Herald OS 0.1.0 alpha 2

The second public release of Herald OS, an operating system built around Hermes Agent. You talk or type to Hermes, and it works across the whole machine, asking before it changes anything.

What's new since alpha 1

Herald Canvas is a layered photo editor built into Herald OS, on the Mac and on Linux, and Hermes edits with you. Ask by voice or in text for a poster, a thumbnail or "make this photo warmer", and each change lands in the open window as a step you can undo. Content-aware fill and cutting out the subject (Remove Background and Select Subject) run on your computer, and nothing is uploaded. It has adjustment layers such as Curves and Levels, masks and clipping, layer styles, the healing brushes and Clone Stamp, Select and Mask for hair and fur, filters, editable text and shapes, and a History panel that goes back to any step. It opens Photoshop files (PSD and PSB) with their layers, exports PSD, PNG, JPEG and WebP, and opens HEIC, TIFF and camera RAW photos. Open it from the Dock, from Files ("Edit in Herald Canvas" on an image), or by asking Hermes. The manual has the rest.

• The AI models are not bundled: the first time a tool needs one, Herald Canvas shows its size and licence and asks before downloading it.
• Generative Fill asks Hermes to make the picture with your model provider's image generation, so it may cost what your plan charges for images.
• On Linux, HEIC photos from phones need an extra decoder; the manual's Linux notes say which.

Finding and filing documents. Ask Hermes, typed or spoken, to "find the invoice from Acme in my Downloads, rename it properly and put it where it belongs", or open a folder in Files and say "file the invoices in this folder". Hermes reads the documents themselves, scans and photos included, with the text recognised on your computer. It names them the way your filed documents are already named and puts them in the folders you already use, asking before it creates a new one. You approve the plan on a card first; nothing is overwritten, duplicates are pointed out, and "undo that" puts everything back.

Answering by voice. While an approval card is up, a spoken "yes" or "no" answers it instead of interrupting Hermes. A spoken yes allows the action once; "allow for this session" and "always" stay on the card's buttons.

Also in this release:

• Herald's system tools stay in Herald OS. Hermes uses them only in sessions Herald OS starts. Your Telegram, Discord and terminal sessions no longer see them, and neither do scheduled jobs, including ones made on the Automations page.
• Setup says what it changes in Hermes, and stops with a message when a step fails. On Linux, herald-os setup --undo takes its changes back out; on a Mac, docs/SYSTEM-BRIDGE.md lists the commands. Tool search, which setup turns off, now has a switch in Settings > Hermes & agents > Model & performance.
• Calendar on the Mac. The Mac app now asks for calendar access, so the Overview's Your day card shows today's events. In alpha 1, macOS refused without asking.
• The memory card counts your memories. The Overview's memory card showed the memory file's size in bytes; it now counts your saved memories and says Memory paused only when memory is paused. Pausing now says what it does: Hermes stops saving to its own memory but still uses what it saved.
• Use a local model works from the command bar, and Hermes can use it to switch to a model running in Ollama or LM Studio. In alpha 1 the command was missing.
• The Linux session starts properly from the Arch package. Choosing Herald OS on the login screen started plain niri without the menu bar and dock. The session now keeps its niri settings in ~/.config/niri/herald-os.kdl and leaves your own config.kdl alone.
• The tarball installs and updates itself on any Linux. sudo herald-os-tarball install puts Herald OS in your application menu and, if niri is installed, on your login screen. herald-os update then installs new releases over HTTPS once their checksum matches, swapping versions in one step, and herald-os rollback (or Update > Go back to the previous version) goes back. The alpha 1 tarball cannot update itself, so install alpha 2 once with the README's steps.
• On Arch, herald-os update leaves your clone alone. It no longer pulls and rebuilds the ~/Herald-OS checkout the Arch steps create; update the package with git pull and makepkg -si in packaging/arch/herald-os-bin, as before.
• Other bootc systems are left alone. On Fedora Silverblue, Bazzite, Bluefin and other bootc systems, herald-os update, rollback and channel no longer touch your own system's image, and docs/LINUX.md shows how to switch one to the Herald OS image.

The README says how to update each kind of install.

Downloads

File	For
HeraldOS-0.1.0-alpha.2-mac-arm64.dmg	macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon (the .zip holds the same app)
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.2-x86_64.iso.part0 and .part1	Herald OS Linux for a PC: join them with cat, then write the ISO to a USB stick
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.2-aarch64.qcow2.zst.part0 and .part1	The whole OS in a virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac: bash linux/vm/try.sh downloads and joins them
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.2-linux-x64.tar.gz and -linux-arm64.tar.gz	The Arch package (packaging/arch/herald-os-bin), Omarchy, and any other Linux
ghcr.io/iamlukethedev/herald-os:stable	The Herald OS image, for bootc switch

Every file but the Mac app has a .sha256; for the split ones it is the joined file's. GitHub takes files of up to 2 GB, hence the parts. The README has the steps for each.

Good to know

• The Mac app is not notarized yet. After dragging it to Applications, run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Herald OS.app" once.
• Omarchy support has been tested under Hyprland with Omarchy 4's own configuration and scripts, not yet on an Omarchy machine. Reports are welcome.
• The image is not signed yet: a cosign key comes in a later release.
• Alpha. Expect rough edges, and keep backups of anything you let an agent touch.

Herald OS is an independent project, not affiliated with Nous Research.

Herald OS 0.1.0 alpha 1

The first public release of Herald OS, an operating system built around Hermes Agent. You talk or type to Hermes, and it works across the whole machine, asking before it changes anything.

Downloads

File	For
HeraldOS-0.1.0-alpha.1-mac-arm64.dmg	macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon (the .zip holds the same app)
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.1-x86_64.iso.part0 and .part1	Herald OS Linux for a PC: join them with cat, then write the ISO to a USB stick
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.1-aarch64.qcow2.zst.part0 and .part1	The whole OS in a virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac: bash linux/vm/try.sh downloads and joins them
herald-os-0.1.0-alpha.1-linux-x64.tar.gz and -linux-arm64.tar.gz	The Arch package (packaging/arch/herald-os-bin), Omarchy, and any other Linux
ghcr.io/iamlukethedev/herald-os:stable	The Herald OS image, for bootc switch

Every file has a .sha256; for the split ones it is the joined file's. GitHub takes files of up to 2 GB, hence the parts. The README has the steps for each.

Good to know

• The Mac app is not notarized yet. After dragging it to Applications, run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Herald OS.app" once.
• Omarchy support has been tested under Hyprland with Omarchy 4's own configuration and scripts, not yet on an Omarchy machine. Reports are welcome.
• The image is not signed yet: a cosign key comes in a later release.
• Alpha. Expect rough edges, and keep backups of anything you let an agent touch.

Herald OS is an independent project, not affiliated with Nous Research.