Hermes Agent has a web UI as of v0.23.0. The official name is the Webapp. It moves the whole Desktop app workspace into a browser tab, served by the Hermes gateway on your own machine, with no third-party server in between. It's off by default, and turning it on takes three commands.
What happened
Nous Research released Hermes Agent v0.23.0 on November 5, and the web UI is the headline feature of that release. v0.23.1, released November 9, is a patch. Starting with that version, the web UI and the Desktop app share the saved gateway connection.
Before this, the only way to use Hermes in a browser was hermes dashboard, the dashboard, which embedded the terminal interface in a web page for chat. The new web UI opens to the Desktop app's own interface.
The screenshot comes from pull request #145598 in the official Hermes Agent repository.
What's in the web UI
According to the official docs, most of the Desktop app workspace works in the browser too.
| Feature | Web UI | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions and group chats | Yes | Same sessions as the Desktop app. Start one on either side and keep going on the other. |
| Multiple profiles | Yes | hermes -p work webapp opens the profile named work |
| Plugins | Yes | Plugins you installed in the Desktop app load in the web UI as usual. |
| File tree, Git review, preview, terminal | Yes | These act on the machine running Hermes. |
| Scheduled tasks, messaging channels, artifacts | Yes | Same as the Desktop app. |
| Global shortcuts, always-on-top window, auto-update | No | These stay in the Desktop app only. |
Every entry point connects to the same gateway process. Whether you come in from the terminal, the web UI, or a chat app, you see the same conversation and the same task queue.
How to turn it on
On the machine where Hermes is installed, upgrade first, then open the web UI:
hermes update # get v0.23.0 or later
hermes config set webapp.enabled true # switch the web UI on
hermes gateway restart # the gateway reads it at startup
hermes webapp # open it in your browser
hermes webapp builds the web files, starts the gateway if it isn't running, and then opens a one-time sign-in link in your browser. The link is valid for 60 seconds and works only once. Refreshing the page or restarting the gateway won't log you out. To open a new tab, though, run hermes webapp again to get a new link. The default address is http://127.0.0.1:9120.
If you use the Desktop app, you can also turn it on under Settings → Web Access.
Don't want to type the commands yourself? Send this to your AI agent:
I have Hermes Agent installed on this machine, and I want to turn on its web UI (Webapp), for use in the browser on this machine only.
1. First check which Hermes version is installed. If it's older than v0.23.0, ask me first whether to run hermes update
2. Turn on the web UI: set webapp.enabled to true, restart the gateway, then run hermes webapp
3. Don't change webapp.host or webapp.public_url, and don't allow access from the local network or the public internet
4. If it won't open, run hermes webapp --status and tell me the reason in plain language
When you're done, tell me what I should see in the browser, then stop.
Using it from another computer or your phone
The official docs list two options.
- Local network: point
webapp.hostat0.0.0.0. Once you do, Hermes won't serve the page to anyone who hasn't signed in. You can use a username and password, but only on a trusted local network or VPN. For the public internet, use a proper login such as OAuth/OIDC. - Your own domain: run a reverse proxy or tunnel on this machine, then put the address it serves in
webapp.public_url. Sign-in is required here too.
The docs would rather you use a private route first, such as Tailscale, a VPN you trust, or an SSH tunnel. For remote access, use HTTPS whenever you can. If you open a non-local address over plain HTTP, the browser turns off the microphone and system notifications, and it won't let the page read the clipboard.
Watch out
- Signing in to the web UI is the same as getting access to this machine. The official docs say that whoever signs in can run any command as the system account that runs Hermes, read and write files, and reach that account's keys. Don't expose it to the local network or the internet until you've set up sign-in.
- It's for one person. A signed-in tab is you. You can't create separate accounts for coworkers.
- To sign out on all your devices, run
hermes webapp --sign-out. Every tab signs out at once. - Old chats may not pick up. Chats from before the gateway adopted sessions are read-only in the web UI. On the host, a single
hermes sessions adoptfixes that. Opening the chat once in the Desktop app or terminal works too. - A single file uploaded in the browser can be up to 16 MiB.
Running Hermes from Docker or Nix? The web UI ships in those builds as well. If you haven't installed Hermes yet, start with install it on Windows or Mac with one command. To learn what it is first, read Hermes Agent is an open-source agent that grows its own skills.
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