Where to install

Set up Hermes on your laptop, Mac Mini, or virtual server.

Is Hermes safe?

This is probably your first question, and I don’t blame you.

I think Hermes is safe because it’s:

One of the most popular open-source agent repos on GitHub
Backed by a real company in Nous Research
Respected in the AI community, including by companies like NVIDIA

For these reasons, I’m comfortable installing Hermes on both my main laptop and my Mac Mini. But I have a strong preference on where to install it first.

My recommendation: Buy a Mac Mini and install Hermes there so it’s available 24/7. There’s also no harm in trying it on your main laptop.

Let’s walk through the pros and cons of each option:

Install it on your Mac Mini

A Mac Mini is on 24/7, which is critical if you want an always-on AI chief of staff. The cheapest Mac Mini you can find online should work fine for most people.

You only need a Mac Studio or a Mini with more RAM if you want to run local models. Most people don’t need that because you can easily use Hermes with your $20 ChatGPT subscription.

Here’s a picture of my Mac Mini that my kids decorated:

Another advantage of setting up Hermes on a separate Mac Mini is that you can easily give Hermes its own credentials by creating a:

Separate Mac username. I call mine Zoe.
Separate Gmail account. For example, heyzoe@gmail.com.

Giving Hermes separate credentials means you can control what it can access. For example, I gave it:

Read and write access to my email and calendar
Read access to select Google Drive folders and docs

Install it on your main computer

Although I prefer to install Hermes on a Mac Mini, I also feel comfortable installing it on my main laptop and even having it share my credentials.

The biggest advantage is that it can access whatever is on your computer. The biggest disadvantage is that your main computer is probably not on all the time, and Hermes is really most useful when it’s on 24/7.

A good setup may be a default Hermes agent on your Mac Mini and a second agent on your main laptop.

Install it on a virtual server

A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, is a rented computer in the cloud.

The upside is that it runs 24/7 and can be cheaper than buying a Mac Mini. The downside is that it usually means more terminal setup, more server maintenance, and more ways to get stuck.

I would only use a VPS if you are already comfortable managing servers. For everyone else, I recommend getting started with the Mac Mini path because it is cleaner.

Once you know where Hermes will live, install Hermes.