Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and the Hermes One team (“Hermes One,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) covering your access to and use of hermesone.org (the “Site”), the Hermes One desktop application (the “App”), and any related documentation, downloads, and services (together, the “Services”).

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Services. If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

Hermes One is an independent, open-source AI agent platform. The App runs primarily on your own device and, in local mode, stores your data on your machine. Hermes One is powered by the open-source Hermes Agent from Nous Research, but is a separate, third-party product and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Nous Research.

The Services are provided free of charge. We do not require you to create an account with us to download or run the App. Any costs you incur from third-party model providers, infrastructure, or messaging platforms are your own responsibility (see Section 5).

The Hermes One software is released under the MIT License. Your rights to use, copy, modify, and distribute the source code are governed by that license, which is available in our GitHub repository. In the event of a conflict between these Terms and the MIT License with respect to the source code, the MIT License controls.

These Terms additionally govern the Site, the official binary distributions of the App, and our hosted services (such as the registry and marketplace), which are offered as a convenience and may be subject to their own usage limits.

You are solely responsible for:

• The API keys, credentials, and accounts you connect to the App, and for keeping them secure.
• The prompts, instructions, tools, and automations you give your agent, and the actions it takes on your behalf.
• Reviewing the output of an autonomous agent before relying on it. AI systems can produce inaccurate, incomplete, or harmful results.
• Complying with the terms of any third-party service you connect (model providers, messaging platforms, infrastructure providers, and so on).
• Backing up your data. In local mode your data lives on your device; we cannot recover it for you.

Hermes One is designed with no model lock-in. You bring your own model providers and connect your own integrations. When you do, your data — including prompts, files, and context — is sent directly from the App to those third parties under their terms and privacy policies, not ours.

We do not control and are not responsible for third-party services, their availability, their pricing, or how they handle your data. Your use of any third-party service is solely between you and that provider.

You agree not to use the Services to:

• Violate any applicable law or regulation.
• Infringe the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of others.
• Generate or distribute malware, spam, or content intended to harass, defraud, or harm others.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, disrupt, or overload our hosted services or infrastructure.
• Misrepresent your affiliation with Hermes One or Nous Research.

We may suspend access to our hosted services for conduct that threatens their security, integrity, or availability.

The source code is licensed under the MIT License. The Hermes One name, logo, and brand assets remain the property of the Hermes One team and are not granted to you under the MIT License. You may refer to Hermes One descriptively, but you may not use our marks in a way that suggests endorsement or affiliation without permission.

You retain all rights to the content you create with the App.

The Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or that any output of an AI agent will be accurate or reliable. You use the Services at your own risk.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Hermes One and its contributors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the Services — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Because the Services are provided free of charge, our total aggregate liability to you for any claim relating to the Services will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (USD $100).

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Hermes One and its contributors from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Services, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above. Material changes may be announced through our community channels. Your continued use of the Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to our hosted services if you breach these Terms or use the Services in a way that could cause harm or legal liability. The MIT License rights to the source code survive in accordance with that license.

These Terms are governed by general principles of contract law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.