Deploy Your Own Hermes Agent

Your own AI agent, running 24/7, talking to you on Telegram. Think OpenClaw, but better. Hermes Agent by Nous Research comes with tool use, persistent memory, scheduled tasks, and multi-platform messaging — and this template gives you the whole thing with one click.

About

No YAML files. No SSH. No "just clone the repo and figure it out." This template gives you a fully managed Hermes Agent accessible from your browser. Add API keys, connect messaging platforms, manage sessions, view analytics, and schedule cron jobs — all from the dashboard. The messaging gateway runs alongside it and automatically restarts when you change settings. Attach a Railway volume and your data sticks around forever.

Getting Started

1. Deploy to Railway

Click the Deploy on Railway button, set a DASHBOARD_PASSWORD, and deploy. Once it's live, open your Railway-provided URL and log in.

2. Add an LLM Provider

Your agent needs an AI model to work. OpenRouter is the easiest option since it gives access to all major models with a single key.

1. Create an account at openrouter.ai and generate an API key
2. In the Hermes dashboard, go to the API Keys page
3. Paste your key into the OPENROUTER_API_KEY field and save

3. Set Up a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to name your bot
3. BotFather will give you a bot token — copy it
4. In the Hermes dashboard, go to the API Keys page
5. Paste the token into the TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN field and save
6. Also set GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS=true (or set TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS to your Telegram user ID for restricted access)
7. The gateway will restart automatically — check the status widget in the bottom-right corner

4. Test It

Open your new bot in Telegram and send a message. Hermes will respond using the model you configured. You can check the Sessions page in the dashboard to see the conversation, token usage, and tool calls.

5. Persist Your Data (Recommended)

Attach a Railway volume so your config, sessions, and memories survive redeploys:

1. Right-click the service in your Railway project
2. Select Attach Volume
3. Set mount path to /root/.hermes

Common Use Cases

• Run a personal AI assistant on Telegram, Discord, or Slack with persistent memory and tool use
• Manage your agent from any browser — configure models, API keys, sessions, and analytics through the dashboard
• Schedule recurring AI tasks with cron jobs and monitor usage and costs

Dependencies

• At least one LLM provider API key (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, or DeepSeek)
• A Telegram, Discord, or Slack bot token (if using messaging platforms)

Deployment Dependencies

• Hermes Agent Documentation
• Web Dashboard Guide
• Telegram BotFather (for Telegram setup)
• OpenRouter (recommended LLM provider)

Why Use 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.