Hermes Agent + Aion UI: Free AI Agents That Actually Learn (2026 Guide)

Most AI coding agents forget everything the moment you close the terminal. You spend 20 minutes explaining your project structure, your naming conventions, your deployment pipeline — and tomorrow you start from zero. Hermes Agent by Nous Research doesn't work that way. It remembers. It builds skills from experience. It gets measurably faster the longer you use it.

Pair it with Aion UI — a free desktop app that unifies Hermes alongside Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and 16+ other agents in one interface — and you've got a full-blown AI development workspace that costs exactly nothing. We set both up, ran them for a week, and here's what actually happened.

What Is Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is an open-source, self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research — the same lab behind the Hermes, Nomos, and Psyche model families. Released in February 2026, it hit 124,000 GitHub stars in under three months, making it the fastest-growing agent framework of the year.

The core idea is simple but powerful: Hermes lives on your server, remembers what it learns across sessions, and creates reusable skills from complex tasks. It doesn't just complete work — it builds a library of procedures so next time is faster. Independent benchmarks from TokenMix.ai showed self-created skills cut research task time by 40% compared to a fresh agent instance.

It connects to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and Email through a single gateway process, so you can message your agent from anywhere. It supports 200+ LLM models via OpenRouter, plus direct connections to OpenAI, Anthropic, NVIDIA NIM, and local models through Ollama. You can switch models with a single command — no code changes, no vendor lock-in.

What Is Aion UI?

Aion UI is the missing piece that makes Hermes practical for daily work. Built by iOfficeAI, it's a free, open-source desktop application (22.8K GitHub stars) that turns your messy collection of CLI agents into one unified workspace. Think of it as a Claude Cowork alternative that actually works on Windows, costs nothing, and isn't locked to a single model.

When you install Aion UI, it auto-detects every CLI agent on your machine — Claude Code, Codex, Qwen Code, Gemini CLI, Hermes Agent, Goose CLI, and more. You get a shared interface with saved sessions, file preview for 10+ formats (PDF, Office docs, code, images, diffs), and a built-in AI agent engine that works the moment you install it. No CLI tools to install separately. No complex setup.

The standout feature is Team Mode — you designate a Leader agent and Teammate agents, and they coordinate in parallel on complex tasks. Combined with 24/7 scheduling via natural language cron expressions, you can set up automated workflows that run while you sleep. All data stays local in SQLite. Nothing gets uploaded to external servers.

Key Features (Why This Combo Works)

Hermes and Aion UI solve different problems that happen to fit together perfectly. Hermes handles the intelligence — memory, learning, skill creation. Aion UI handles the interface — managing multiple agents, file preview, scheduling, and team coordination. Here's what each brings:

How to Set Up Hermes + Aion UI

Getting both tools running takes under 10 minutes. Here's the exact process we followed:

Step 1: Install Hermes Agent

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

This works on Linux, macOS, and WSL2. For Android, Hermes supports Termux with a curated dependency set. Windows requires WSL2 — native Windows isn't supported yet for the Hermes backend itself (but Aion UI handles the Windows GUI layer).

Step 2: Connect a Model

Hermes doesn't bundle a model — you bring your own. The fastest path is OpenRouter, which gives you access to 200+ models with one API key:

hermes model openrouter
# Or connect directly to a provider:
hermes model openai
hermes model ollama  # free, fully local

Step 3: Install Aion UI

# macOS
brew install aionui

# Windows / Linux
# Download from GitHub releases: github.com/iOfficeAI/AionUi/releases

Once installed, Aion UI auto-detects Hermes and any other CLI agents on your system. Sign in with Google or enter an API key, and you're running. The built-in Gemini CLI agent works immediately with no extra configuration — so even if you haven't set up Hermes yet, you can start using Aion UI right away.

Step 4: Configure Messaging (Optional)

If you want to message your Hermes agent from your phone, set up the messaging gateway:

hermes gateway telegram  # or discord, slack, whatsapp, signal, email

This creates a single gateway process that maintains conversation continuity across all platforms. You can DM your agent from Telegram on your commute, then pick up the same conversation in the CLI at your desk.

Hermes + AionUI vs Claude Cowork vs Cursor

The obvious question: why use these when Claude Cowork and Cursor exist? We ran all three side by side. Here's what we found — and the answer isn't "one is better." They're genuinely different tools for different workflows. If you're exploring the best AI coding assistants in 2026, this comparison matters.

The honest take: Claude Code still has the best codebase understanding — it reads your entire project, follows import chains, and makes changes that respect existing patterns. If your primary work is "write code, refactor code, debug code," Claude Code is unmatched. But Hermes compounds over time in ways no other agent can. For developers comparing options, see our full Devin AI review for another autonomous coding agent perspective.

The smart play is using both: Claude Code for daily codebase work, Hermes + AionUI for recurring research, automation, and long-running workflows. They're not competing — they're complementary.

What It Actually Costs

Both Hermes Agent and Aion UI are free and open-source. Your expenses are hosting and LLM API calls — and even those are optional if you run local models.

Compare that to Claude Cowork at $100/month (Mac only, Claude locked) or Cursor at $20/month. Even the premium Hermes setup costs less than Cursor — and you get self-improving memory, 6-platform messaging, and the ability to use any model you want. For more free, locally-run AI coding setups, we've covered the best options.

Pros and Cons

Best Use Cases

After a week of testing, we found Hermes + AionUI excels in specific scenarios that paid alternatives handle poorly (or charge too much for). If you're exploring AI coding agent workflows, these use cases are where the combo shines:

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

Hermes Agent and Aion UI aren't trying to replace your existing AI coding tools — they're filling a gap those tools can't touch. No other free agent remembers what it learns, creates reusable skills from experience, lets you message it from Telegram, and runs on a $5 VPS. No other desktop app unifies 16+ CLI agents into one interface with team orchestration and 24/7 scheduling.

The compound effect is real. After a week, our Hermes instance had built 12 skills from repeated tasks — research workflows, deployment checks, log analysis patterns. Each one now runs faster than the first attempt. That's the kind of value that grows with time, and it costs nothing.

If you're a developer who spends $100/month on Claude Cowork and only uses it for occasional coding assistance, this combination gives you 90% of that value for free. If you're already happy with Claude Code or Cursor, add Hermes as a complementary tool for the things those editors weren't designed to do — recurring automation, cross-platform messaging, and long-term skill building.

For the complete landscape of 76+ AI agents for development, Hermes + AionUI just became one of the strongest free entries on the list.