Hermes Agent Anatomy
anneheartrecord/hermes-agent-anatomy
Illustrated, module-by-module technical breakdown of the hermes-agent source code
Hermes Agent Anatomy is a technical analysis documenting how NousResearch's hermes-agent, a roughly 334,000-line open-source Python agent framework, is built, module by module, with hand-drawn style technical illustrations.
What Hermes Agent Anatomy does
The documentation walks from a full architectural overview through the agent core loop (the AIAgent class lifecycle, iteration budget and parallel tool execution), the tool registry, multi-provider adapter layer, context-compression system and the 11-platform messaging gateway, to the memory and reinforcement-learning data-collection layer with its eight memory backends and SQLite FTS5 search. A closing document compares Hermes Agent, OpenClaw and Claude Code across 13 dimensions.
Key figures documented include roughly 744 Python files, a 90-iteration agent loop cap, about 25 core built-in tools plus MCP and plugin extensions, 11 messaging platforms, 8 memory backends and 4 credential-pooling strategies, all based on hermes-agent v0.8.0. The repository contains the analysis itself, not the hermes-agent source code, and a sister project applies the same treatment to Claude Code's source.
Key features
- Module-by-module technical breakdown of hermes-agent's architecture
- Hand-drawn style technical illustrations throughout each document
- Documented figures: ~334,661 lines of code across 744 Python files, analyzed at v0.8.0
- Side-by-side 13-dimension comparison of Hermes Agent, OpenClaw and Claude Code
- Published as a readable site in addition to the raw markdown documents
When to use it
- Understanding how hermes-agent's core loop, tool registry and memory system actually work
- Comparing Hermes Agent's architecture against OpenClaw and Claude Code before choosing one
- Onboarding a contributor to hermes-agent's codebase with illustrated module breakdowns
Who it is for: Engineers and contributors who want a readable, illustrated map of the hermes-agent codebase instead of reading 334,000 lines of source directly.
How it fits with Hermes Agent
The entire repository is a technical analysis of the hermes-agent source code itself, module by module, based on version v0.8.0.
Note: Documents hermes-agent at v0.8.0 specifically; later versions may have changed the figures and modules described.
FAQ
What is Hermes Agent Anatomy?
Hermes Agent Anatomy is an illustrated, module-by-module technical analysis of NousResearch's hermes-agent source code, covering its core loop, tool registry, provider adapters, context compression, messaging gateway and memory system.
Does it work with Hermes Agent?
It does not run alongside Hermes Agent; it is a written analysis of the hermes-agent source code itself, based on version v0.8.0, and does not include that source code.
Is Hermes Agent Anatomy free and open source?
Yes, the documentation itself is released under the MIT license; it does not redistribute hermes-agent's own source code.
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