All tools listed here are part of _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS and are available in the hermes-cli and all platform presets. Tools with unsatisfied requirements are silently excluded from the agent’s tool list at startup.
Run hermes doctor to check which tools are active.
Web
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
web_search | Search the web and return relevant results. Supports multiple backends (Parallel, Firecrawl, Tavily). | PARALLEL_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY, or TAVILY_API_KEY |
web_extract | Extract and summarize content from a URL. Uses an auxiliary LLM to produce a clean text summary. | Same as web_search |
Terminal & process
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
terminal | Execute shell commands in the configured backend (local, SSH, Docker, Modal, etc.). Supports background execution with background=true and check_interval. | None |
process | Manage background processes: list running processes, check status, stream output, or kill a process by ID. | None |
Dangerous commands (e.g. rm -rf, curl | bash) trigger an approval prompt unless approvals.mode is off or the command matches command_allowlist.
File operations
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
read_file | Read a file from the filesystem. Supports path expansion and binary file detection. | None |
write_file | Write content to a file. Creates parent directories as needed. | None |
patch | Apply targeted edits to a file using fuzzy string matching. Safer than full rewrites for small changes. | None |
search_files | Search file contents by regex pattern and/or list files matching a glob. Returns matches with line numbers. | None |
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
vision_analyze | Analyze an image and return a description or answer a question about it. Passes the image to an auxiliary multimodal model. | OPENROUTER_API_KEY or multimodal provider |
image_generate | Generate an image from a text prompt using FLUX via FAL.ai. Returns the image URL. | FAL_KEY |
text_to_speech | Convert text to audio. Supports Edge TTS (free), ElevenLabs (premium), OpenAI TTS, and NeuTTS (local). | None for Edge TTS; ELEVENLABS_API_KEY or VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY for premium |
Browser automation
Browser tools control a Chromium browser session. Local browser works out of the box; cloud browser requires Browserbase credentials.
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
browser_navigate | Navigate to a URL in the browser. | None (local); BROWSERBASE_API_KEY + BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID (cloud) |
browser_snapshot | Take a screenshot of the current browser page and return it as a vision-ready image. | Same as above |
browser_click | Click an element on the page identified by a selector or coordinates. | Same |
browser_type | Type text into an input element. | Same |
browser_scroll | Scroll the page up, down, or to a specific position. | Same |
browser_back | Navigate back in browser history. | Same |
browser_press | Press a key (e.g. Enter, Escape, Tab). | Same |
browser_close | Close the current browser session. | Same |
browser_get_images | Extract all images from the current page. | Same |
browser_vision | Analyze the current browser screenshot using an auxiliary vision model. | Same + multimodal provider |
browser_console | Read the browser console log (JavaScript errors, warnings, and output). | Same |
Use /browser connect in the CLI to attach to a running Chrome instance via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) instead of launching a new session.
Code & delegation
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
execute_code | Run a Python script that calls Hermes tools via an internal RPC interface. Intermediate tool results stay out of the LLM context window, reducing token usage for bulk operations. | None |
delegate_task | Spawn a child agent with isolated context and a specified toolset. Supports single tasks and batches of up to 3 parallel subagents. | None |
Planning
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
todo | In-session task planning and tracking. Create, update, and check off tasks. State is reset with /new. | None |
memory | Read and write persistent memory across sessions. Two stores: MEMORY.md (agent notes) and USER.md (user profile). Both are injected into the system prompt at startup. | None |
Skills
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
skills_list | List all installed skill documents available in ~/.hermes/skills/. | None |
skill_view | Read the content of a specific skill document. | None |
skill_manage | Create, edit, rename, or delete skill documents. | None |
code-review activates via /code-review).
Session
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
session_search | Search past conversations by keyword using FTS5 full-text search. Returns matching sessions with AI-generated summaries. | Auxiliary LLM (auto-resolved) |
Communication
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
send_message | Send a message to a platform (Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.) from within a session. Gated on the gateway being active. | Gateway + platform token |
clarify | Ask the user a clarifying question — supports multiple-choice or open-ended prompts. Blocks the agent loop until the user responds. | None |
Scheduling
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
cronjob | Create, list, update, pause, resume, run, and remove scheduled tasks from within a session. | None |
Honcho
Honcho tools require HONCHO_API_KEY and a configured ~/.honcho/config.json. Run hermes honcho setup to configure.
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
honcho_context | Retrieve the Honcho session context for the current user — a structured summary of past interactions. | HONCHO_API_KEY |
honcho_profile | Read or update the user’s Honcho profile (preferences, facts, communication style). | HONCHO_API_KEY |
honcho_search | Search the Honcho memory store for relevant past facts. | HONCHO_API_KEY |
honcho_conclude | Save a summary of the current session to Honcho at conversation end. | HONCHO_API_KEY |
Home Assistant
Home Assistant tools require a HASS_TOKEN (long-lived access token) and HASS_URL pointing to your Home Assistant instance.
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
ha_list_entities | List all entities in Home Assistant, optionally filtered by domain or area. | HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL |
ha_get_state | Get the current state and attributes of a Home Assistant entity. | HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL |
ha_list_services | List available Home Assistant services for a domain. | HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL |
ha_call_service | Call a Home Assistant service (e.g. light.turn_on, switch.toggle). | HASS_TOKEN, HASS_URL |
| Tool | Description | Required keys |
|---|
mixture_of_agents | Aggregate responses from multiple models in parallel for stronger reasoning and answer quality. | OPENROUTER_API_KEY |