Hermes Agent is an open-source agent released by Nous Research in February 2026, with clone numbers past 24 million. As of October 7, 2026, Nous Research has raised a 90 million dollar Series B round, reached a 1.5 billion dollar valuation, and sells the same codebase to companies as Hermes for Businesses.
Hermes Agent arrived in February 2026 as an open-source release from Nous Research. By October 7, 2026, Nous Research said clone numbers since release had passed 24 million, a distribution figure it paired with a 90 million dollar Series B round led by Robot Ventures. NVIDIA, Microsoft's M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and Menlo Ventures were among the investors. The valuation is 1.5 billion dollars, and cumulative funding is 158 million dollars.
Between the release and the fundraise, coverage turned on setup details rather than the model itself. GIGAZINE tested the Cron feature in early September and found that scheduled jobs did not fire while the desktop app was closed. Installing the Gateway background process through the command 'hermes gateway install' in Windows PowerShell fixed this, and jobs then ran while the app was closed as long as the PC was on and logged in.
Email setup produced a separate snag. When GIGAZINE connected Hermes Agent to email over IMAP and SMTP, replies still did not arrive after adding an allowed sender. The logs showed the error 'no Authentication-Results header.' The email account used, Sakura's Mailbox, added ARC-Authentication-Results instead, which Hermes Agent does not read for sender authentication.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself
sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every
fact links the story it came from.
Facts
- Release
- game · February 2026 · 2026-10-08
- Noted
- clone numbers since release have passed 24 million · 2026-10-08
- Noted
- Hermes Agent email integration requires Authentication-Results header · 2026-09-04
- Noted
- Hermes Agent's Cron feature schedules AI agent tasks at set times or intervals. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- A five-minute output job ran on schedule. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- A second job did not fire while the desktop app was closed and only ran when the app was relaunched. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- Installing the Gateway background process via 'hermes gateway install' in Windows PowerShell fixed this. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- Jobs run while the app is closed as long as the PC is on and logged in. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- The Cron feature only becomes true unattended automation when paired with the Gateway background process. · 2026-09-02
- Noted
- The Gateway background process is required for jobs to fire while the desktop app is closed. · 2026-09-02
Connections
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Oct 8
Nous Research announced on October 7, 2026 that it raised 90 million dollars in a Series B round led by Robot Ventures, with NVIDIA, Microsoft's M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and Menlo Ventures among the investors. The company's valuation is 1.5 billion dollars. Cumulative funding has reached 158 million dollars. Nous Research released the open-source Hermes Agent in February 2026, and says clone numbers since release have passed 24 million.
Sep 4
GIGAZINE tested connecting Hermes Agent to email via IMAP and SMTP. After adding an allowed sender, replies still did not arrive. Logs showed the error 'no Authentication-Results header.' The email account used, Sakura's Mailbox, added ARC-Authentication-Results instead, which Hermes Agent does not read for sender authentication.
Sep 2
GIGAZINE tested Hermes Agent's Cron feature, which schedules AI agent tasks at set times or intervals. A five-minute output job ran on schedule, but a second job did not fire while the desktop app was closed and only ran when the app was relaunched. Installing the Gateway background process via 'hermes gateway install' in Windows PowerShell fixed this, letting jobs run while the app is closed as long as the PC is on and logged in.