Hermes Suite

Single Docker/Podman image combining three Hermes services:

Service	Port	Description
hermes-gateway	8642	Agent gateway (CLI, Telegram, cron, tools)
hermes-dashboard	9119	Monitoring/analytics dashboard (built-in)
hermes-webui	8787	Browser-based chat interface

Pre-built multi-arch images available on Docker Hub.

🎉 Now with automatic runtime detection. One image works on both Podman and Docker CE out of the box — no separate builds or flags needed. The container detects its runtime at startup and adjusts automatically. Learn more.

🏗️ Official container images are maintained by Ascensionoid (ascensionoid.com).

Why This Exists

Podman v3.4.4 cannot share the same UID/GID between multiple containers easily. The standard multi-container setup (hermes-agent + hermes-webui + hermes-dashboard) requires each container to run as the same user to share the ~/.hermes volume. Podman v3.4.4 has limitations with userns_mode: keep-id across multiple containers.

This image solves that by running all three services in one container via supervisord.

Architecture

+-------------------------------------------------+
|             hermes-suite container              |
|                                                 |
|  +-- supervisord (PID 1) --------------------+  |
|  |                                           |  |
|  |  [hermes-gateway]   port 8642             |  |
|  |    hermes gateway run                     |  |
|  |                                           |  |
|  |  [hermes-dashboard] port 9119             |  |
|  |    hermes dashboard --host 0.0.0.0        |  |
|  |                                           |  |
|  |  [hermes-webui]     port 8787             |  |
|  |    python server.py                       |  |
|  |                                           |  |
|  +-------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                 |
|  /opt/data  <-- mounted from ~/.hermes          |
+-------------------------------------------------+

Prerequisites

• Podman v3.4.4+ or Docker
• podman-compose (or docker-compose)
• ~10GB disk space for the image
• Network access during build (for git clone and pip install)
• Works on both amd64 (x86_64) and arm64 (ARMv8) — tested on Jetson Orin NX

Version Management

To ensure stability on edge devices (Jetson, ARM boards), it is highly recommended to use pinned versions rather than building from the main branch HEAD.

Using Pre-Built Images (Recommended)

If you prefer not to build manually, use our pre-verified image tags from Docker Hub:

podman pull ascensionoid/hermes-suite:2026.7.7.2-0.51.943

Manual Build with Specific Versions

If you need a specific combination, pass the versions as build arguments:

podman build \
  --build-arg AGENT_VERSION=v2026.7.7.2 \
  --build-arg HERMES_WEBUI_VERSION=v0.51.943 \
  -t hermes-suite:2026.7.7.2-0.51.943 .

Or use the build helper (reads from versions.env):

# Podman or Docker (auto-detected at container startup)
./build.sh

# Build with Docker explicitly
./build.sh --docker

# Docker without logs (optional)
./build.sh --docker-nolog

# Override defaults:
# ./build.sh --agent v2026.7.7.2 --webui v0.51.943

Docker compatibility: Docker CE is auto-detected at container startup via /proc/1/cgroup. The universal image works on both Podman and Docker out of the box. Use --docker-nolog only if you prefer no log output. Set CONTAINER_RUNTIME in versions.env to control which runtime helper scripts use.

Version Compatibility Table

Every release is an explicitly tested pair of Agent + WebUI on both amd64 and arm64.

Suite Tag	Agent Version	WebUI Version	Tested
2026.7.7.2-0.51.943	v2026.7.7.2	v0.51.943	amd64 + arm64

Full version history: https://github.com/sunnysktsang/hermes-suite/releases

Version Tag Format

Suite tags follow the pattern {agent_date}-{webui_semver}:

• Agent: date-based version from nousresearch/hermes-agent (e.g. v2026.7.7.2)
• WebUI: semantic version from nesquena/hermes-webui (e.g. v0.51.943)

The pinned pair for each release is declared in versions.env.

Quick Start

1. Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/sunnysktsang/hermes-suite.git
cd hermes-suite

2. Build the image

chmod +x *.sh
./build.sh

Or manually with pinned versions:

podman build \
  --build-arg AGENT_VERSION=v2026.7.7.2 \
  --build-arg HERMES_WEBUI_VERSION=v0.51.943 \
  -t ascensionoid/hermes-suite:2026.7.7.2-0.51.943 .

3. Create the network (if not already existing)

podman network create --subnet 10.99.0.0/24 agent_net

4. Start the container

./up.sh

Or manually:

podman-compose up -d

5. Configure

Edit ~/.hermes/.env to add your API keys, and ~/.hermes/config.yaml for model settings. These files are shared from the host via the volume mount. On first run, defaults are created automatically from the hermes-agent examples.

6. Access

• Gateway: http://localhost:8642
• WebUI: http://localhost:8787
• Dashboard: http://localhost:9119 (login: admin/admin by default — see Dashboard Authentication)

Dashboard Authentication

Since hermes-agent v2026.7.1, the dashboard requires authentication to access on a non-loopback bind. Hermes Suite provides this via the DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL setting in versions.env:

# Default - works immediately, no setup needed:
DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL=admin:admin

# Auto-generate a random password (printed by up.sh on first start):
DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL=auto

# Use your own credentials:
DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL=myuser:mypassword

The credential is displayed in the up.sh output when the container starts:

Hermes Suite is running:
  Gateway:    http://localhost:8642
  WebUI:      http://localhost:8787
  Dashboard:  http://localhost:9119

  Dashboard Login ID: admin
  Dashboard Password: admin

When set to auto, a random password is generated once and persisted to .dashboard_credential (in the repo directory) so it survives container restarts.

Configuration

All configuration is stored in ~/.hermes/ on the host (mounted as /opt/data inside the container). On first start, the entrypoint script copies default .env and config.yaml from the hermes-agent examples if they don't already exist.

~/.hermes/
  .env            — API keys (OPENAI_API_KEY, TELEGRAM_TOKEN, etc.)
  config.yaml     — Model, toolsets, agent settings
  SOUL.md         — Agent personality
  skills/         — Custom skills
  memories/       — Persistent memory
  webui/          — WebUI state (sessions, workspace)

Stopping

./down.sh

Viewing Logs

./logs.sh

All service logs stream to stdout/stderr (visible via podman logs). Supervisord also writes to /var/log/supervisor/ inside the container:

podman exec hermes-suite supervisorctl status

Customization

Changing component versions

Edit versions.env to change the pinned versions and runtime settings:

AGENT_VERSION=v2026.7.7.2
WEBUI_VERSION=v0.51.943

# Runtime selector: auto (default), podman, docker, docker-nolog
CONTAINER_RUNTIME=auto

# Use sudo for commands (rootful mode): true, false
USE_SUDO=false

# Dashboard login: "username:password", "auto", or "admin:admin" (default)
DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL=admin:admin

# Include WhatsApp bridge: true, false (default: false)
ENABLE_WHATSAPP_BRIDGE=false

Setting	Options	Default	Description
CONTAINER_RUNTIME	auto, podman, docker, docker-nolog	auto	Which runtime helper scripts use. auto detects at script time.
USE_SUDO	true, false	false	Run docker/podman commands with sudo (rootful mode)
DASHBOARD_CREDENTIAL	admin:admin, auto, user:pass	admin:admin	Dashboard login credential
ENABLE_WHATSAPP_BRIDGE	true, false	false	Include WhatsApp bridge in the built image

Then rebuild:

./build.sh

Or override at build time:

./build.sh --agent v2026.4.16 --webui v0.50.244

WhatsApp Bridge

The WhatsApp bridge is not included in the image by default. This is intentional:

• The bridge uses Baileys to emulate a WhatsApp Web session
• Without proper configuration, anyone who messages your number gets full agent access (terminal, filesystem, browser)
• See upstream issue #15108 for details

To include the WhatsApp bridge at build time:

# Option 1: CLI flag
./build.sh --whatsapp

# Option 2: Set in versions.env
ENABLE_WHATSAPP_BRIDGE=true
./build.sh

Warning: If you enable the WhatsApp bridge, you must configure WHATSAPP_ALLOWED_USERS in ~/.hermes/.env before starting the gateway. Without this setting, the bridge denies all incoming messages by default.

Changing the workspace path

Edit the volumes section in docker-compose.yaml:

volumes:
  - ~/workspace:/workspace:z   # change ~/workspace to your project directory

Migration from Multi-Container Setup

If you are currently running the multi-container setup (hermes-agent + hermes-webui):

1. Stop the existing containers.

2. Build and start hermes-suite:

   cd hermes-suite
   ./build.sh
   ./up.sh
   

3. Your existing ~/.hermes/ data is reused automatically — no migration needed.

Troubleshooting

Permission errors on ~/.hermes

Rootless Podman:

The container runs as UID 10000, which maps to a host UID (e.g. 109999) per /etc/subuid. Fix ownership on the host:

sudo chown -R 109999:109999 ~/.hermes

Rootful Podman or Docker:

Ownership is auto-corrected on startup. If issues persist:

sudo chown -R 10000:10000 ~/.hermes

WebUI not loading

Check that the webui venv was built correctly:

podman exec hermes-suite /opt/hermes-webui/venv/bin/python -c "import yaml; print('OK')"

Services fail with "EACCES making dispatchers" (Docker only)

This should not occur with the auto-detection feature (v2026.5.16-0.51.137+). The container detects Docker at startup and adjusts the privilege model automatically. Ensure you are using a recent image.

If it still occurs, ensure tty: true is NOT set in docker-compose.yaml.

Dashboard returns connection error

The dashboard needs the gateway running first. Check supervisord status:

podman exec hermes-suite supervisorctl status

Dashboard asks for a login

Since hermes-agent v2026.7.1, the dashboard requires authentication. The default credential is admin:admin (configured in versions.env). To change it, see Dashboard Authentication.

Build fails on git clone

Ensure the build host has network access. The hermes-webui repo is cloned at build time. If your build environment has no internet, pre-clone the webui repo and adjust the Dockerfile to COPY it instead of git clone.

Build fails on uv venv or pip not found

The Dockerfile uses uv (pre-installed in the hermes-agent base image) to create virtual environments and install packages. If you change the base image, ensure uv is available at /usr/local/bin/uv.

How It Works

The Dockerfile performs these steps:

1. Base image — Uses the official nousresearch/hermes-agent image which already contains Python 3.13, Node.js, npm, Playwright, the agent code, and the built-in dashboard.

2. System packages — Installs sudo, git, nano, network tools, and other utilities.

3. Browser tools — Installs Playwright Chromium for the browser toolset.

4. Supervisor — Installs supervisord via pip into a dedicated venv at /opt/supervisor (not available in Debian Trixie apt repos).

5. Hermes WebUI — Clones from GitHub and installs into a separate venv at /opt/hermes-webui/venv, along with the agent's Python dependencies so the WebUI can import agent modules.

6. Entrypoint — start.sh handles UID/GID remapping (for rootless Podman), directory setup, and config bootstrapping before launching supervisord.

Files

hermes-suite/
  Dockerfile           — Build definition (parameterized AGENT_VERSION + HERMES_WEBUI_VERSION)
  versions.env         — Pinned component versions for current release
  supervisord.conf     — Process manager config (3 services)
  start.sh             — Container entrypoint (UID setup + launch)
  docker-compose.yaml  — Podman/Docker Compose configuration
  build.sh             — Build helper script (reads versions.env)
  up.sh                — Start helper script
  down.sh              — Stop helper script
  logs.sh              — Log viewer helper script
  .dockerignore        — Build context exclusions
  .env.example         — Environment variable template
  README.md            — This file

Tested On

Platform	Arch	OS	Runtime	Status
x86_64 (WSL2)	amd64	Ubuntu 22.04	Podman 3.4.4	All 3 services running
x86_64 (WSL2)	amd64	Ubuntu 22.04	Docker CE 29.4.2	All 3 services running
Jetson Orin NX 16GB	arm64	Ubuntu 22.04	Podman 3.4.4	All 3 services running

The base image nousresearch/hermes-agent provides multi-architecture manifests (amd64 + arm64). Podman and Docker automatically pull the correct variant for your platform. No changes to the Dockerfile are needed — it builds identically on both architectures.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. The individual components are licensed separately:

• hermes-agent — by Nous Research (MIT)
• hermes-webui — by nesquena (MIT)

Thanks to nesquena for building hermes-webui and referencing this project in the official Docker docs.

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