How to Update Hermes Agent

Keep your Hermes Agent installation up to date to receive the latest fixes and improvements. Updating is a single command and preserves your existing configuration and API keys.

Update Command

Run the following command to update Hermes Agent to the latest version:

hermes update

This command pulls the latest code, updates dependencies, and prompts you to configure any new options added since your last update. Your configuration file (~/.hermes/config.yaml) and API keys (~/.hermes/.env) are not modified.

What the Update Does

When you run hermes update, the following steps are performed in sequence

1. Pre-update snapshot — saves a lightweight state snapshot of pairing data, cron jobs, config.yaml, .env, and auth.json
2. Code update — pulls the latest code and updates submodules
3. Dependency install — installs new or changed Python dependencies
4. Config migration — detects new configuration options and prompts you to set them
5. Gateway auto-restart — restarts any running gateway so the new code takes effect immediately

Verify the Update

After the update completes, check the installed version to confirm the update was successful:

hermes --version

If hermes update prompted you to configure new options and you skipped the prompt, you can check for missing options manually:

hermes config check