Short answer: Nous Research has not shipped an iPhone app for Hermes Agent. There are exactly two working ways to run and control it from your phone in 2026:
- An iPhone SSH terminal app. SSH into the Linux or macOS host where Hermes is installed, then run
hermes --tui(the new TUI, recommended) orhermes(classic CLI). Pure terminal, no UI on iPhone. Works with any iOS SSH client that gives you a real interactive terminal. - Onepilot. A native iPhone app that wraps the same SSH path, but exposes the deploy step, skill triage, channel hookup, and live logs as iOS panels you tap through instead of CLI subcommands you type.
Both options need Hermes already installed on a host you control, your own Mac mini, Linux box, Raspberry Pi, NAS, or a $5/month VPS. Hermes officially supports Linux, macOS, WSL2, and Termux on Android; iOS is not on the platform list, which is why the agent itself runs on the host and your iPhone is the control surface.
In The Pragmatic Engineer's March 2026 AI tooling survey of 906 software engineers, 95% used AI tools at least weekly and 55% regularly ran AI agents (The Pragmatic Engineer, 2026), so the open question is no longer whether to run an agent but how to supervise one away from your desk, which is exactly what running Hermes from an iPhone solves.
The rest of this post explains exactly what to type for each path, plus the lighter chat-channel alternative for cases when you don't want a real session.
How to run Hermes from an iPhone SSH terminal
This is the literal "I'm on my phone, I want to run a command" path. You install Hermes once on the host, then any time you want to drive it from your iPhone you open an SSH session and type hermes --tui.
Step 1, Install Hermes on the host
On your Linux, macOS, WSL2, or Android-Termux host:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
hermes setuphermes setup walks you through the model and API-key configuration. Hermes requires a model with at least 64,000 tokens of context, anything smaller is rejected at startup because the agent can't keep enough working memory for multi-step tool calls.
Step 2, SSH from iPhone and run the TUI
From your iPhone SSH client, connect to the host and run:
hermes --tuiThe TUI is the recommended frontend. It renders cleanly in any terminal that handles ANSI escapes and a sane character cell size. Classic hermes (no --tui) also works if you prefer the CLI shape.
What you get: the full Hermes interface, skills tree, memory inspection, cron list, live activity, rendered in your terminal. Everything hermes can do on a desktop, you can do over SSH from your phone.
What you don't get: native iOS gestures, push notifications, deploy automation, or pre-wired channel setup. You're typing into a terminal.
This path is the most flexible: if you already use SSH from your phone for other servers, you already know how this feels.
What does Onepilot add over a plain SSH session?
Onepilot is a native iPhone app built around the same SSH connection: it logs into the host and runs your shell exactly as a desktop SSH client would. It targets the same Linux and macOS hosts. The difference is what's on top of the SSH layer.
What Onepilot adds:
- Deploy wizard. Pick the host, pick the framework (Hermes, OpenClaw, Paperclip, Claude Code, Codex CLI), tap through. No bootstrap script.
- Skill triage. Hermes auto-generates 5 to 10 skills per active day. Onepilot exposes promote / demote / lock / delete / rollback as one-tap actions instead of
hermes skillssubcommands. See the dedicated Hermes skill triage from iPhone guide. - Channel hookup. Telegram, Slack, Discord wired up from the wizard, you don't run
hermes gateway setupseparately for each. - Live logs. Streamed from the host as a native panel.
What Onepilot doesn't add:
- A different agent. Hermes still runs on the host. Onepilot is the iPhone control layer, nothing more.
- Removal of the SSH dependency. You still need a host you can SSH into.
If you only ever run hermes --tui once a day, Path 1 is fine. If you also want to deploy, swap frameworks, manage skills, and handle channel setup from the same app, Path 2 saves the typing. The full Hermes on iPhone page walks through the deploy flow.
Can I control Hermes from a chat app instead?
If you don't want a UI at all and don't want to open a terminal, just want Hermes to do things and tell you about them, Hermes ships with a built-in messaging gateway. Run on the host:
hermes gateway setupPick your platform (Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Signal). On your iPhone you open the standard chat app for that platform; Hermes shows up as a participant. You message it, it does the work, it replies.
Strengths: zero app install on iPhone, zero new accounts. Works with whatever chat platform you already use.
Limits: chat-shaped UX. Fine for "summarise the new GitHub issues" or "remind me about X tonight". Not great for inspecting why a skill mis-fired three days ago, you can't scroll a memory tree in a chat bubble.
This is a complement to Paths 1 and 2, not a replacement. Most people run a chat channel plus either SSH or Onepilot.
How to run Hermes without owning a server
Same answer as desktop: you rent one. Hermes runs in 2 GB of RAM cleanly; a $5/month VPS handles it.
| Provider | Plan | RAM | Price/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | CX11 | 2 GB | ~€4 |
| DigitalOcean | Basic Droplet | 1 GB | $6 |
| Vultr | Cloud Compute | 1 GB | $6 |
Once provisioned, SSH in from your iPhone (Path 1) or use the Onepilot deploy wizard (Path 2) and run the install command above. The whole flow, from provision to install to first skill, takes about 15 minutes.
OpenClaw without self-hosting? OpenClaw has the same shape: it runs on a host you own or rent. There is no hosted-OpenClaw service that gives you a phone client without provisioning a server somewhere. The two iPhone paths above (SSH terminal or Onepilot) apply identically. We cover the iPhone OpenClaw path on the OpenClaw page, with an evergreen install in the OpenClaw setup guide.
SSH vs Onepilot vs chat channel: which should I pick?
| SSH terminal | Onepilot | Chat channel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native iPhone app | Generic SSH client | Yes | Uses chat app |
| Setup work on iPhone | Add SSH host | Sign in | None |
| Deploy Hermes for you | No | Yes (wizard) | No |
| Skill triage UI | TUI in terminal | Native panels | No |
| Live logs | Yes (in terminal) | Yes (panel) | No |
| Channel setup baked in | No (manual) | Yes | N/A, is the channel |
| Multi-framework on same host | Yes (manual) | Yes (wizard) | Per-framework |
| Best for | Comfortable in a terminal | Deploy + supervise from phone | "Just message me when done" |
If you live in a terminal and have Hermes installed already, Path 1 is the answer.
If you want to deploy, supervise, and triage from one app and skip the install scripting, Path 2 is the answer.
If you only want Hermes to message you results, the chat channel is the answer.
You can run all three at once. The host doesn't care. For the broader Hermes-vs-OpenClaw decision, see Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw.