Hermes Local v0.18.1 — Cold-start reliability

Cold-start reliability release

Hermes Launcher now starts the local workstation stack before it tries to connect. A fully stopped machine no longer remains on CONNECTING with ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:9119.

Highlights

• Start and await the configured model server and Hermes backend during a cold desktop launch.
• Join an already-starting supervisor when launcher and script startup overlap.
• Prevent a losing supervisor process from deleting the active supervisor's PID state.
• Ignore stale status from an earlier supervisor process.
• Preserve the portable model, profile, runtime, path, acceleration, and port configuration introduced in v0.18.0.

Update an existing installation

Pull the latest public repository and rerun the idempotent setup:

Set-Location D:\Hermes-Local
git pull
& '.\Setup-Hermes-Local.ps1' -NonInteractive

Then install the v0.18.1 Windows setup asset below, or run the rebuilt dist\Hermes Launcher.exe directly.

Fresh installation

Clone the repository, run Setup-Hermes-Local.ps1, then use either Windows launcher asset below. The release binaries contain the launcher, not the model weights or managed runtimes.

The binaries are not Authenticode-signed, so Windows may show a reputation warning. Verify SHA256SUMS.txt before running them.

Verification

• Real packaged cold start with ports 8011 and 9119 initially down: passed in 40.7 seconds.
• Two simultaneous start callers joined one supervisor and both succeeded.
• Clean stop removed the supervisor PID record and closed both ports.
• Portable extraction and live Home/TUI test: passed.
• Model, runtime, port, and profile persistence test: passed.
• PowerShell parsing, configuration schema validation, TypeScript, focused Electron tests, changed-file lint, and exact eight-patch reconstruction: passed.
• Microsoft Defender found no threats in the installer or portable artifacts.

Hermes Local v0.18.0 — Portable configuration

Portable configuration release

Hermes Local no longer assumes one drive, GPU, CUDA architecture, model, profile, or port pair.

Highlights

• Register and switch arbitrary local GGUF models from Hermes Launcher.
• Create, edit, select, and delete inference profiles.
• Configure CPU/CUDA/auto acceleration, loopback host and ports, build workers, CUDA architecture, Python line, and startup model verification.
• Resolve project paths from the clone and tune thread/VRAM defaults from the current machine.
• Keep personal choices in an ignored, atomically written config/launcher/user-settings.json.
• Generate Hermes provider configuration dynamically while preserving unrelated user configuration.
• Validate portable defaults, model manifests, profiles, and user settings with versioned JSON Schemas.

Install

Clone the repository, run Setup-Hermes-Local.ps1, then use either Windows launcher asset below. The release binaries contain the launcher, not model weights or the managed runtimes.

The binaries are not Authenticode-signed, so Windows may show a reputation warning. Verify SHA256SUMS.txt before running them.

Verification

Validated on native Windows with the live local stack, an alternate model/profile/port smoke configuration, packaged and portable Electron interaction tests, schema validation, PowerShell parsing, TypeScript checks, focused Electron tests, and a clean Windows Defender distribution scan.

Hermes Local 0.17.0

Hermes Local 0.17.0

The first public Hermes Local release: a Windows-native, loopback-only
workstation built on the official NousResearch Hermes Agent, CUDA-enabled
llama.cpp, and Laguna XS 2.1 Q4_K_M.

Highlights

• Packaged Hermes Launcher control centre with Home, Services, TUI, Web
  Dashboard, Models, Profiles, Tasks, Tools, Memory, Sessions, Projects, Logs,
  Benchmarks, Security and About surfaces.
• Supervised authenticated model and Hermes services bound only to
  127.0.0.1.
• Real Windows ConPTY/xterm.js Hermes TUI.
• Resumable verified model provisioning, repair, diagnostics, backup/restore,
  update and rollback scripts.
• Measured Daily/Research 64K and Deep Research 80K profiles.
• Threat model, repeatable security scan, licence inventory and CycloneDX
  SBOM.

Install

The attached installer and portable executable contain the Hermes Launcher
control centre. They do not bundle the 20 GB Laguna model or
project-managed runtimes.

Clone the repository to D:\Hermes-Local and run
Setup-Hermes-Local.ps1 -NonInteractive first. See the
installation guide.

These locally built binaries are not Authenticode-signed, so Windows may show
a SmartScreen warning. Verify the checksums before running them.

SHA-256

Asset	SHA-256
Hermes-Launcher-0.17.0-windows-x64-setup.exe	bea5e16a5190fb019d83778d367f97f16dd52e7640bf1001e7cdf15d2a3db2ef
Hermes-Launcher-0.17.0-windows-x64-portable.exe	ae1fc84230068a72275fc35d6059dc7142d0839534eb3173415409bbc8b1ac4d
Hermes-Launcher-0.17.0-windows-x64-setup.exe.blockmap	287bee4d8809fa74fd5cbdd437fdd2e2b278f82fe0a2c4aa7b9ac2ac9ef3e530
package-manifest.json	5a0dd4150e2505e7233afdc93afba58a94a546913b4c81012ed91332bc381f00

Validation

• Full operational acceptance: 9/9 checks passed.
• Windows-critical Hermes suite: 463 passed, 0 failed, 2 skipped.
• Packaged installer, portable launcher, TUI, CSP/navigation, update,
  rollback, repair, backup/restore and data-preserving uninstall verified.
• Security assessment: pass with documented triaged residual dependency
  advisories.

See the
acceptance report
and
security report
for the full evidence and documented limitations.