Run Hermes on iPad
Hermes officially supports Linux, macOS, WSL2, and Termux on Android — not iPadOS. Run it on a host you already own, or a small VPS, and supervise it from the iPad's bigger screen.
TL;DR
Running Hermes on iPad means running the Hermes runtime on a host you control and using the iPad as the control surface. Hermes (NousResearch) officially supports Linux, macOS, WSL2, and Termux on Android — iPadOS is not on the list, for the same sandboxing reason iPhone is not. Onepilotcloses the gap: it deploys Hermes to any Linux or macOS host you can SSH into — a Mac mini, a Linux box, a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, or a rented VPS — and gives you the cockpit on the iPad. The agent answers on Telegram, Discord, or Slack; the iPad's bigger screen carries the terminal, file browser, git, and cron. Same deploy as iPhone, more room to read what the agent is doing. New to the setup? Start with Run Hermes on iPhone — the deploy flow is identical.
Run the Hermes agent from your iPad — get one email when Onepilot ships on the App Store.
Does Hermes run on iPad?
Not on its own. Hermes is a terminal-native agent: it reads and writes skill files, spawns subprocesses, and keeps a long-running event loop. iPadOS, like iOS, does not let a downloaded app run arbitrary binaries or hold a persistent background daemon, so there is no way to run the Hermes runtime directly on the tablet. That is why the official mobile target is Termux on Android, where a user-space terminal can run real binaries.
The setup that does work is structural: run the agent on a host the Hermes docs already support, and treat the iPad as a remote-control surface. SSH gives you the shell, a messaging channel gives you the conversation, and an IDE-style app gives you the file browser and git diffs. The host can sit in your closet or in a data center — the agent does not care, and the iPad reaches it the same way either way.
Why the iPad is a good cockpit for an agent
More on screen at once. Hermes generates skill files as it works, and the useful daily habit is to read them before they pile up. On an iPad the file tree, the open skill file, and its diff fit together, so a triage pass that feels cramped on a phone becomes a quick glance.
A real keyboard when you want one. Pair any hardware keyboard and the terminal becomes a place you actually type — run a command on the host, fix a skill by hand, drive a git rebase next to the agent. No laptop, no context switch.
The device you already carry. An iPad wakes instantly, lasts the day, and is lighter than a laptop. For the job of supervising an agent — deploy, read, approve, redirect — that is the right amount of machine.
Deploying Hermes from iPad in four steps
- Add the host. Any Linux or macOS machine you can SSH into works — a Mac mini in the closet, a Linux box at home, a Raspberry Pi 5, a NAS running sshd, or a rented VPS. Add it to Onepilot by host, port, and SSH credentials; keys are stored in the device Keychain.
- Deploy Agent → Hermes. Onepilot opens an SSH session, installs nvm under your user (no
sudo), pulls the Hermes CLI from the official release channel, and runs setup. The deploy is reversible:rm -rf ~/.nvm ~/.hermeson the host returns it to a clean state. - Pick LLM provider and channel. Choose from the 25 providers Onepilot supports — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, Groq, DeepSeek, xAI, OpenRouter, Ollama, and more — and pick a channel: Telegram, Discord, or Slack. The wizard wires the bot.
- Supervise from the iPad. Onepilot starts Hermes as a background process and reports back. Direct the agent from the channel; use the iPad for the file browser, terminal, git, and cron. The self-improving skill loop runs on the host, and you read or edit those skill files on the bigger screen whenever you want.
Limits to be aware of
No on-device Hermes. The agent runs on the host, not on the iPad. Anything that would need the runtime to live on the tablet itself is out of scope; iPadOS sandboxing is the reason, and it is not something an app can work around.
Network dependency. The iPad needs to reach the host for the SSH session — over local Wi-Fi, Tailscale, or the public internet, depending on where you put it — and the channel needs internet at both ends. If the iPad is fully offline, the agent keeps running on the host and its messages wait for you in the channel app.
FAQ
Does Hermes officially support iPad?
No. The Hermes project (NousResearch) lists Linux, macOS, WSL2, and Termux on Android as its supported install targets in 2026. iPadOS is not on that list, and there is no native iPad client published by the Hermes team. The reason is the same one that rules out iPhone: iPadOS sandboxing does not allow a downloaded app to run arbitrary binaries or keep a long-lived background daemon, which is exactly what the Hermes runtime needs. Onepilot closes the gap by running Hermes on a host you own and turning the iPad into the control surface.
How do I run the Hermes agent on iPad with Onepilot?
Hermes runs on a host you provision through Onepilot's deploy wizard, and your iPad drives it over SSH and a messaging channel. The host can be a Mac mini at home, a Raspberry Pi, a Linux box on your network, a NAS running sshd, or a remote VPS — anything you can SSH into that runs Linux or macOS, the platforms Hermes supports. The wizard installs the Hermes CLI under nvm with no sudo, starts the agent as a background process, and wires it to Telegram, Discord, or Slack. After that you direct the agent from the channel and use the iPad for the file browser, terminal, git, and cron tools.
Is the iPad version different from the iPhone version?
It is the same Onepilot app and the same account — the difference is screen real estate. On iPad the file browser, the terminal, and a skill-file diff fit on one screen at once, so triaging what the agent learned and tailing its logs is more comfortable than on a phone. The deploy flow, the host model, and the channel routing are identical. Anything you set up on iPhone shows up on iPad and vice versa, because the state that matters lives on the host, not the device.
Can I use a keyboard with Hermes on iPad?
Yes. The Onepilot terminal is a full interactive terminal, and it takes input from any hardware keyboard paired with the iPad — a Magic Keyboard, a folio case, or a plain Bluetooth keyboard. That turns the iPad into a practical place to run a quick command on the host, edit a skill file, or drive a git rebase next to the agent, without reaching for a laptop.
Do I need a separate setup for iPad and iPhone?
No. The host, the deployed Hermes process, the LLM provider key, and the channel are all configured once and live on the host (or, for the key, in the device Keychain). Add the same host on the iPad and you are looking at the same running agent. There is no second deployment and no duplicate configuration to keep in sync.
iPad or a laptop for running Hermes — which is better?
Neither runs the agent locally; both are supervisors for an agent that lives on a host. A laptop gives you a desktop shell and full multitasking. An iPad gives you the same control surface with better battery, instant wake, and a touch-first file and skill view — and it is the device most people already have in their bag. If your job is to deploy the agent, read what it does, approve its skills, and redirect it, the iPad covers it. If you need heavy local development alongside the agent, keep the laptop for that part.
Where is the official Hermes Agent project?
The official Hermes Agent (NousResearch) repository is at github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent. Hermes is a self-improving agent: it writes reusable skill files after it solves a task and recalls them later, which is what makes the file browser on a bigger iPad screen useful — you can read what it has learned at a glance.
Run Hermes from your iPad
Drop your email and we'll send one note when Onepilot ships on the App Store.
See also: Run Hermes on iPhone, Manage Hermes skills, or the three-layer overview.