Hermes Workspace Explained: UI, Folder, Dashboard (2026)

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Hermes Workspace is an open-source web UI for the Hermes agent: a self-hosted command center with chat, a terminal, a memory editor, and multi-agent controls, built by the community rather than by Nous Research. The same phrase also gets used for two other things, the agent's on-disk working directory and the official Hermes Web Dashboard, and mixing the three up is how most setups go sideways. This guide untangles all three, then shows what each path costs to run always-on, including managed Hermes hosting on Agent37 from $3.99/mo.

What is Hermes Workspace, exactly?

Hermes Workspace is a community project, not an official Nous Research product. It lives at github.com/outsourc-e/hermes-workspace: an MIT-licensed web app with about 6,600 GitHub stars, launched in March 2026 by developer outsourc-e, outside Nous Research. Nous's own browser UI is called the Hermes Web Dashboard, and its hosted product is Hermes Cloud. Neither name includes the word "workspace."

What the project gives you is a cockpit for an agent you already run:

Chat with live streaming responses

A real terminal in the browser

A memory inspector you can read and edit

Skill browsing and management

Conductor and Swarm multi-agent modes

Installable as a PWA on desktop and phone, with themes

Version 2 is "zero-fork": it runs against vanilla NousResearch/hermes-agent installed the official way. Per its README, you point it at the agent gateway (port 8642 by default) and the official dashboard API on 127.0.0.1:9119, and the Workspace UI itself serves on port 3000. Three ports, three jobs: 8642 is the agent, 9119 is Nous's admin panel, 3000 is the community cockpit.

One thing to know before you commit: the project's own homepage, hermes-workspace.com, is down as of September 2026, returning a disabled-deployment error. The GitHub repo is the canonical home, and the usual open-source caveat applies: this is a small community project with a single primary maintainer, layered on a fast-moving agent, so pin what works and read the release notes before upgrading.

The three things people mean by "hermes workspace"

Search for hermes workspace and you will land on pages describing three different objects. Here is the map:

People say	They mean	Where it lives
Hermes Workspace, the product	The community web UI above	Port 3000, github.com/outsourc-e/hermes-workspace
The agent's workspace	The working directory where Hermes starts terminal commands and reads AGENTS.md	`terminal.cwd` in config, default: wherever you launched Hermes
The dashboard	Nous's built-in admin UI	`hermes dashboard`, opens 127.0.0.1:9119

If you just want to see what your agent is doing, you want the dashboard. If you want to drive the agent from a browser like a power tool, you want Hermes Workspace. And if you are debugging why the agent cannot find your AGENTS.md, you care about the working directory. The next section covers that one, because it is the least understood.

Where your Hermes agent's workspace actually lives on disk

The official docs define it plainly: "A workspace or working directory is where terminal commands start." It is controlled by terminal.cwd in ~/.hermes/config.yaml, and the default value is ., meaning the directory you launched Hermes from. There is no config key named workspace.

That directory is also where Hermes discovers your project context file at session start. It loads exactly one, first match wins: .hermes.md (or HERMES.md), then AGENTS.override.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules. Launch the agent from the wrong folder and it quietly runs without your instructions.

Here is the part that trips up people coming from OpenClaw: Hermes has no dedicated workspace folder. OpenClaw keeps AGENTS.md, MEMORY.md, and skills together in one workspace directory. Hermes splits them. The working directory holds your project and context files. Everything the agent owns lives in HERMES_HOME, which is ~/.hermes/ by default:

memories/ with MEMORY.md (the agent's notes, capped at 2,200 characters) and USER.md (its profile of you)

skills/ for installed skills

SOUL.md, the agent's persona, loaded from HERMES_HOME only

sessions/, cron/, and state.db, a SQLite database holding every chat and messaging session

Practical consequence: when you back up or migrate a Hermes box, back up ~/.hermes/, not just your project folder. The Docker backend adds one more layer: inside the container the workspace root is /workspace, and host folders only appear there if you mount them via docker_volumes or flip docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace to true, which mounts the folder you launched from. Hermes also snapshots the working directory before file changes (roll back with /rollback) and can take a full HERMES_HOME backup before updates via updates.pre_update_backup.

For a deeper look at the container route, see our Hermes Docker guide, and for what skills actually are, the Hermes skills hub explainer.

How to run Hermes Workspace (the web UI)

The README documents three install paths:

Docker Compose: clone the repo and bring the stack up alongside the agent.

One-line installer: a script that installs both the agent and the Workspace on a fresh box.

Attach mode: already running Hermes? Point the Workspace at your existing gateway and dashboard.

Plan for a box with at least 2 GB of RAM, current Node (22+) and Python (3.11+). The README's quick starts claim one to three minutes; budget closer to half an hour the first time, once provider keys, a tunnel, and a fresh Ubuntu box are part of the job.

The security posture matters more than the install. Both the Workspace and the dashboard are designed for localhost. Since the June 2026 hardening, the official dashboard refuses non-loopback binds unless you configure a password or OAuth first, and the old --insecure flag no longer disables authentication. The Workspace ships its own auth middleware and a fail-closed remote bind per its README, but that gate is far less battle-tested than the dashboard's, so the safe way to reach either one from your phone is a Tailscale network or an SSH tunnel, never a raw 0.0.0.0 bind on a public VPS.

What it costs to run in 2026

Hermes is free software and so is Hermes Workspace. What you pay for is model usage plus somewhere always-on to run them. The honest comparison:

Path	Price	What you actually get
Your laptop	$0	Agent dies when the lid closes; fine for trying it
Hostinger one-click template	$6.49 to $25.99/mo promo	VPS with Hostinger's own "Hermes WebUI" + agent stack; renewal prices are higher, ops are yours
Generic VPS (Hetzner class)	roughly $5 to $12/mo	Cheapest raw compute; you do installs, updates, security, backups
Agent37 Basic	$3.99/mo	Managed always-on Hermes: 1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 8 GB disk, one-click deploy

To be clear about the DIY row: you do not need us. If you are comfortable with SSH, Docker, and being on call for your own server, a cheap VPS runs Hermes well, and our VPS-for-Hermes guide walks through exactly that. Managed hosting buys the absence of that job, not a capability you cannot replicate.

Nous also sells a first-party hosted option, Hermes Cloud: an always-on agent that scales to zero when idle, with a $2 credit minimum (or an active subscription) to deploy. Notably, its pages never mention a workspace, and there is no documented story for disk persistence or running the Workspace UI against it. If the file browser and terminal are the point for you, you want a box whose disk you control.

Which path fits you

You want to monitor an agent you already run. Use the official dashboard. It is free, ships with the agent, and hermes dashboard opens it on 127.0.0.1:9119 with status, sessions, config, logs, and chat.

You want the full command center and enjoy tinkering. Self-host Hermes Workspace on your own hardware or VPS. Budget the setup time, keep it behind Tailscale, and pin versions.

You want the agent always-on without owning ops. Deploy managed Hermes on Agent37: one click, $3.99/mo Basic, and the instance comes with its own console: task board, full web terminal, visual file browser, and a live Linux desktop. The whole ~/.hermes state directory sits on a persistent volume, so memory, skills, and sessions survive restarts and updates. And the underlying platform can expose any port on the instance at its own HTTPS URL (documented on the Cloud API side), so running the Workspace UI there is possible too, though the built-in console already covers most of what it does.

You are an agency running agents for clients. Give each client an isolated instance instead of stacking them on one shared VPS. The Agent37 Cloud API creates one per POST request, from $1.99 per agent per month on shared capacity ($4.94 dedicated), white-label by default. More on that pattern in our Hermes agent API guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hermes Workspace an official Nous Research product?

No. It is an MIT-licensed community project by an independent developer (GitHub: outsourc-e). Nous Research's own browser UI is the Hermes Web Dashboard, and its hosted product is Hermes Cloud.

Is hermes-workspace.com down?

Yes, as of September 2026 the project's homepage returns a disabled-deployment error. The GitHub repository is the working home for code, docs, and releases.

What is the difference between Hermes Workspace and the hermes dashboard?

The dashboard is Nous's built-in admin panel on port 9119: status, sessions, config, logs. Hermes Workspace is a heavier community UI on port 3000 that adds streaming chat, a terminal, memory editing, and multi-agent orchestration. Both sit on top of the same agent.

Where does Hermes store memory and skills?

Not in the workspace. Memory (MEMORY.md, USER.md), skills, SOUL.md, sessions, and cron jobs all live in HERMES_HOME at ~/.hermes/. The workspace is just the directory where terminal commands start and context files load from.

Can I run Hermes Workspace on Hostinger?

Mostly. Hostinger's one-click Docker template ships its own "Hermes WebUI" plus the agent, not the outsourc-e Workspace itself, with tiers from $6.49 to $25.99 per month at promo pricing. Any of those VPS plans can run the real Workspace if you install it yourself, and either way you own updates, security, and backups, and renewal prices are higher.

What is the cheapest way to run all of this always-on?

A bare VPS is roughly $5 to $12 a month plus your time. Agent37's Basic tier is $3.99/mo for a managed always-on Hermes with persistent storage, deployed in one click. Free software either way; what you are pricing is the box and who carries the pager for it.

Hermes Workspace: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Which Path Fits Your Agent (2026)