head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs oterm
Hermes Agent has 249,549 GitHub stars, 53,080 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped today. oterm has 2,442 stars, 138 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 10,119% (249,549 vs 2,442 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; oterm is written in Python under MIT. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, oterm 6%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (anthropic, 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 | oterm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 250K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 53K | ⑂ 138 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hermes Agent if
- You weight community size — 250K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick oterm if
- You want the oterm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and oterm 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 oterm
oterm is the terminal client for LLMs: a Python TUI that connects one terminal interface to Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, and any pydantic ai supported provider, aimed at developers and terminal centric teams who would rather chat with models from the command line than from a browser.
read the full oterm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or oterm more popular?
Hermes Agent has 249,549 GitHub stars and oterm has 2,442. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and oterm free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and oterm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and oterm?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and oterm 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 oterm?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (249,549 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose oterm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.