Hermes Agent Now Runs Natively on Windows — No WSL, No Docker Required

AIDeveloper44 Team

Hermes Agent Comes to Windows Natively

Nous Research has announced native Windows support for Hermes Agent, their open-source AI agent OS. The update brings Hermes to Windows 10 and Windows 11 without requiring WSL, Cygwin, or Docker — a one-liner PowerShell install puts the full agent in your PATH and ready to use.

The announcement came via the official Nous Research X account with a demonstration video showing Hermes Agent running natively in a Windows terminal.

One-Line Install

Getting Hermes on Windows requires a single PowerShell command:

iex (irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.ps1)

No admin rights required. The installer provisions everything under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\ and adds the hermes command to your User PATH. Open a new terminal after it finishes and you're running.

For users who prefer a graphical experience, a Hermes Desktop GUI installer is also available — it calls the same install script under the hood and shares the same data directory as the CLI install.

What the Installer Actually Provisions

The installer handles the full dependency stack automatically:

• uv (Astral's Python manager) and Python 3.11 — no existing Python required
• Node.js 22 — for the browser tool and WhatsApp bridge
• PortableGit — provides bash.exe for shell tool execution (same approach Claude Code uses on Windows)
• Messaging SDKs — auto-installed based on which API keys are present in your .env

Shell commands run through Git Bash under the hood, sidestepping the POSIX-vs-Windows gap without requiring users to manage it themselves.

Full Feature Matrix on Windows

Nearly everything in Hermes works natively on Windows:

• ✅ CLI (hermes chat, hermes setup, hermes gateway)
• ✅ Interactive TUI (hermes --tui)
• ✅ Messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, 15+ platforms)
• ✅ Cron scheduler
• ✅ Browser tool (Chromium via Node)
• ✅ MCP servers (stdio and HTTP)
• ✅ Local models (Ollama, LM Studio, llama-server)
• ✅ Web dashboard (sessions, jobs, metrics, config)
• ⚠️ Dashboard /chat embedded terminal pane — requires WSL2 (needs POSIX PTY)

The only feature that doesn't work natively is the embedded terminal pane in the web dashboard, which requires a POSIX PTY — a Windows-native alternative is listed as future work.

WSL2 Still Supported

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 remains a fully supported path for users who prefer a POSIX environment. Native and WSL2 installs coexist cleanly — native data lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes, WSL2 data under ~/.hermes. The WSL2 path also unlocks the dashboard's embedded terminal pane.

What Is Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open-source agent OS — a programmable, extensible AI agent that can run locally, connect to any LLM provider, and operate across 15+ messaging platforms. It supports skills, MCP servers, browser automation, cron scheduling, and multi-agent profiles. The Windows native release dramatically broadens its accessibility, bringing the open-source agent OS to the largest desktop operating system in the world.

Find the project on GitHub and the full Windows guide at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com.

Enjoyed this?

Get more posts like this delivered to your inbox.

Subscribe