head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs Onyx
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars, 51,615 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Onyx has 32,143 stars, 4,477 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 667% (246,492 vs 32,143 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; Onyx is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, Onyx 14%. Onyx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, chatgpt, 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 | Onyx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 246K | ★ 32K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 4.5K |
| 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 Onyx if
- You want the Onyx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Onyx 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 Onyx
Onyx is an open source AI application layer that gives teams a self hostable chat interface with retrieval augmented generation over their own company data and more than 50 indexing connectors.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or Onyx more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars and Onyx has 32,143. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and Onyx free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT, and Onyx has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and Onyx?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and Onyx in Python. 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 Onyx?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,492 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Onyx if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.