head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs pi
Hermes Agent has 246,618 GitHub stars, 51,659 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped today. pi has 106,704 stars, 13,453 forks, 202 open issues and last shipped today. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 131% (246,618 vs 106,704 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; pi is written in TypeScript under MIT. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, pi 13%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | pi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 247K | ★ 107K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 13K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hermes Agent if
- You weight community size — 247K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pi if
- You want the pi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pi 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 pi
Pi is a modular agent toolkit written in TypeScript for building and running terminal based AI coding agents. It lives in the developer tooling ecosystem and provides composable packages for LLM integration, agent orchestration, and terminal UI rendering. The project centers on @earendil works/pi coding agent , an interactive CLI agent, supported by core runtime, AI abstraction, and TUI libraries.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or pi more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,618 GitHub stars and pi has 106,704. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and pi free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and pi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and pi?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and pi in TypeScript. 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 pi?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,618 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pi if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.