Blog · August 19, 2026 · 6 min read
How to Set Up Hermes Agent Bot Mode and a Team of Bots
Hermes Agent bot mode lets you create named bots with their own personality and model, then put them in a group chat. Full setup, and a real build.
Watch the video: Hermes Bot MODE Is Insane! Full Set Up
Bot mode is a feature in the Hermes desktop app that lets you create several named agents, give each one its own personality and its own language model, and put them in a group chat where they work together. Setting one up takes a name, one sentence describing the job, and a model choice. The rest of the profile fills itself in. In this guide I create a creative director bot, add it to a team with a chief of staff, a researcher and a coder, and have them build and deploy a playable game.
You can watch the full walkthrough to see every click. Here are the steps.
What Hermes Agent bot mode is
Hermes Agent is an open source AI agent platform from Nous Research. Bot mode arrived as their answer to Grok Bot from xAI, which shipped a very simple interface for creating agents. I covered how Grok Bot compares with Hermes in a separate post. Within days, Hermes had a matching feature, with more customization.
The idea is simple. Instead of one agent that does everything, you create a small team. Each bot has a name, an avatar, a description, a personality file, and a model. You can chat with them one at a time or all at once.
Before you start: install or update the desktop app
Search for "Hermes Nous Research", open the site, and click the download button for your operating system. Once installed, open the app.
On the left you will see Sessions and Bots. If you do not see Bots, you are on an older version. Scroll to the bottom, click the version button, and if it offers an update, click it. The app updates and restarts itself.
How to create a bot in Hermes Agent
- Click Bots, then the plus button, then New agent.
- Pick an avatar. You can choose an emoji, generate an image if your agent is connected to an image model, upload your own picture, or pick one of the pet avatars.
- Give the bot a name and a short description. Mine is Bob, and his description is "creative director".
- Click Create agent.
Bob now exists, but he has your main agent's personality. Every new bot starts as a copy of your main profile, so the next step is to give him his own.
How to give a bot its own personality with SOUL.md
- Right-click the bot and choose Edit profile.
- Change the avatar if you want. I uploaded an image I had made in Gemini.
- Click Advanced and scroll to SOUL.md. This file is the personality of the agent. Right now it contains your main agent's personality. Select all of it and delete it.
- Type one sentence describing the bot. Mine was: "Bob is our creative director and in charge of all art, design, and images required for all our team projects."
- Click Save.
You do not need to write a detailed file. Hermes reads the sentence, understands the role, and completes the SOUL.md for you, including how the bot should behave and interact with the other agents. When I reopened Bob's profile, that one line had grown into a full description. If you want tighter control, you can write the whole file yourself with specific rules, and the bot will follow them.
How to give each bot its own model
This is the part I like most. Each bot can run on a different language model, so each one gets the brain that suits its job.
- In Edit profile, click Advanced.
- Find the model drop-down. If you use OpenRouter as your provider, every model it offers appears here. You can also use the models built into Hermes through the Nous Portal, including the free tier.
- Choose a model and click Save.
I gave Bob Gemini 3.7 Flash, because Google's models are good with images and it was cheap on OpenRouter at the time. My coding bot runs on something else. You decide per bot.
How to run a group chat with your bots
Once you have a few bots, create a group chat and add them. My team is:
- Laura, chief of staff. She is the manager.
- Drew, researcher.
- Bob, creative director.
- Cody, coder.
In the chat, type @ to see the list of bots. You can address one bot, address @all, or just type without a mention, which also goes to everyone. Or you can talk only to the manager and let her delegate.
I typed to Laura: "Please ask the team to build us a game called Candy Crush." Then I watched.
- Laura sent instructions to the team.
- Drew researched the game and sent Cody a brief: an 8 by 8 grid of colored candies, swap two adjacent tiles, clear matches, score, gravity so tiles fall, special pieces, win and lose conditions, a move limit.
- Bob produced a full visual art direction brief: color palette, board presentation, UI, and the feedback effects that make a match feel good, and handed it to Cody.
- Cody built the game, tested it, and reported that 37 out of 37 checks passed.
I asked the group "is the game done?" and both Laura and Cody confirmed. I asked Cody to push it to Cloudflare, he came back with a link, and the game, which the team named Candy Smash, opened in the browser and worked. Click two candies, they swap, matches pop.
You can click any bot during the process to see what it is thinking and what it has sent to the others. That view is how you catch a bot going in the wrong direction early.
What this means for your business
Bot mode is how an agent setup grows from one assistant into a small operations team.
- A manager bot for the owner. Talk to one chief of staff who knows your priorities and hands work to the others. You get one conversation instead of five.
- Specialists with the right model. A bot that writes customer emails can run on a model that writes well. A bot that does bookkeeping math can run on a cheaper one. Costs stay in line with the job.
- Content production in one chat. Researcher finds what customers are asking, designer produces the visuals, writer drafts the post. I already run a version of this for Instagram.
- Build small tools without a developer. A researcher plus a coder can produce a working internal tool, a landing page, or a calculator for your site, the same way they produced the game.
The whole team above was built with less friction and less spend than my Grok Bot test, where the paid plan gate stopped the demo before the game rendered. If you want the wider picture of what agents do day to day, the six use cases cover phone, content and code.
If you would like a team of bots set up around your business, with the roles and models chosen for your work, get in touch.
FAQ
What is bot mode in Hermes Agent?
A feature of the Hermes desktop app that lets you create multiple named bots, each with its own personality file, avatar and language model, and chat with them individually or as a group.
Why does my new bot behave like my main agent?
Every new bot is created from your main agent's profile. Open Edit profile, go to Advanced, clear the SOUL.md file, and write one sentence describing the new bot's role. Hermes fills in the rest.
Can each bot use a different AI model?
Yes. In Edit profile under Advanced there is a model drop-down. With OpenRouter or the Nous Portal connected, you can pick a different model for every bot.
How do the bots talk to each other?
Create a group chat and add the bots. Use @ to address one bot or @all for everyone, or message a manager bot and let it delegate. You can click any bot to see what it is working on.
I do not see Bots in my Hermes app. What do I do?
Update the app. Scroll to the bottom, click the version button, and click Update if it is offered. Bots appears after the restart.