Hermes,
nothing to register.

Hermes is Nous Research's agent runtime. litwindow mounts it in your office as an always-on worker with the gateway key minted, the adapter pointed at it, and the restart policy set — before your first login.

you.litwindow.ai

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PINNED v2026.8.3NO SELF-REGISTRATIONYOUR OWN KEYSNO EXTRA COST

The figures in this panel are illustrative sample data, not litwindow's measured performance or any customer's real usage.

PAPERCLIP HERMES GATEWAY
06:41:02 hermes: gateway ready, awaiting adapter06:41:09 paperclip: task #318 dispatched over SSE06:41:44 hermes: skill invoked: read_repo (14 files)06:42:20 hermes: memory written to /opt/data06:42:51 hermes: heartbeat ok (1.4s)
IMAGE PINv2026.8.3
GATEWAY REACHABLE FROMTENANT NETWORK ONLY
MEMORY LIMIT2 GB

DEMONSTRATION READOUT — YOUR OFFICE, YOUR NUMBERS

What Hermes is

Hermes is an agent runtime built by Nous Research. It runs a gateway process that accepts tasks over HTTP, streams the work back as it happens, and keeps its memory and skills on disk between runs. It is not litwindow software — it is an independent project, and we host it the way we host the rest of your stack.

In your office it runs as one container beside your Paperclip control plane, driven entirely through Paperclip's hermes_gateway adapter. Paperclip assigns the task; Hermes does the work. The budget caps, live logs, health checks and backups that cover every other worker cover this one, because it is the same machine.

Where Hermes stands today

The Hermes service ships in every office's compose stack, pinned at v2026.8.3, and Paperclip's adapter is already pointed at it, so it runs from your first boot. OpenClaw is the worker litwindow has validated end to end on a live customer, which is why we call OpenClaw first-class today and Hermes the worker we are bringing to that same standard next.

Both are mounted in your office; only one of them has been run in anger by us. If you want the worker with the longer service history behind it, start on OpenClaw. If you want Hermes, it is already there, and turning it on costs you a key rather than a migration.

Why not just run it yourself

You can. Hermes is a container and a config file. The cost is not the container — it is everything that has to be true around it before a control plane can safely hand it work.

On your own box

  • On your own box: Mint a gateway key and keep it off the public internet
  • On your own box: Point a control-plane adapter at it by hand
  • On your own box: Track the upstream tag yourself on every upgrade
  • On your own box: Notice on your own when the gateway stops answering
  • On your own box: Its memory volume is in your backups only if you remembered it

In your litwindow rack

  • On litwindow: Gateway key generated on your VM, bound to the private network
  • On litwindow: Paperclip's adapter is pre-wired — no registration step at all
  • On litwindow: Version pinned in the golden image and upgraded on a bake
  • On litwindow: Restart policy plus a 30-second health check on the gateway
  • On litwindow: No new infrastructure: it shares the VM you already pay for

Pre-wired before you log in

Your part is a key and a click. Everything else happened while the machine was booting.

  1. Your office bootsAbout five minutes after checkout. Hermes comes up as one container in the same compose stack as your Paperclip control plane — no separate server, no second bill.
  2. Claim the owner linkThe dashboard shows a one-time owner link. Open it, create your account, and the office is yours. The link leaves our systems the moment you use it.
  3. Push an API keyPick Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter in Worker brains and paste your key. It is written to your VM; our database keeps only a truncated SHA-256 fingerprint so the dashboard can show which keys are set.
  4. The adapter is already pointedNothing to register. Paperclip's hermes_gateway adapter is configured against the gateway at provision time, with its bearer key generated on your machine — the step that usually eats an afternoon is already done.
  5. Watch it workLive logs stream from your VM straight to your browser, never transiting our servers. SSH in whenever you want the same view from the inside.

Unit specification

The real pins and the real wiring, as your office runs them.

Version
Hermes v2026.8.3, pinned in the same versions file as everything else in the image, so your office and our test office run the identical build. The Hermes CLI is also preinstalled on the VM host for SSH users — a convenience, not a managed worker.
Wiring
Driven entirely by Paperclip's hermes_gateway adapter over HTTP and server-sent events. Unlike a self-registering worker, Hermes has no join step to run and no invite to accept: the adapter already knows where it is.
Brains
Your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter API key. API keys only for this worker — litwindow offers no subscription auth path for Hermes, and never automates Claude Pro or Max logins for any worker.
Isolation
The gateway is reachable only on your tenant's private container network and is bearer-authed with a key generated on your VM. It is never published to the host or the internet.
Resilience
Restarts unless you stop it, with a health check every 30 seconds and a 2 GB memory limit so one runaway worker cannot take the office down with it.
Custody
Keys are written to your VM and never stored by the platform; our database holds a truncated SHA-256 fingerprint so the dashboard can show which keys are configured. Hermes state lives in a volume on your machine at /opt/data.
Exit
Nightly encrypted backups cover the Hermes volume. One click produces a tarball with your database dump, agent workspaces, and the compose files to run the same stack anywhere else.

Service record

Is Hermes production-ready on litwindow today?

Here is exactly where it stands. The Hermes service ships in every office's compose stack, pinned at v2026.8.3, and Paperclip's hermes_gateway adapter is already pointed at it, so it runs from your first boot. OpenClaw is the worker litwindow has validated end to end on a live customer, which is why we call OpenClaw first-class today and Hermes the worker we are bringing to that same standard next. Both are mounted in your office; only one of them has been run in anger by us.

Whose software is Hermes?

Hermes is Nous Research's agent runtime, an independent project. litwindow does not author it; we pin a version of it, run it on your VM, wire it to your control plane, and keep it alive. Credit and the roadmap belong to Nous Research.

What can power Hermes?

An Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter API key that you own. API keys are the only path for Hermes on litwindow — there is no subscription option for this worker. In particular, litwindow never automates Claude Pro or Max subscription logins for any worker: Anthropic bars subscription auth in third-party harnesses, so bring-your-own Anthropic API key is the only Claude route here.

Is the Hermes gateway exposed to the internet?

No. The gateway listens only on your tenant's private container network, is bearer-authed with a key generated on your VM, and is never published to the host or the public internet. Paperclip reaches it from inside the same stack; nothing else can.

Does running Hermes cost extra?

No. Hermes runs inside the VM and compose stack you already pay for, so it adds nothing to your litwindow bill at either plan. Model usage is billed by your provider on your own key, at their list prices, under the same monthly budget cap Paperclip enforces for every other worker.

Where does Hermes keep its state, and can I take it with me?

In a Docker volume on your own VM, mounted at /opt/data, so memory and skills survive restarts and image upgrades. It is covered by the nightly encrypted backups and included in the one-click export tarball, alongside your Postgres dump and the compose files needed to run the whole office yourself.

The rest of the rack

Every office ships with all of these mounted and wired to each other. You do not pick one.

Hermes is already in the rack.

Boot the office, push a key, and give it something to do tonight.

Rack your office — $29/mo