Hermes v2026.6.19 Update: Hermes Agent v0.17.0 (v2026.6.19)

Hermes Agent v0.17.0 is here—and it’s all about reach: new places to talk to it, deeper integration with your favorite tools, and serious upgrades for teams running Hermes at scale.

What’s New

📱 Hermes now lives in your iMessage (no Mac relay required)

Remember when connecting Hermes to iMessage meant keeping a spare Mac in a closet running a relay, or babysitting a BlueBubbles bridge? Those days are gone. The new Photon Spectrum plugin uses a managed line pool—just run hermes photon login, authenticate with a device code, and Hermes can send and receive iMessage directly. Think of it like moving from hosting your own mail server to using Gmail: less hassle, same result. Your friends in the blue bubbles can now reach your agent as easily as texting you.

🤝 Hermes joins the Raft agent network

Raft is a growing network where agents can collaborate. Hermes now ships with a Raft gateway adapter, letting Raft “wake” Hermes to handle messages. The clever part? Privacy by contract—wake payloads carry only metadata (event IDs, timestamps), never message bodies. It’s like a phone call where the caller only says “please call me back,” not the actual conversation. Hermes shows up, does the work, and your data stays yours.

🖥️ The desktop app grew up

v0.16.0 gave you a desktop app; v0.17.0 makes it a daily driver. Highlights include:

Rebindable keyboard shortcuts (your muscle memory, your rules)
Native OS notifications with per-type toggles (no more notification chaos)
Live subagent watch-windows—imagine a picture-in-picture view of a delegated agent working in real time
VS Code Marketplace theme support—install any theme you like, directly into the app
Automatic RTL/bidi text direction for multilingual users
Per-thread composer drafts so you never lose a half-written thought

Improvements

Image generation learned to edit—not just create from scratch, but modify existing images (think “add a hat to this photo” instead of “draw a hat”).
Cursor’s Composer model is now reachable through an xAI Grok subscription, giving you more model choices.
The dashboard got a full profile builder and secure login—no more fiddling with config files for new users.
Skills Hub browser was rehauled—finding and installing skills is now a breeze.
The memory tool got a major upgrade—better recall, better context, fewer “I forgot” moments.
The curator stopped wasting budget—it no longer spends auxiliary model tokens on routine runs, saving you money and compute.

Fixes & Security

300+ issues closed across the board, from UI glitches to edge-case crashes.
A dedicated security round addressed several vulnerabilities—nothing public, but your agent’s armor is thicker now.

What This Means for You

If you’re a solo user, Hermes is now reachable from more places (iMessage, Raft) and more pleasant to use daily (desktop polish, better memory). If you run Hermes for a team, the Raft integration and profile builder make onboarding and collaboration smoother. And the curator fix means your background runs cost less—so you can let Hermes work while you sleep.

This release isn’t about one big feature; it’s about making Hermes everywhere you need it, with less friction and more control.

📎 Official release notes: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/releases