
Written in	TypeScript (Node.js)	Python
Built for	One person or a team that trusts each other	One person ("a single-tenant personal agent")
Chat apps	WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Signal, Teams and 20+ more	Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email, Teams, Matrix, iMessage (via BlueBubbles) and more
Apps	Web Control UI, terminal UI, macOS menu bar app, Windows Hub, Linux app, iOS and Android companion apps	Terminal UI, Hermes Desktop (macOS and Windows packages), Android via Termux
Memory	Markdown files (USER.md, MEMORY.md, daily notes) with search	MEMORY.md and USER.md with size limits, plus past-session search
Learns new skills	Yes, through Skill Workshop (on by default)	Yes, the headline feature, with a curator that tidies old skills
Models	Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Bedrock and more; local via Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, vLLM	Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI and more; local via Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, vLLM
MCP servers	Yes (stdio, SSE, Streamable HTTP, OAuth)	Yes (stdio and HTTP, plus a Nous-reviewed catalogue)
Operating systems	macOS, Linux, Windows (native or WSL2)	macOS (Apple Silicon is top tier), Linux, Windows (native or WSL2)
Published minimum	1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, about 500 MB disk	None published; the README says a "$5 VPS" works
Commands run on	Your computer, unless you turn on sandboxing	Your computer, unless you pick a container or remote backend
Releases in September 2026	Six stable releases (v2026.9.1 to v2026.9.6) by 23 September	Five releases (v2026.9.7 to v2026.9.24)
GitHub stars (29 Sept 2026)	390,817	250,132

How you talk to each one

Both agents talk to you through chat apps, so day to day they feel much the same. OpenClaw leans harder on devices. It has companion apps for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux that add voice, camera and screen access, and its FAQ describes a common setup: the Gateway on an always-on Mac mini, with your laptop paired as a "node". It also treats a shared team Gateway as a normal setup, with sessions that show who started and steered them.

Hermes offers a full terminal interface, a desktop app and a single gateway process for your chat apps. Its docs suggest typing /new at natural breaks in a chat so memory works well, because a Telegram chat otherwise stays one long session for weeks.

Memory, skills and learning

Learning is Hermes's headline feature, but OpenClaw now does it too. Hermes keeps two small memory files that load at the start of every session, and it saves hard-won workflows as skills with its skill_manage tool. A background "curator" marks unused skills stale after 30 days and archives them after 90, and never deletes them outright.

OpenClaw also keeps memory in plain Markdown files, including a USER.md profile and dated daily notes that the agent can search. Its self-learning feature, Skill Workshop, reviews longer conversations and turns fixes and successful work into skills. By default it applies them automatically. You can switch it to "propose" to approve each one, or turn it off.

Both follow the AgentSkills format for skills. The Hermes Skills Hub can even install skills from ClawHub, OpenClaw's skill registry.

Models: cloud and local

Both work with nearly any model provider, including local ones. Hermes calls Nous Portal, its own subscription, "the recommended way to run Hermes Agent": one login covers 300+ models plus web search, image generation and voice. You don't need it, though. Hermes works with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including Ollama running on your own machine.

Both projects warn about small local models. Hermes needs at least 64,000 tokens of context for agent work. OpenClaw's FAQ says a local model is "usually no" good for casual chat, because small models drop context and raise the risk of prompt injection. OpenClaw's managed llama.cpp setup checks your hardware first, and its smallest recipe needs 8 GiB of memory.

MCP and tools

Yes, both connect to MCP servers, so any tool built on the Model Context Protocol works with either agent. OpenClaw lets you add servers from its settings page, its command line or its config file. Hermes reads them from config.yaml and ships a catalogue of MCP servers that Nous staff have reviewed. I built ibara, free, open-source software that gives an AI agent a computer of its own through MCP tools, so it works with either agent. It runs on Omarchy (Linux) today, with Mac and Windows in progress.

Installing Hermes Agent and OpenClaw

Each installs with one command. For Hermes on Linux, macOS or WSL2, run curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash. On Windows, run iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1) in PowerShell. Then run hermes setup, or just hermes to start chatting. Mac and Windows users can instead download the Hermes Desktop app, which bundles the agent and the software it needs.

For OpenClaw on macOS, Linux or WSL2, run curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash. On Windows, run iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex. The installer adds Node.js if you don't have it, then opens a setup wizard that checks your model access and configures the Gateway. There's also a macOS app and a Windows Hub app.

Hardware

Neither needs a powerful computer unless you run models locally. OpenClaw publishes a minimum of 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM and about 500 MB of disk, recommends 2 GB or more, and has a Raspberry Pi guide (Pi 4 or 5, 64-bit OS). Its FAQ says plainly that you don't need to buy a Mac mini. You only need a Mac for Mac-only features like iMessage. See whether a Mac mini is worth it for OpenClaw.

I couldn't find a published RAM minimum for Hermes; its README says it runs on "a $5 VPS". Its top-tier platforms are Apple Silicon Macs, Windows 10 and 11, and 64-bit Linux on x86 or ARM. If you're unsure whether a computer you already own will do, try Which computer should run your agent?

Security defaults

Out of the box, both run the agent's commands directly on your computer with your permissions, so treat both with care. Both block strangers by default: an unknown person who messages the bot gets a pairing code you have to approve.

Hermes asks an extra AI model to judge risky shell commands before they run. Clearly dangerous commands are refused and unclear ones come to you for approval. Its security policy is blunt, though: "The only security boundary against an adversarial LLM is the operating system." Nous recommends running the whole agent in a container or NVIDIA OpenShell if it reads the open web, email or untrusted MCP servers.

OpenClaw's own docs say sandboxing and command approvals are off by default. It offers Docker, Podman, SSH and OpenShell sandboxes, plus an openclaw security audit command. It supports "one trust boundary per gateway", so people who don't trust each other need separate Gateways. There's more in Is OpenClaw safe?

Updates and stability

Both change fast, shipping updates about weekly as of September 2026. OpenClaw has stable, beta and dev channels, plus a slower "extended-stable" channel that never installs updates by itself. Hermes's default source install tracks the main branch. You can switch to its stable channel, and the desktop apps come in separate stable and canary builds. If you want fewer surprises, pick a stable channel on either.

Which should you pick?

Pick by who will use the agent: OpenClaw for shared, many-device setups, Hermes for one person who wants the agent to learn. In more detail, pick OpenClaw if:

more than one person will use the agent, such as a family or a small team. Shared Gateways are a supported setup, while Hermes's security policy calls it a single-tenant personal agent.
you want companion apps on your phone and your other computers that feed voice, camera and screen to one agent.
you want a small, documented starting point like a Raspberry Pi or a 1–2 GB VPS.
it matters to you that a non-profit with no paid product runs the project.

Pick Hermes Agent if:

it's just you, and you want an agent whose main design goal is learning your habits and building its own skills.
you'd rather pay one subscription (Nous Portal) than collect separate keys for models, search, images and voice.
you want a company with investment behind it and a paid hosted option if self-hosting gets tiring.

My take: the gap is narrower than most comparison posts suggest, because the two projects have grown towards each other. Both can even import the other's memory and skills. Choose on who will use it and how much tinkering you want, then keep it on a stable channel. To budget for either, see what OpenClaw really costs to run. The model bill works the same way for Hermes.

Questions

Is Hermes Agent better than OpenClaw?

Neither is better for everyone. Hermes is designed for one person and puts learning first. OpenClaw is designed to be shared across many chat apps and devices. As of September 2026 both learn skills, support MCP and run local models.

Can I switch from OpenClaw to Hermes, or back?

Yes. hermes claw migrate imports OpenClaw's persona, memories, skills, messaging settings and allowlisted API keys. OpenClaw's openclaw migrate hermes imports Hermes's config, memories, skills and supported credentials, and shows you a preview first.

Do Hermes Agent and OpenClaw cost money?

Both are free, MIT-licensed software. You pay for whatever AI model you connect, unless you run a local one. Nous Research also sells Nous Portal and a hosted Hermes, and TechCrunch reported paid tiers from $20 to $200 a month. The OpenClaw Foundation has no paid tier.

Does Hermes Agent run on Windows?

Yes. Native Windows 10 and 11 is a top-tier (Tier 1) platform for Hermes, installed with a PowerShell command or the desktop app. WSL2 also works. OpenClaw also runs on native Windows or WSL2.

Do I need a Mac mini for either?

No. Both run on Linux and Windows as well as macOS. OpenClaw's FAQ says a small VPS, home server or Raspberry Pi-class box works. You only need a Mac for Mac-only features such as iMessage.

Which one is more popular?

On 29 September 2026, OpenClaw had 390,817 GitHub stars and 82,203 forks. Hermes Agent had 250,132 stars and 53,401 forks. Both projects run Discord servers for help.