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Hermes Agent 2.0: The Complete Guide
橙皮书 (Orange Book) Series · by HuaShu (花叔)
A hands-on guide to Hermes Agent, the open-source AI Agent framework by Nous Research — the first agent that ships with its "reins" built in, and the reins grow themselves.
This is a from-scratch rewrite. The first edition was based on Hermes v0.7.0. Two months and nine releases later, the product had grown a whole new face — a native desktop app, a full browser dashboard, 23 messaging platforms — so the book is rebuilt around v0.16.0 ("The Surface Release").
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| Version | PDF |
|---|
| 中文版 (Chinese) | PDF Download |
| English | PDF Download |
What This Book Covers
Hermes Agent is an open-source AI Agent framework from Nous Research. Unlike OpenClaw and Claude Code, it takes a fundamentally different approach: a built-in self-improving learning loop, a three-layer memory system, automatic Skill creation and evolution, and — new this cycle — a persistent multi-agent Kanban platform and an honest, OS-level security model.
If you've read the "Harness Engineering" 橙皮书, Hermes is the productization of those five components (instructions / constraints / feedback / memory / orchestration).
21 sections across 6 parts:
| Part | Content | Sections |
|---|
| 1. What It Is | Meet Hermes, one brain many faces, why Nous built it | §01-03 |
| 2. The Reins Grow Themselves | Three engines of self-improvement, Curator, what not to learn | §04-06 |
| 3. How It Remembers You | Three-layer memory, session search, Skills, orchestrating agents | §07-10 |
| 4. Connecting Everything | 64 tools, MCP, 23 platforms, three surfaces | §11-14 |
| 5. Multi-Agent & Orchestration | From delegate_task to the Kanban platform, collaboration patterns | §15-17 |
| 6. Deployment, Security & Boundaries | Deploy, the OS boundary, Promptware defense, how far it can go | §18-21 |
Who Is This For
- Developers who've used Claude Code / OpenClaw / Cursor and want to understand Hermes
- AI power users who don't live in the command line — Hermes now ships a desktop app, so this is for you too
- Anyone interested in seeing Harness Engineering concepts turned into a real, self-improving product
橙皮书 (Orange Book) Series
This is part of the 橙皮书 series — free, practical guides on AI tools. Other titles include Claude Code, Harness Engineering, OpenClaw, and more.
All books free to download: huasheng.ai/orange-books
About the Author
HuaShu (花叔) · AI Native Coder · Indie Developer
An AI content creator with 300K+ followers across platforms. Built all products (including an App Store #1 Paid iOS app) entirely with AI tools — never wrote a line of code manually. Open-sourced Nuwa.skill, huashu-design, and more.
- X/Twitter: @AlchainHust
- YouTube: @Alchain
- Bilibili: 花叔
- WeChat Official Account: 花叔
- Website: huasheng.ai
Version
- v260607 — Second edition (2.0), a from-scratch rewrite based on Hermes Agent v0.16.0 ("The Surface Release")
- v260408 — First edition, based on Hermes Agent v0.7.0
- AI tools evolve rapidly — refer to the official docs for the latest
Changes in 2.0
- Full rewrite, not a patch. Restructured from 17 chapters / 5 parts into 21 sections / 6 parts, rebuilt around Hermes v0.16.0. New material on the self-improvement loop (Curator), the multi-agent Kanban platform, and the security model — areas the first edition barely touched.
- License changed to MIT. The first edition used CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Starting with 2.0, this book is released under the MIT License — you're free to use, adapt, and redistribute it, including commercially. Use it however helps you.
License
MIT License — free to use, copy, modify, and distribute, including for commercial use. Attribution appreciated but not required.
