Hermes-CodeSpace

A GitHub project starter template with pre-installed AI coding tools. Built on devcontainers — ready to clone, fork, or use as a template for any new repository. (actually, it is just the .devcontainer directory)

What's included

Component	Purpose
Hermes Agent	AI coding assistant with memory, skills, and multi-step task execution
ModelRelay	OpenAI-compatible local router — benchmarks free coding models and routes requests to the best available provider
Hermes AI Agent — VS Code Extension	Full IDE integration — chat, inline suggestions, and terminal access directly in VS Code
Cline — VS Code Extension	Additional Agent: Cline coding agent right in your IDE, capable of creating/editing files, running commands, using the browser. Also preconfigured with ModelRelay by default

Why

GitHub Copilot is great — until your free trial ends. Hermes-CodeSpace gives you a self-hosted alternative that runs in your dev container with zero configuration.

Quick start

1. Fork the repo → Click "Fork" on GitHub (or copy folder .devcontainer into your repo)
2. Open in Codespace → Green button → Done
3. Start coding → Hermes is ready in the terminal with free models enabled (takes a minute or 2 if it is a fresh codespace)

Want more models? Open the ModelRelay dashboard via the Codespace Ports panel (localhost:7352) to add providers.

Local development

Prefer to run locally instead of in the cloud? Check out hermes-webtop for a Docker-based setup that runs on your own machine.

Forking & Going Private

Forked repositories on GitHub are public by default. If you want to keep your setup private, follow these steps:

1. Leave the Fork Network

1. Go to your forked repository on GitHub → Settings
2. Scroll down to the Danger Zone section
3. Click Leave fork network
4. Confirm the action

2. Change Visibility to Private

Once unlinked, the Change visibility button becomes available in the Danger Zone:

1. Click Change visibility
2. Select Private
3. Confirm

3. Receiving Future Updates

After converting to private, you can still pull updates from this upstream repository:

cd .devcontainer && make update-deps

What this does:

• Preserves your files — any custom files you created remain untouched
• Syncs matching files — updates from upstream overwrite existing files in .devcontainer/
• Excludes hidden files — .git/, .env, and other hidden files are protected

Best practice: Always review changes before committing:

git diff .devcontainer/    # Review what's changed
git status                 # See what will be committed

License

MIT — see LICENSE