Tutorial 14: Profiles — Multiple Agents, One Machine

This is part of the Hermes Agent official tutorial series. View all tutorials

Think of profiles like having separate desks in the same office — each desk has its own notebooks, pens, and sticky notes, so you can work on totally different projects without mixing up your stuff. In Hermes, a profile is exactly that: a separate home directory for each agent, complete with its own config, memory, and personality.

Step 1: Create a Profile (It’s Instant)

Run this command to make a new profile called coder:

hermes profile create coder

That’s it. Hermes automatically turns that profile into its own command. You now have a coder command that works just like hermes, but with fresh, isolated state.

To start using it:

coder setup    # configure API keys and model
coder chat     # start chatting

Your coder agent now has its own config, memory, and sessions — completely separate from your main Hermes setup.

Step 2: Choose Your Profile Type

You don’t have to start from scratch. Hermes gives you three ways to create a profile:

Blank Profile (Start Fresh)

hermes profile create mybot

This gives you a clean slate with only bundled skills. You’ll need to run mybot setup to add API keys and pick a model.

Pro tip for Kanban users: If you want this profile to be a worker in a Kanban workflow, add a description so the orchestrator knows what it’s good at:

hermes profile create researcher --description "Reads source code and external docs, writes findings."

Clone Config Only (Same Brain, New Memory)

hermes profile create work --clone

This copies your current profile’s config.yaml, .env, SOUL.md, and skills. Same API keys, same model, same personality — but fresh sessions and memory. Perfect for testing or separating work vs. personal use.

Want different API keys? Edit ~/.hermes/profiles/work/.env. Want a different personality? Edit ~/.hermes/profiles/work/SOUL.md.

Clone Everything (Full Snapshot)

hermes profile create backup --clone-all

This copies everything — config, keys, memories, skills, cron jobs, plugins. It’s a complete working snapshot of your agent.

Note: Session history and state databases are not copied (they can be tens of GB). For a full backup including history, use hermes profile export or hermes backup.

Clone from a Specific Profile

hermes profile create work --clone-from coder

This copies from the coder profile instead of your current one. Combine with --clone-all for a full copy of that specific source.

⚠️ The Golden Rule: One Agent, One Profile

Never point two agent processes at the same profile. Both agents write memory automatically, and each loads the other’s writes into its system prompt at session start. Two writers on one home will compound each other’s state until it stops being anything you configured.

If agents need shared memory, use an external memory provider instead.

Quick Setup Shortcut

Want the fastest path? Run this inside your new profile:

hermes setup --portal

This wires up models and tools at once using Nous Portal. See the Nous Portal integration for details.

Summary

Profiles let you run multiple independent Hermes agents on one machine — each with its own config, keys, memory, and skills. Create a profile, and it instantly becomes its own command. You can start blank, clone config only, or clone everything. Just remember: one profile = one agent process. Keep them separate, and you’ll have a clean, organized multi-agent setup.

Next up: Learn how to share memories between agents using external memory providers — the safe way to let your agents collaborate without stepping on each other’s toes.