Hermes Agent Statistics 2026: Key Numbers, Data & Facts

Hermes Agent from Nous Research has become 2026's fastest-growing self-improving AI agent. From 0 to over 212,000 GitHub stars in just five months. That's more than the entire Khoj project pulled in over three years of development.

Hermes hit a nerve. Persistent memory, self-improving skills, and over 50 LLM providers in a single local Python agent. But what does the growth actually look like? Who's building with it? Which channels get used the most? Which models?

In this article, you'll find the latest numbers, data, and facts on Hermes Agent. All figures are current as of July 2026 and come from official sources (GitHub repository, Nous Research blog, hermesatlas.com) or verified third-party sources.

1. What Is Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open-source AI agent for self-improving workflows. You install it locally (with Python 3.11+), connect an LLM provider of your choice, and talk to it either through the command line or via one of more than 20 multi-channel adapters (including Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, Microsoft Teams, Home Assistant).

Three things set Hermes apart from other agents: persistent memory across sessions, self-improving skills that learn from experience, and the Tool Gateway with four built-in tools (web search, image generation, text-to-speech, and Cloud Browser).

2. GitHub Stars and Growth

Hermes Agent has been publicly available since February 2026. Here's how the growth has played out:

Jul. 26:212K+10.4%vs. Jun. 26

Sources: GitHub, hermesatlas.com

PNG|SVG

CC BY 4.0

gradually.ai

The growth curve is striking. From 57,200 stars on April 11 to around 191,500 stars on June 12. That's roughly 134,000 stars in nine weeks, an average of about 15,000 stars per week. For comparison, OpenClaw, the fastest-growing open-source project to date, added roughly 14,000 stars per week between late April and mid-June (from 295,000 to 378,000). Since mid-June, the pace has slowed noticeably for both projects: between June 12 and July 10, Hermes added around 21,000 new stars (about 5,200 per week), while OpenClaw added around 4,400 in the same window (about 1,100 per week).

3. Star Growth vs. Competing Adaptive Agents

Hermes isn't the only player in the adaptive agent space. The chart below compares Hermes with the four most important direct competitors by GitHub stars (in thousands, as of July 2026):

Source: GitHub (project repositories)

PNG|SVG

CC BY 4.0

gradually.ai

Hermes Agent's dominance is clear-cut. Around 212,500 stars is more than all four direct competitors combined. That makes Hermes the market leader in the adaptive agents category.

For context, Open Interpreter from September 2023 is the oldest project on this list, and Khoj has been around since 2022. Hermes hit in four months what took Khoj three years.

4. Release Timeline and Major Versions

Hermes Agent has been developed at a blistering pace since February 2026. Here are the most important milestones:

The release cadence is intense. The "Velocity Release" v0.15 on May 28, 2026, alone shipped 1,302 commits and 747 pull requests since v0.14. Highlights were Skill Bundles (one slash command loads an entire workflow) and Kanban as a real multi-agent platform with orchestrator auto-decomposition.

5. Supported LLM Providers

Hermes Agent supports over 50 LLM providers. Here are the twelve most important ones:

The range is impressive. From a free local setup with Ollama all the way to enterprise solutions via AWS Bedrock and Azure OpenAI. If you want an overview of current open-source LLMs, you'll find the most important options there.

5.1. Tool Gateway

Through the Nous Portal, Hermes ships four built-in tools that activate with a single OAuth login:

• Web Search: Structured search results available directly in the agent
• Image Generation: AI image generation via Nous Portal
• Text-to-Speech: Synthetic voices for voice channels
• Cloud Browser: Headless browser for web automation

6. Channel Integrations

Hermes Agent is multi-channel-first and now supports over 20 channels. Through the gateway setup (hermes gateway setup), you can connect, among others, the following platforms:

CLI, Telegram, Discord, and Signal are the easiest entry points. WhatsApp needs Twilio, which makes it noticeably more involved and pricier. Microsoft Teams requires an Azure AD setup and is primarily aimed at enterprise environments.

7. Community and Ecosystem

Hermes has built an unusually active community in its first five months. The key numbers as of July 2026:

• 212,500+ GitHub stars (growth: ~21,000 in the last four weeks)
• 39,200+ forks
• 384 contributors since project launch
• 180+ community projects tracked on hermesatlas.com
• 1,302 commits in the Velocity Release cycle alone (12 days)

The contributor count (384 in five months) is strong. For comparison: Khoj has around 70 contributors after three years. Hermes is well ahead for a project at this age.

The community project ecosystem is growing too. hermesatlas.com currently lists over 180 third-party projects built on Hermes, including skill collections, channel adapters, and specialized frontends.

8. Hermes Agent vs. OpenClaw vs. Open Interpreter

For the most important comparison question, the table below shows the key metrics for the three most popular agent frameworks as of July 2026:

It comes down to your use case. OpenClaw dominates in skill variety and absolute reach, but carries security risks from its open marketplace model. Open Interpreter is the best fit for natural-language code execution, but it's missing multi-channel and memory. Hermes Agent comes closest to combining both worlds, with multi-channel reach plus persistent memory and self-improving skills.

9. Security and Local Data Handling

Security is one of the main reasons Hermes has gotten so popular. Unlike OpenClaw, which shipped CVE-2026-25253 in January 2026 (a critical one-click RCE, CVSS 8.8), there are no known critical CVEs for Hermes so far.

The design principles are:

• No telemetry: Hermes doesn't collect usage data by default and sends nothing back to Nous Research.
• No cloud lock-in: All data stays local on your machine. Memory and skills included.
• Local models possible: With Ollama, Hermes can run fully offline, without a single token reaching external servers.
• Open standard skills: Skills use the open agentskills.io format and are portable and auditable.

One caveat. As soon as you use cloud LLMs (Claude, GPT, Gemini), your prompts go to the respective providers. For absolute privacy, you need Ollama plus a local model. You'll find a full cost breakdown in our article on Hermes Agent costs.

10. Market Position and Conclusion

Hermes Agent has shaken up the adaptive agent market in five months. Over 212,000 stars is a clear signal: demand for an open-source agent with persistent memory, multi-channel integration, and local data handling is huge.

Hermes is 2026's reference point in the self-improving agent space. If you want a personal agent that gets better over time, it's hard to look past Hermes. If you need the largest skill ecosystem, take a look at OpenClaw and its alternatives. If you want a broader overview of all Hermes alternatives, you'll find it in our comparison of the best Hermes Agent alternatives.