# Hermes Otel: Hermes Agent plugin

> OpenTelemetry for Hermes Agent: sessions, LLM and API calls, tool calls, sub-agents and approvals as OTLP traces, metrics and logs to any OTLP backend.

Canonical: https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins/hermes_otel  
Tier: Community  
Official page (Nous Research): https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/hermes_otel  
Last updated in catalog: 2026-10-04

OpenTelemetry for Hermes Agent: sessions, LLM and API calls, tool calls, sub-agents and approvals as OTLP traces, metrics and logs to any OTLP backend.

## Good to know before installing

Sends span data including prompts, tool arguments and tool output only to backends you configure (a backends: list, an OTEL_* variable, or LANGSMITH_TRACING=true); by default content_capture is full and unclipped (preview clips to 1200 chars, off sends none); vendor SDK keys already in the environment are used only after that opt-in; with nothing configured it keeps a local owner-only SQLite store under $HERMES_HOME and sends nothing; installs opentelemetry-api, -sdk, -exporter-otlp-proto-http (>=1.35,<2) and PyYAML.

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_otel
```

2. Said no? Turn it on later:

```bash
hermes plugins enable hermes_otel
```

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: Cost, speed & monitoring
- Maintained by: briancaffey (Community)
- Needs: No API keys declared
- Requires Hermes: `>=0.21`
- Version: 1.18.2
- In the catalog since: 2026-10-04

## Links

- [Full setup and settings (official page)](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/plugins/hermes_otel)
- [Source code](https://briancaffey.github.io/hermes-otel/)
- [All plugins](https://hermeswatcher.com/plugins.md)

---

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