Desktop Application

4.3. Desktop Application — The Native Graphical App

Role

Hermes Desktop is a native application for macOS, Windows, and Linux — a dedicated chat window that drives the Hermes Agent, instead of working through the command line. It is not a separate product: it runs on the same agent core, with the same sessions, skills, and memory as the CLI and the gateway.

Two connection modes

• Self-managed local backend — the app starts and controls an agent running right on the machine where the app is used.
• Connecting to a remote backend — point the app at a Hermes running on a VPS/home server (the exact model described in chapter 1), over a Tailscale IP or OAuth Nous Portal for a public connection.

Notes

• If you have already built the VPS per chapters 1–2, use the Desktop app in “remote gateway” mode pointing at that backend — immediately reuse the always-on infrastructure you already have, with no need to run a parallel local agent.
• Because state is shared with every other interface, a session that starts on your phone (via gateway messaging) can be fully “seen” and continued from the Desktop app — no manual syncing of any kind.