Nous: Hermes Agent 0.21 puts bots that talk to each other in the app
On 31 August 2026, Nous publishes Hermes Agent 0.21.0. Bot Mode enters the desktop app, on by default: named agents, rooms, and the hermes peer command so one agent can write to another. Scheduled tasks keep a memory. The agent can drive the desktop browser.
Getting started
Original AI-generated illustration · SecuFocus
At a glance
Key points
This is not a new online chat. It is a version of the software you install. Two agents talking to each other stay in your home, unless the model they call is remote. The release note describes the software. We did not install it for this brief.
What changes
The v0.21.0 release note, dated 31 August 2026, calls this the Pantheon Release. Bot Mode is part of the app, not an option you have to go and find. Each profile has a name and a face. You can open a room where several bots and you talk, and mention a bot.
hermes peer sends a message from one agent to another, across profiles or gateways. The reply comes back in the bot’s room, so it can be reread. Scheduled tasks load and update a memory, and can carry one run’s result into the next.
What leaves
An agent that drives the desktop browser sees the pages open on the machine. That paragraph of the note does not describe a sandbox. It is the browser you use.
Two bots talking to each other do not, by that gesture alone, send the text to a third party. The model they query does, if it is not local. Cron memory keeps what the task saw. A shared room on the same machine can be read by whoever has the folder.
What we did not verify
We did not install 0.21.0 to write this note, open a room, or run hermes peer. The contribution counts in the release note are not an audit. The longer project page describes deployment. It does not replace this version.
The decision
If you already have Hermes, the question in this version is Bot Mode on by default, and the desktop browser. Leave the room empty until you have decided which profiles may talk to each other. An agent that drives the browser has the pages, not only the chat.
The model remains a separate choice. This version does not make it local.
Check and explore
Sources for this article
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This article draws on the sources above. The exercises are for you to try on your devices; SecuFocus does not present them as tests carried out by its editorial team. Interfaces and features can change. Method and corrections.
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