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Herm is distributed as the herm-tui package on npm and runs on top of Hermes Agent. The steps below take you from a fresh machine to an active chat session. The whole process takes about five minutes, most of which is waiting for Hermes Agent to be ready.
Hermes Agent must be installed before you launch Herm. Herm is a TUI client for the Hermes Agent gateway — it does not bundle or replace the agent runtime. Visit the Hermes Agent repository and complete its setup first, including confirming that your Hermes home directory exists at ~/.hermes (or that HERMES_HOME is set to its location).
1

Try Herm without installing

If you have Bun installed, you can run Herm directly from the registry to see if it works in your environment before committing to a global install.
bunx herm-tui
Bun downloads and executes the latest stable release in a temporary cache. No files are written to your global paths. Press Ctrl+C or use the command palette (Ctrl+K) to quit when you are done exploring.
2

Install Herm globally

Once you are happy with the trial run, install Herm globally so the herm command is always on your PATH.
bun add -g herm-tui
The @next tag tracks every development push and may include breaking changes. Use it if you want the absolute latest features; use the stable tag for day-to-day work.
Verify the install succeeded by checking the version:
herm --version
3

Launch Herm

You have two launch modes depending on whether you want to continue where you left off or begin fresh.
herm        # start a new session
herm -c     # resume the last session
On first launch Herm reads your Hermes home from ~/.hermes (or HERMES_HOME if set), starts the Hermes Agent gateway subprocess, and renders the full TUI. If the gateway fails to start, check that Hermes Agent is installed and that ~/.hermes exists.
If text looks garbled or colours are wrong inside tmux, add set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color" to your ~/.tmux.conf and restart tmux. For hard-to-read text on dark backgrounds, try a lighter theme such as daylight, mercury, or github via the /theme slash command.
4

Navigate the interface

Herm is organised into five top-level tabs. You can see them across the top of the screen as soon as the TUI loads.
ShortcutAction
Alt+Left / Alt+RightCycle to the previous / next tab
Alt+1 – Alt+5Jump directly to Chat, Sessions, Profiles & Automation, Config, or Eikon
TabCycle focus between the input area and the content region within the active tab
Ctrl+KOpen the command palette — search all actions and slash commands
/Open the slash command popover in the chat input
Arrow keys navigate within the currently focused tab. Each tab also has its own sub-tab strip — for example, Sessions contains List, Context, and Analytics sub-tabs reachable with the in-tab navigation.
5

Send your first message

Press Alt+1 (or just start typing) to make sure you are on the Chat tab. The chat input is at the bottom of the screen.
  • Type your message and press Enter to send it.
  • Herm streams the response with markdown rendering, LaTeX-to-unicode conversion, and expandable tool-call chips.
  • To attach a file or diff as context, type @ followed by a file path.
  • To switch models, run a session action, or change a theme mid-conversation, type / to open the slash command popover and pick from the list.
Type /keys to browse and rebind keyboard shortcuts, or /theme to switch the colour scheme — both work without leaving the chat input.

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Next steps

Chat features

Streaming, file context with @, slash commands, and session management.

Themes & keybindings

Customise colours, rebind keys, and save your preferences.

Sessions

Resume, title, and manage sessions from inside the TUI.