Hermes Apollo

Hermes Apollo is an opinionated distribution of NousResearch/hermes-agent tuned for competitive programming, rigorous software work, Remotion-based video generation, and local Browser Use workflows.

This repo is not a dump of a live ~/.hermes directory. It keeps upstream Hermes intact and layers Apollo defaults on top through versioned files and a small installer.

What Apollo Adds

• A global Apollo identity via SOUL.md
• Config overrides for a more technical default setup
• Apollo skills for:
  • competitive programming
  • Remotion video generation
  • Browser Use CLI workflows
• A local Browser Use wrapper for direct, local-first usage

What This Repo Is

• Upstream Hermes source code plus an Apollo distribution layer
• A reproducible way to apply Apollo defaults into ~/.hermes
• A cleaner upgrade path than hand-editing a live install

What This Repo Is Not

• A snapshot of your runtime sessions, memories, or secrets
• A replacement for upstream Hermes documentation
• A custom fork that rewrites core Hermes behavior everywhere

Apollo Layer

The Apollo-specific files live here:

apollo/
  defaults/
    SOUL.md
    MEMORY.md (seeded into memories/ on fresh install)
    oracle-prompt.md
    config-overrides.yaml
    bin/browser-use-direct
  skills/
    software-development/competitive-programmer/
    remotion/remotion-video-generator/
    browser-use/browser-use-cli/
scripts/
  install-apollo.sh

Install Apollo Over An Existing Hermes Setup

If you already have Hermes installed and just want the Apollo behavior:

git clone https://github.com/tradewife/hermes-apollo.git
cd hermes-apollo
bash scripts/install-apollo.sh

That installs Apollo defaults into ~/.hermes.

What The Installer Changes

scripts/install-apollo.sh does the following:

• writes ~/.hermes/SOUL.md
• writes ~/.hermes/oracle-prompt.md
• deep-merges Apollo config overrides into ~/.hermes/config.yaml
• copies Apollo skills into ~/.hermes/skills
• installs ~/.hermes/bin/browser-use-direct
• seeds ~/.hermes/memories/MEMORY.md (fresh installs only; never overwrites existing)

What The Installer Does Not Touch

• ~/.hermes/.env
• ~/.hermes/auth.json
• sessions
• memories
• runtime state files

Fresh Install

If you do not have Hermes installed yet, install Hermes first, then apply Apollo:

git clone https://github.com/tradewife/hermes-apollo.git
cd hermes-apollo
bash setup-hermes.sh
bash scripts/install-apollo.sh

If you already manage Hermes another way, that is fine too. Apollo only needs a working Hermes install plus a writable ~/.hermes.

Browser Use

Apollo includes a Browser Use skill and a local wrapper entrypoint:

~/.hermes/bin/browser-use-direct

For local-only Browser Use workflows, Apollo prefers that wrapper over the standard Browser Use session-server flow.

Browser Use itself is still installed separately. A typical setup is:

uv tool install browser-use
~/.hermes/bin/browser-use doctor

In restricted Linux environments, the official browser-use install command may fail on the sudo dependency step. In those cases, Playwright-only browser installation may still work.

Remotion

Apollo includes the remotion-video-generator skill and a configured remotion-documentation MCP server entry in the Apollo config overrides.

Apollo does not install Remotion into every project automatically. Remotion remains a per-project dependency when you actually build video pipelines.

Updating Apollo

To reapply Apollo defaults after changing the Apollo layer:

bash scripts/install-apollo.sh

This is safe to rerun. It reapplies Apollo defaults without replacing your .env, auth, or runtime state.

Tracking Upstream Hermes

Apollo is designed to keep upstream Hermes easy to update.

Safe pattern:

git pull --rebase upstream main
bash scripts/install-apollo.sh

The important distinction is:

• upstream Hermes code lives in the repo
• Apollo customization lives in apollo/
• live runtime state lives in ~/.hermes

That separation is the whole point of this fork.

Upstream Docs

For Hermes core features, commands, and architecture, use the upstream documentation:

• https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/
• https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent

License

This repo inherits the upstream Hermes Agent license. See LICENSE.