# Grok Bot vs Hermes Agent

> Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) to Grok Bot's 45.2 (E) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Grok Bot's 45.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistant proactive.

- Grok Bot: grade E, 45.2/100, rank #893 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grok-bot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grok-bot.json
- Hermes Agent: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #244 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hermes-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hermes-agent.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 190 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Grok Bot (E)

Good for: A person or team already paying for Cursor or SuperGrok who wants named assistants that keep working on a cloud computer, with routines and Slack or X entry points, and who will write approval rules.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Hermes Agent loses 3 points for them

Watch for: All of one user's Bots share one cloud computer, with its files, browser sessions and command-line credentials. The docs say separate Bots are not a security boundary

### Hermes Agent (B)

Good for: A technical owner who wants one always-on agent across chat apps with memory and scheduled jobs, on their own machine or a small server, with any model.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 50
- Security & auth, 75 against 68
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: The default terminal backend runs commands on the host, and the default `smart` mode lets an auxiliary model approve commands it rates low-risk


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Grok Bot | Hermes Agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 57 | Hermes Agent +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 40 | 80 | Hermes Agent +40 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 80 | Hermes Agent +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 75 | Hermes Agent +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Hermes Agent +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 84 | Hermes Agent +64 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 63 | Grok Bot +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **45.2 · E** | **67.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Grok Bot | Hermes Agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | SpaceXAI and Cursor (Anysphere, Inc.) | Nous Research |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-11 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-03 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | none | 253k stars |

## Verdicts

**Grok Bot.** Connector tokens stay on Cursor's backend and each user gets a separate microVM, with approvals, drafts and a review model before risky actions. All of a user's Bots share one computer and its sign-ins, the review model skips memory writes, and the status page shows seven major Grok Bot incidents since 3 September 2026.

**Hermes Agent.** Card payments always ask first and are refused in unattended sessions, and the messaging gateway denies every sender until an allowlist is set. Shell commands run on the host by default with a model judging risk, and sending mail through the Google Workspace skill is held back only by an instruction to the model.

## Before you call either

### Grok Bot

1. State in each request what the Bot may change and where it must stop. Which actions pause for approval depends on the tool, the risk and the owner's Auto-review rules
2. Add narrow Ask first rules for sending, publishing, purchasing and deleting. Ask first wins over Allow automatically when both match
3. Treat any sign-in or file on the cloud computer as available to every Bot on the account. Give a workload its own Cursor user when it needs separate credentials
4. Run Test run with safe inputs. A test run performs real work and can call connected tools
5. To remove access, pause routines, sign out of sites on the computer, uninstall connectors and revoke them at the source service. Deleting the Bot is not enough

### Hermes Agent

1. Set `approvals.mode: manual` before giving it real accounts. The default `smart` lets an auxiliary model approve commands
2. Run the gateway with `terminal.backend: docker` or the project's Docker image when it reads mail, web pages or group chats
3. Set `memory.write_approval: true` and `skills.write_approval: true` to review what it saves about the owner
4. Leave `approvals.cron_mode` and `approvals.unattended_mode` at `deny` for scheduled and webhook runs
5. Set `TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS` or the matching allowlist per channel. Never set `GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS=true`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Grok Bot or Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Grok Bot's 45.2 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Grok Bot and Hermes Agent open source?

No open-source release is listed for Grok Bot. Hermes Agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "grok-bot", "b": "hermes-agent"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare grok-bot hermes-agent`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grok-bot.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hermes-agent.json

## Other comparisons with Grok Bot or Hermes Agent

- [AstrBot vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [AstrBot vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [CowAgent vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [CowAgent vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [GAIA vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [GAIA vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-haven.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-instinct.md)
- [Grok Bot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-leon.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-lindy.md)
- [Grok Bot vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Grok Bot vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Grok Bot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.md)
- [Grok Bot vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Haven vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-leon.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-lindy.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-poke.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zo-computer.md)