Deploy Hermes Agent by Nous Research

Deploy and Host Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent is the open-source, self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. This Railway template runs its official Docker image as an always-on worker, connects it to Telegram, Discord, or Slack, and preserves configuration, conversations, skills, schedules, and memory across redeployments on a persistent volume.

About Hosting Hermes Agent

Hosting Hermes Agent on Railway gives you a persistent messaging gateway without maintaining a VPS or Docker host. The template mounts a volume at /data, keeps Hermes state under /data/.hermes, and starts hermes gateway automatically. Configure one supported inference provider and at least one messaging platform through Railway Variables, then add your user ID to the platform allowlist. New deployments use the official nousresearch/hermes-agent image, with the version controlled by HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION. Railway handles deployment, restarts, logs, secrets, and SSH access while Hermes retains its configuration and learned state between container replacements.

Common Use Cases

• Running a persistent personal AI agent through Telegram, Discord, or Slack
• Scheduling unattended research, monitoring, reports, and recurring workflows
• Using a cloud-based Hermes agent with durable memory, skills, and remote terminal access

Dependencies for Hermes Agent

• A Railway worker service with a persistent volume mounted at /data
• One inference provider and one messaging platform supported by Hermes Agent
• Platform credentials and an allowlist configured through Railway Variables

Implementation Details

The default setup uses OpenRouter and Telegram:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=""
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=""
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=""

For other providers, platforms, and configuration options, use the official Hermes Agent documentation. Allowlist values are comma-separated IDs without brackets or quoted arrays.

New deployments use the official image and default to:

HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION=latest

Set HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION to latest, main, or a published release tag such as v2026.8.31. Use a release tag for reproducible deployments.

HERMES_GIT_REF is deprecated but remains available for existing deployments. Any non-empty value takes precedence over HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION and builds directly from a Git tag, branch, or commit SHA. This legacy path can encounter GitHub 429 Too Many Requests errors during uncached Railway builds. Remove HERMES_GIT_REF and use HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION to avoid cloning Hermes during deployment.

Do not run hermes update inside the container. Update HERMES_IMAGE_VERSION, redeploy, and run hermes config migrate through Railway SSH when required by the release.

Why Deploy Hermes Agent on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Hermes Agent on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.