# Hermes Guide: Hermes Agent plugin

> Read-only diagnostics for Hermes configuration: /hermes-doctor in-session and hermes guide in a terminal.

Canonical: https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins/hermes-guide  
Tier: Community  
Official page (Nous Research): https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/hermes-guide  
Last updated in catalog: 2026-10-25

Read-only diagnostics for Hermes configuration: /hermes-doctor in-session and hermes guide in a terminal. Nine read-only health checks (config, mcp, skills, commands, hooks, plugins, memories, sessions, update) and points to 22 troubleshooting skills, installed separately as a skills tap, for what the built-in doctor doesn't cover. Complements — never replaces — hermes doctor.

## Good to know before installing

Reads config.yaml, SKILL.md frontmatter, skill bundles, plugin manifests, the shell-hooks allowlist and the built-in MEMORY.md/USER.md stores read-only (the report quotes short memory snippets); the sessions scope reads the tail of logs/agent.log read-only for runaway-session signatures (session ids, model names and token counts appear in the report); the update scope reads the update-lock record in the co-located hermes-agent checkout under $HERMES_HOME and probes it — owner-PID liveness, then a brief lock acquisition it releases immediately, opening the lock file writable, with a read-only fallback for a root-owned lock on POSIX (writes no content, never deletes the lock); registers one read-only plugin skill, hermes-guide:start, listed in model sessions while the plugin is enabled; /hermes-doctor and hermes guide run hermes config path as a subprocess (argument list, no shell); the default hooks check reads hook configuration, consent state and the exec bit in-process and executes nothing, while hooks --deep runs hermes hooks doctor, which executes every approved shell hook once with a synthetic payload (--fast starts no subprocess and executes no hook); /hermes-doctor and herme

From the plugin's catalog listing.

## How to install

1. Install it. Hermes asks for any API keys it needs, then asks whether to turn it on.

```bash
hermes plugins install hermes-guide
```

2. Said no? Turn it on later:

```bash
hermes plugins enable hermes-guide
```

3. Restart Hermes so it loads the plugin.

Some plugins also need a sign-in or settings: see the official page. Memory plugins ask whether to become your memory provider instead. Steps follow the official plugins guide: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/plugins

## Facts

- Category: Coding & developer tools
- Maintained by: iap (Community)
- Needs: No API keys declared
- Requires Hermes: `>=0.21.0`
- Version: 0.8.11
- In the catalog since: 2026-10-13, updated 2026-10-25

## Links

- [Full setup and settings (official page)](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/hermes-guide)
- [Source code](https://github.com/iap/hermes-guide#readme)
- [All plugins](https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins.md)

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HermesWatcher is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nous Research. The [official Hermes Agent documentation](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs) and [repository](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent) from Nous Research are the authority; each page here lists the official sources it was written from. If this site and the official docs disagree, trust the official docs. Index for agents: https://hermeswatcher.com/llms.txt