⌘KCtrl+K
Run Hermes Agent with Local Models
30 MIN
Install and run the Hermes self-improving AI agent on DGX Spark.
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
hermes: command not found after install | Shell profile not reloaded in the current session | Run source ~/.bashrc (or source ~/.zshrc) and retry. Open a new terminal if the issue persists. |
source ~/.bashrc works in an interactive terminal, but hermes is still missing from a scripted SSH command | Many Ubuntu .bashrc files return early for non-interactive shells before the installer-added PATH lines run | In automation, run export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" before hermes, or call ~/.local/bin/hermes directly. |
sudo: hermes: command not found during gateway install, uninstall, or printed sudo hermes … steps | sudo resets PATH and does not see the user-level hermes shim | Run which hermes as your normal user, then invoke that path with sudo, e.g. sudo "$(which hermes)" uninstall or sudo /full/path/from/which/hermes gateway …. |
| Installer prints "Setup wizard skipped (no terminal available)" | The installer was launched from a non-interactive shell, CI job, or SSH command without a usable TTY | Either re-run hermes setup in an interactive terminal, or configure Ollama directly: hermes config set model.provider custom, hermes config set model.base_url http://localhost:11434/v1, and hermes config set model.default qwen3.6:27b. |
Installer cannot install ripgrep / ffmpeg, or prints Non-interactive mode and no terminal available | Optional helper install needs sudo, but the current shell cannot prompt for a password | Install manually in an interactive terminal with sudo apt install -y ripgrep ffmpeg. Hermes still runs without them, but file search is slower and TTS voice-message support is limited. |
Browser tools show system dependency not met, or Playwright Chromium install fails | Playwright needs Linux shared libraries installed through sudo, and the installer could not obtain sudo access | Core chat and Telegram can still work. To enable browser tools, run cd ~/.hermes/hermes-agent && npx playwright install --with-deps chromium in an interactive terminal and enter your sudo password. |
You want the gateway to start at boot, but hermes gateway install creates a user service | Current Hermes installs a user service by default unless --system is supplied | Use sudo "$(which hermes)" gateway install --system --run-as-user "$USER" (or replace $(which hermes) with ~/.local/bin/hermes if needed). |
hermes uninstall --yes says it requires an interactive terminal, or still prompts for uninstall options | The uninstaller protects data deletion and expects a real TTY for confirmation | Run it directly in your terminal, or allocate a TTY over SSH (ssh -t <spark> 'hermes uninstall'). For a full wipe, select Full uninstall and type yes when prompted. |
Telegram bot never answers; gateway logs show timeouts or TLS errors to api.telegram.org | Outbound HTTPS to Telegram is blocked on the current network (common on locked-down corporate LANs) | From the Spark, run curl -sS --connect-timeout 10 -o /dev/null -w "HTTP %{http_code}\n" https://api.telegram.org/ (see Instructions). If this hangs or fails, move the Spark to a network that allows Telegram or ask IT to allow HTTPS to api.telegram.org. The rest of the playbook can succeed locally while the bot stays silent. |
| Installer asks about OpenClaw import / migration | Another agent framework was previously installed | For this playbook, answer n. OpenClaw migration is out of scope here and can leave gateway or Telegram state confusing. If you already migrated by mistake, use Start over from scratch below. |
| Choosing Telegram during install immediately shows “setup complete” without token / user ID prompts | Stale or partial Hermes gateway config; installer short-circuit | After source ~/.bashrc, run hermes gateway setup, select Telegram, and complete token and allowed-user steps. Install or restart the systemd service using the printed commands (with sudo "$(which hermes)" if needed). |
/start shows “Unknown command” (or similar) in Telegram | Bot does not define a custom /start handler | Send a normal text message such as hello after /start. Hermes responds to conversational text, not necessarily slash commands. |
~/.hermes still exists after uninstall | Uninstaller preserves data unless you explicitly remove it | This is expected in some flows. Remove manually only if you want a full wipe: rm -rf ~/.hermes (see Start over from scratch). |
| Hermes installer can't list any models at the model-selection prompt | Ollama is not running or has no models pulled | Sanity-check Ollama in another terminal: list installed models with ollama list, hit the API with curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags, and confirm a model can actually serve requests by running ollama run <model-name> (e.g. ollama run qwen3.6:27b) and sending a test prompt. If the list is empty or the API is unreachable, start Ollama and pull a model with ollama pull <model-name>, then re-run the Hermes installer. |
Connection refused to http://localhost:11434/v1 from Hermes | Ollama service not running on the default port | Start the Ollama service and confirm it is listening on 11434. On systemd hosts: systemctl status ollama and systemctl start ollama. |
| Pasting the Telegram bot token shows nothing on the screen | Expected — the installer hides token characters as a security measure | Paste the token, then press Enter. The installer should respond with Telegram token saved. |
Telegram bot does not reply when you send hello | Gateway service not running, your account is not in the allowed user IDs list, or outbound HTTPS to Telegram is blocked | (1) Confirm Telegram HTTPS from the Spark (Instructions — network check). (2) List Hermes units with systemctl list-units --type=service --all, locate the gateway unit by name, then sudo systemctl status <hermes-gateway-unit> and sudo journalctl -u <hermes-gateway-unit> -e --no-pager -n 80. (3) If logs show reachability to Telegram but messages are ignored, verify your numeric user ID is in the allowed list via hermes gateway setup or the Hermes messaging gateway docs. |
| Out-of-memory or very slow inference | Selected Ollama model is too large for available GPU memory, or other GPU workloads are competing | Check usage with nvidia-smi, free GPU memory by closing other workloads, or pull a smaller model with ollama pull <smaller-model> and switch to it via hermes model. |
hermes update fails or the gateway does not restart | Gateway service still bound to the previous version, or insufficient permissions on a system-service install | Re-run sudo "$(which hermes)" update if the gateway was installed as a System service and plain hermes update cannot restart it. If the service is stuck, restart it manually: sudo systemctl restart <hermes-gateway-unit>. |
| Cannot resume a previous session | The <sessionId> value is missing or wrong | Use hermes --resume <sessionId> with the exact ID Hermes printed when you /exit that chat. If the ID is lost, start a new session with hermes (omit --resume). |
NOTE
DGX Spark uses a Unified Memory Architecture (UMA), which enables dynamic memory sharing between the GPU and CPU. With many applications still updating to take advantage of UMA, you may encounter memory issues even when within the memory capacity of DGX Spark. If that happens, manually flush the buffer cache with:
sudo sh -c 'sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches'
For latest known issues, please review the DGX Spark User Guide.