Hermes Labs is Nous Research's repo of experimental plugins for Hermes Agent: features Nous built, that work, and that you can install from the Hermes plugin catalog, but that Nous does not support. It's not a company. There's no separate business called Hermes Labs. It's a GitHub repo and a label that tells you exactly how much to trust what's inside.
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That's the short answer. Below I'll walk you through what "labs" really means, the three plugins in there right now, how to install them, how they differ from official plugins, and what the risks are before you put one into a real workflow.
I run Hermes every day inside my Agent OS, with a separate profile per model. So when Nous drops something new, I want to know one thing fast: is this safe to lean on, or is it a toy? Hermes Labs answers that question in its own name.
What Hermes Labs actually is
The repo is NousResearch/hermes-labs-plugins. It was created on 21 October 2026 and it's MIT licensed. Nous describes it in one line: experimental plugins for Hermes Agent that Nous Research built but does not support.
Read that sentence twice. Built by Nous. Not supported by Nous. Both halves matter.
Built by Nous means these aren't random community uploads. The team that makes Hermes wrote them. Each plugin works and each one installs straight from the Hermes plugin catalog.
Not supported means Nous made a call: these features don't go into core Hermes. They exist, they're useful, and they're out in the open so people can use them. But nobody is promising to fix them when they break.
If you want to learn Hermes properly, including how plugins, profiles and skills fit together, that's what the AI Profit Boardroom is for. It's $69/mo and you get Hermes courses, daily updates, my Agent OS zip and 4 coaching calls a week.
What "labs" means here
"Labs" is a status, not a brand. It tells you four things.
- Not in core. These are features Nous decided not to put into Hermes itself.
- No promise of fixes. If a plugin breaks after an update, there's no commitment that someone at Nous will patch it.
- Breakage is visible. CI runs every plugin against the current Hermes nightly. So if something breaks, you can see it. You're not guessing.
- Community tier on purpose. The plugins are listed in the COMMUNITY tier of the catalog, so nobody mistakes them for something Nous maintains.
That last point is honest design. Nous could have slapped these into the official tier and let people assume support. Instead they labelled them clearly. You know what you're getting.
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The three plugins in the repo
Right now the repo has three plugins. Here's what each one does and the exact install command.
| Plugin | Install | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram Business Mode | hermes plugins install hermes-telegram-business | An observe-with-approval secretary for your Telegram Business account. It drafts replies. Nothing is sent until you approve it. |
| Inbox | hermes plugins install inbox | Adds "hermes inbox", a read-only view of everything in flight for the active profile. |
| Workflow Record | hermes plugins install workflow-record | Adds "hermes record", which captures a browser workflow you demonstrate once, then its bundled skill lets /learn turn it into a skill that replays it. |
Telegram Business Mode
This one watches your Telegram Business account and drafts replies for you. The key word is approval. It observes, it writes a draft, and then it waits. Nothing goes out until you say yes.
That's the right shape for anything that talks to customers. You get the speed of an agent drafting your replies without handing it the keys to send whatever it wants.
Inbox
Inbox gives you one command, hermes inbox, that shows everything in flight for the active profile. That covers failed cron runs, stalled or dropped delegations, orphaned background processes, blocked kanban tasks, running work, undelivered results, upcoming jobs and open chats.
It's read-only. It doesn't change anything. It just shows you what's going on.
If you run a lot of cron jobs and delegations, this is the one I'd look at first. The hardest part of running agents at scale isn't starting work. It's knowing what quietly failed overnight.
Workflow Record
Workflow Record adds hermes record. You demonstrate a browser workflow once: the clicks, the field values, the navigations. It captures all of it, with passwords masked.
Then the bundled skill lets /learn turn that recording into a skill that replays it. Show it once, and you get a reusable skill. That's the old way versus the new way in one plugin. The old way is writing step-by-step instructions for every browser task. The new way is just doing the task once while it watches.
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Labs vs official plugins
Supported, first-party plugins live in a different repo: hermes-official-plugins. That's the line.
- Official plugins are first-party and supported by Nous.
- Hermes Labs plugins are built by Nous, work today, but carry no support promise and sit in the COMMUNITY tier.
Both install the same way, through the plugin catalog. The difference is what happens when something breaks. With official plugins, Nous owns the fix. With labs plugins, you might be on your own unless someone adopts it.
For a wider look at what's out there, see my breakdown of the Hermes Agent plugins marketplace and my list of the best Hermes Agent plugins.
How to install a plugin from the catalog
Every Hermes Labs plugin installs from the Hermes plugin catalog with one command. Here's the simple path.
- Make sure you're on a current version of Hermes. If you're behind, check what changed in Hermes Agent v0.22 first.
- Pick the plugin you want from the table above.
- Run its install command, for example: hermes plugins install inbox
- Use the command the plugin adds. For Inbox that's hermes inbox. For Workflow Record that's hermes record.
Even easier: ask your Hermes agent to do it. Paste something like "Install the Inbox plugin from Hermes Labs and show me what's in flight on this profile." Let the agent run the command and report back. That's how I'd do it, and it's how I tell people in my community to do it.
Want help picking which plugins fit your business? Book a free AI strategy session and we'll map it out.
The risks of using labs plugins
I'm not going to pretend these are risk-free. They're labelled experimental for a reason.
- No promise of fixes. A Hermes update could break a plugin, and nobody is committed to repairing it.
- Could change or vanish. Experimental means the shape isn't locked.
- You own the outcome. If a labs plugin sits in a workflow your business depends on, you need a backup plan.
The upside: CI runs every plugin against the current Hermes nightly. So breakage shows up in the open. Before you update Hermes on a machine that matters, check whether your labs plugins are still passing.
My rule is simple. Use labs plugins for things where a break is annoying, not expensive. Inbox is read-only, so the worst case is you lose a view. Telegram Business Mode drafts and waits for approval, so the worst case is you go back to replying yourself. Those are good risk shapes.
Before you trust any new plugin or model inside a real workflow, test it. That's why I built Goldie Bench: I'd rather see results than believe hype.
How to adopt a labs plugin
Every plugin in Hermes Labs is "up for adoption". If you want to take one over and maintain it, you open an issue on the repo.
That's a real opportunity. If you rely on Workflow Record, for example, adopting it means you're the one who keeps it alive. You stop depending on whether Nous has time for it.
Here's how I'd think about it:
- Use the plugin for a while so you know how it behaves.
- Watch the CI results against Hermes nightly so you see how often it breaks.
- If you're happy to maintain it, open an issue on the repo asking to adopt it.
You don't need to be a hardcore developer to start. You can have your AI agent read the plugin, explain it, and draft fixes. That's the whole point of running an agent: it does the heavy lifting, you make the calls.
If you want the full system for running Hermes this way, with profiles, skills and plugins all wired together, read my Agent OS guide. And if you'd like to get it set up properly with someone who's done it, grab a free AI strategy session.
FAQ
Is Hermes Labs a company?
No. Hermes Labs isn't a company. It's Nous Research's GitHub repo of experimental, unsupported plugins for Hermes Agent. There's no separate business behind it.
Are Hermes Labs plugins safe to use?
They work and they install from the official plugin catalog, but Nous doesn't support them and makes no promise of fixes. Use them where a break is annoying rather than costly, and check the CI results against Hermes nightly before you update.
How do I install a Hermes Labs plugin?
Run the install command from the catalog, such as hermes plugins install inbox, hermes plugins install workflow-record or hermes plugins install hermes-telegram-business. Or just ask your Hermes agent to install it for you.
What's the difference between Hermes Labs and official plugins?
Official plugins live in hermes-official-plugins and are supported by Nous. Hermes Labs plugins are built by Nous but unsupported, and they're listed in the COMMUNITY tier so nobody thinks Nous maintains them.
Want to go deeper on Hermes with courses, daily updates and 4 coaching calls a week? Join the AI Profit Boardroom for $69/mo. Or if you want a plan built for your business, book a free AI strategy session.
