Install Hermes

Hermes is the local runner that connects your machine to the Studio. It spawns agent workspaces, captures their work, and reports back to the server.

Hermes is the runner Agent Studio uses to execute agents on your machine. Every agent — frontend, backend, principal, designer — runs in its own isolated workspace under Hermes, with its own clone of the repos it touches and its own conversation history. The Studio server coordinates the work; Hermes does it.

What you get

One isolated workspace per agent, under ~/.studio-app/.
Automatic cloning, branching, and PR creation through gh.
A bridge between the Studio thread and your agents’ tool calls.

Requirements

macOS or Linux (Windows via WSL2).
Node.js 20+ and Git.
The gh CLI, authenticated against the org you’ll push branches into.
Your API keys for the model providers you plan to use.

Install

Download the installer

Grab the latest build from the download page. The installer is signed and notarised on macOS.

Run the installer

Open the downloaded package and follow the prompts. Hermes installs to ~/.studio-app/ and adds itself to your login items so it’s available whenever the Studio needs it.

Sign in

Hermes opens a browser tab to authenticate against your Studio workspace. Choose the workspace you want this machine to join.

Connect your repos

On first launch Hermes asks gh auth status to confirm GitHub access. If you’re not signed in, it walks you through

gh auth login

in your terminal.

Verify the install

Once Hermes is running you’ll see a green dot in the Studio sidebar next to your name. Try posting a quick “say hi” message that mentions an agent — within a few seconds you should see the agent’s avatar light up and a reply appear in the thread.

Troubleshooting

Agents never reply. Open the Hermes tray and check the connection status. If it says “reconnecting” for more than a minute, restart Hermes.
Branches don’t push. Run gh auth status in your terminal. Hermes uses the same credentials, so anything gh can do, Hermes can do.
Workspace cleanup. Each agent’s workspace lives under ~/.studio-app/workspace-<agent-slug>/. You can safely delete sub-directories under workspace/ to reclaim disk space — Hermes will re-clone on the next ticket.