If you deployed your VPS with a Hermes Agent template, it will come pre-installed on Ubuntu 24.04. You can configure it from the terminal or through a local web dashboard, whichever feels more comfortable.
Tip: Hermes Agent runs fine on any 2GB+ LumaDock VPS plan. If you're planning to run multiple agents or do a lot of browser automation, the 4 GB and 8 GB tiers give you more headroom without a big price jump.
First login
Connect to your VPS as root over SSH:
ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
On first login you'll see the Hermes setup menu:
1. Run Hermes terminal setup wizard
2. Start Hermes web dashboard on localhost
3. Show web dashboard SSH tunnel instructions
4. Skip for now
5. Do not show this again
Pick the option that suits your style:
The web dashboard is the friendlier path for most people because it gives you a visual editor for models, API keys, skills, cron jobs and logs:
The terminal wizard covers the same choices in an arrow-key menu.
Recommended: Web dashboard setup
The dashboard binds to 127.0.0.1 on port 9119. It's only reachable from the VPS itself, so you'll open it through an SSH tunnel from your own machine.
Step 1 - Start the dashboard on your VPS
From the first-login menu, pick:
2. Start Hermes web dashboard on localhost
Step 2 - Open an SSH tunnel from your computer
In a second terminal on your local machine run:
ssh -L 9119:127.0.0.1:9119 root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
Step 3 - Open the dashboard in your browser
Visit:
http://127.0.0.1:9119
You'll land in the Hermes dashboard.
The left sidebar gives you Sessions, Analytics, Models, Logs, Cron, Skills, Plugins, Profiles, Config, Keys and Documentation.
The Config screen is a friendly editor for ~/.hermes/config.yaml with grouped sections for General, Agent, Terminal, Memory, Security and more:
Terminal setup option
Prefer to stay in the terminal? Pick option 1 from the first-login menu. That runs:
hermes setup
Hermes asks how you want to start:
Quick setup - provider, model and messaging (recommended)
Full setup - configure everything
Quick setup is the right pick for a first run. You'll choose a model provider (Nous Portal is the free option, OpenRouter gives you 100+ pay-per-use models, Anthropic and OpenAI Codex are also available):
Select a default model:
Then decide if you want to wire up a messaging platform like Telegram, Discord, Slack or Signal right away:
After setup
Once your provider and (optionally) messaging gateway are configured, you can talk to the agent.
Start an interactive chat in the terminal
hermes
You'll see the Hermes splash screen with available tools and skills, then a prompt. Type a message and press Enter.
Relaunch the dashboard later
hermes dashboard --host 127.0.0.1 --port 9119 --no-open
Open the SSH tunnel from your local machine again:
ssh -L 9119:127.0.0.1:9119 root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
And visit:
http://127.0.0.1:9119
Why the SSH tunnel is required
The dashboard listens on 127.0.0.1 only. It isn't reachable from the public internet by design, because it can read and write API keys plus bot tokens.
The SSH tunnel forwards port 9119 from your VPS to the same port on your computer over your existing SSH connection. Nothing extra gets exposed publicly, so nobody else can hit the dashboard even if they find your server IP.
Useful commands
These cover the most common after-install operations. All of them run on the VPS, not on your local machine.
Check the installed version
hermes --version
Run the setup wizard again
hermes setup
Edit the config file in your default editor
hermes config edit
Print the current config
hermes config
Start the dashboard manually
hermes dashboard --host 127.0.0.1 --port 9119 --no-open
Update Hermes to the latest version
hermes update
If you skipped the first menu
The first-login menu only appears once. If you picked option 4 or 5 earlier, you can still run setup or the dashboard at any time.
Run setup
hermes setup
Start the dashboard
hermes dashboard --host 127.0.0.1 --port 9119 --no-open
Once everything is configured, you're set. From here you can send the agent prompts and start scheduling tasks.