Deploy on VPS ($5/mo)

Hermes Agent can run comfortably on a $5/month VPS, making it accessible for personal use, small teams, and experimentation.

Recommended VPS Providers

Provider	$5 Plan Specs	Locations	Notes
DigitalOcean	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD	Global	Reliable, good docs
Linode	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD	Global	Good support
Vultr	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD	Global	Fast provisioning
Hetzner	2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD	EU	Best value
Racknerd	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD	US	Very cheap

Quick Setup Guide

1. Create Your VPS

Sign up with your chosen provider
Create a new instance with:
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- Plan: $5/month tier
- Region: Closest to you or your users
- SSH Key: Add your public key for secure access

2. Initial Server Setup

# SSH into your server
ssh root@<your-server-ip>

# Create a non-root user (recommended)
adduser hermes
usermod -aG sudo hermes

# Switch to new user
su - hermes

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

3. Install Dependencies

# Install required packages
sudo apt install -y curl git python3 python3-pip python3-venv build-essential

# Install uv (Python package manager)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
source $HOME/.local/bin/env

4. Install Hermes Agent

# Run the official installer
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Reload shell configuration
source ~/.bashrc

5. Configure Hermes

# Set up your configuration
hermes setup

# Or manually create config
mkdir -p ~/.hermes
nano ~/.hermes/config.yaml

Example minimal configuration:

model:
  provider: openrouter
  model: anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet
  api_key: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}

messaging:
  telegram:
    enabled: true
    bot_token: ${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}

6. Run Hermes

# Test in foreground
hermes chat

# Or start gateway for messaging platforms
hermes gateway

Optimizing for 1GB RAM

With only 1GB RAM, you’ll need to optimize:

Enable Swap

# Create 2GB swap file
sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# Make permanent
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Verify
free -h

Optimize Hermes Configuration

model:
  # Use smaller context to save memory
  max_tokens: 1500

memory:
  # Reduce memory limits
  memory_char_limit: 1500
  user_char_limit: 800

terminal:
  # Shorter timeout
  timeout: 60

System Optimization

# Reduce swappiness (use RAM before swap)
sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
echo 'vm.swappiness=10' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

# Disable unnecessary services
sudo systemctl disable snapd
sudo systemctl disable man-db

Running as a System Service

Create a systemd service for automatic startup:

# Create service file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/hermes-gateway.service

Add:

[Unit]
Description=Hermes Agent Gateway
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=hermes
WorkingDirectory=/home/hermes
Environment=HOME=/home/hermes
Environment=PATH=/home/hermes/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
ExecStart=/home/hermes/.local/bin/hermes gateway
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable hermes-gateway
sudo systemctl start hermes-gateway

# Check status
sudo systemctl status hermes-gateway

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u hermes-gateway -f

Security Hardening

1. Firewall Setup (UFW)

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp   # SSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp   # HTTP (if needed)
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp  # HTTPS (if needed)
sudo ufw enable

2. SSH Hardening

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Set these options:
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes
MaxAuthTries 3

# Restart SSH
sudo systemctl restart sshd

3. Automatic Updates

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades

4. Fail2Ban (Intrusion Prevention)

sudo apt install fail2ban
sudo systemctl enable fail2ban
sudo systemctl start fail2ban

Monitoring on a Budget

Basic Monitoring Script

# Create monitoring script
cat > ~/monitor.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
CPU=$(top -bn1 | grep "Cpu(s)" | awk '{print $2}' | cut -d'%' -f1)
MEM=$(free | grep Mem | awk '{printf "%.0f", $3/$2 * 100.0}')
DISK=$(df / | tail -1 | awk '{print $5}' | tr -d '%')

echo "$(date): CPU ${CPU}% | Memory ${MEM}% | Disk ${DISK}%"

if (( $(echo "$CPU > 90" | bc -l) )); then
  echo "High CPU usage detected!"
fi

if (( $MEM > 90 )); then
  echo "High memory usage detected!"
fi
EOF

chmod +x ~/monitor.sh

# Run manually or add to cron
~/monitor.sh

Free External Monitoring

Use free tiers of monitoring services:

UptimeRobot: 50 monitors free (HTTP ping every 5 minutes)
Pingdom: 1 monitor free
StatusCake: 10 tests free

Backup Strategy

Automated Daily Backup

# Create backup script
cat > ~/backup.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/backups"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)

mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR

# Backup Hermes config
tar czf $BACKUP_DIR/hermes-$DATE.tar.gz ~/.hermes/

# Keep only last 7 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -name "hermes-*.tar.gz" -mtime +7 -delete

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/hermes-$DATE.tar.gz"
EOF

chmod +x ~/backup.sh

# Add to cron (daily at 2 AM)
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 2 * * * $HOME/backup.sh") | crontab -

Offsite Backup

Sync to free cloud storage:

# Install rclone
sudo apt install rclone

# Configure (follow prompts)
rclone config

# Add to backup script
rclone sync ~/backups remote:hermes-backups

Troubleshooting Low Memory

Symptoms

Slow response times
“Out of memory” errors
System freezes
Killed processes (OOM killer)

Solutions

# Check memory usage
free -h
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -20

# Check swap usage
swapon --show

# Clear caches (temporary relief)
sudo sync && echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

# Find memory leaks
sudo apt install smem
smem -p

Upgrade Options

If 1GB is insufficient:

Add swap (already done above)
Upgrade VPS to next tier (~$10/month for 2GB)
Use lighter models (smaller context, faster models)
Limit concurrent tasks in Hermes config

Cost Comparison

Provider	Monthly Cost	Specs	Best For
Hetzner	€4.51	2 vCPU, 4GB RAM	Best value
DigitalOcean	$6	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	Reliability
Linode	$5	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	Support
Vultr	$5	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	Speed
Oracle Cloud	Free	2 vCPU, 1GB RAM	Budget (complex setup)

Conclusion

A $5 VPS is perfectly capable of running Hermes Agent for personal use or small teams. With proper optimization, you can get excellent performance. As your needs grow, you can easily upgrade to a larger instance.

For the best experience on a budget, we recommend Hetzner Cloud for their 2 vCPU/4GB RAM offering at ~€4.51/month.