Educational selection guide
Hermes Agent resources / extension surfaces
Hermes Agent’s official documentation distinguishes tools and toolsets, on-demand skills, and plugins that add custom tools, hooks, and integrations. This guide turns those distinctions into a review checklist; it is not a replacement for current Nous Research documentation and does not publish install commands that may change.
// First, name the thing
Start by identifying the extension surface you are evaluating. The labels below follow the current official docs and intentionally avoid treating every add-on as interchangeable.
Tools extend an agent’s capabilities. Hermes groups built-in tools into toolsets that can be enabled or disabled per platform, so the useful question is not only what a tool does but when it is enabled.
Skills are knowledge documents the agent can load when needed. The official skills page describes progressive disclosure and local skill directories; a skill is not automatically proof that its procedure is safe for every project.
Plugins are the documented path for adding custom tools, hooks, commands, and integrations without modifying Hermes core. They can also bring dependencies, data files, and bundled skills into the review.
// Selection and security
This original checklist is a decision aid, not a security certification. Answer it with the exact version, source, profile, host, and data involved, then confirm any platform-specific behavior in the official docs.
// Related boundary
The official integrations documentation describes MCP as a way to connect Hermes to external tool servers. Whether the extension arrives as a plugin, an MCP server, or another supported interface, review the destination and capability boundary before treating it as a local operation.
// Official sources
These are direct Nous Research documentation destinations checked for this guide. Use the linked pages for current installation, configuration, security, catalog, and platform details rather than copying stale examples from a secondary page.
