head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs aichat
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars, 51,615 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aichat has 10,452 stars, 743 forks, 104 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 2,258% (246,492 vs 10,452 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; aichat is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, aichat 7%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai, ai-agents, claude, llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Hermes Agent | aichat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 246K | ★ 10K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-02-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 743 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hermes Agent if
- You weight community size — 246K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick aichat if
- You want the aichat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and aichat fits your workflow better
About Hermes Agent
Hermes Agent is a desktop AI agent developed by Nous Research that maintains persistent memory and self improving capabilities across sessions and platforms. It operates as a local first, cross platform interface for LLMs, integrating with multiple model providers and deployment environments without vendor lock in. The agent implements a closed learning loop where it curates its own memory, creates and refines skills from experience, and supports cross session recall via full text search and summarization.
read the full Hermes Agent overview →
About aichat
AIChat is an all in one LLM command line tool, written in Rust and licensed under Apache 2.0, that gives developers a shell assistant, an interactive chat REPL, retrieval augmented generation, and AI tools and agents through a single terminal interface to more than twenty language model providers.
read the full aichat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or aichat more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars and aichat has 10,452. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and aichat free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and aichat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and aichat?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and aichat in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Hermes Agent or aichat?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,492 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose aichat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.