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Hermes Agent is an AI agent with browser automation, terminal access, skills, and messaging integrations. The Kernel browser plugin routes Hermes’s browser_* tools through Kernel cloud browsers and handles browser creation and cleanup for you.

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Install the plugin

Install and enable the plugin from the Kernel repository:
You need:
  • A current Hermes Agent installation with browser-provider plugin support
  • A Kernel API key
  • Node.js 20 or newer for Hermes’s agent-browser dependency
Some Hermes versions prompt for KERNEL_API_KEY during plugin installation and some don’t. Selecting Kernel as the browser provider doesn’t set the API key.

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Configure Hermes Desktop

  1. Open Capabilities → Tools → Browser Automation.
  2. Select Kernel.
  3. If agent_browser isn’t installed, click Run setup and wait for the one-time installation to finish.
  4. Open the three-dot menu next to KERNEL_API_KEY and enter your Kernel API key.
  5. Optionally set KERNEL_PROXY_NAME and KERNEL_PROFILE_NAME from their three-dot menus.
  6. In a terminal, run the following command so Hermes’s cleanup timer matches the plugin’s 10-minute Kernel browser timeout:
  1. Restart any running Hermes chat or gateway so it reads the updated settings.

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Configure the Hermes CLI

Select Kernel and match Hermes’s cleanup timeout to the plugin’s browser timeout:
If plugin installation didn’t prompt for your API key, add KERNEL_API_KEY to the active Hermes profile’s .env file. This command prints the file’s location:
Install agent-browser once if Hermes hasn’t installed it yet:
Verify your setup:

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Configure a default profile or proxy

The Kernel provider supports these settings in the active Hermes profile: When you set KERNEL_PROFILE_NAME, the plugin saves browser changes back to that profile when the browser ends. This preserves cookies, logins, and other session state for future runs.

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Understand browser cleanup

The plugin creates every Kernel browser with a 10-minute inactivity timeout. Hermes also maintains its own browser cleanup timer, which defaults to two minutes and refreshes whenever Hermes runs a browser_* tool. Matching it to 10 minutes prevents Hermes from deleting the browser before Kernel’s timeout. When Hermes cleans up a session, it closes agent-browser, deletes the Kernel browser, and removes the session from its local registry. Hermes also runs this cleanup when its process exits normally. Kernel’s 10-minute timeout remains the remote fallback if Hermes crashes or loses its connection.
Kernel standby incurs zero browser usage cost only when no CDP, WebDriver, live-view, or computer-controls client is connected. Hermes maintains an agent-browser CDP session while it tracks the browser, so a longer Hermes cleanup timeout improves continuity but can also keep the browser active longer.

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Verify browser routing

Start Hermes with browser tools enabled:
Then ask Hermes:
Use browser_navigate, not web search, to open https://example.com. Call browser_snapshot, report the exact title and stealth_features, and tell me whether any cloud fallback warning occurred.
A successful run has these results:
  1. The page title is Example Domain.
  2. stealth_features includes stealth.
  3. The tool result has no fallback_warning.
  4. A matching browser appears in the Kernel Dashboard.
  5. Exiting Hermes or waiting for cleanup removes the browser.
Hermes can fall back to local Chromium if a cloud provider fails. A successful navigation alone doesn’t confirm that Hermes used Kernel; verify both the tool result and the Kernel Dashboard.

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Update the plugin

Pull the latest version and restart Hermes Desktop, your active chat, or the gateway:

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Next steps