# Hermes Agent vs Dots

> Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) to Dots's 28.3 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots.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 Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

- 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
- Dots: grade F, 28.3/100, rank #973 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-dots.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-dots.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

### 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 3
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 41
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 22
- Security & auth, 75 against 58
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 38
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 31

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

### Dots (F)

Good for: A ChatGPT Pro or Enterprise user who wants ongoing work tracked across mail, documents, code and Slack with approval before sends.

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

Watch for: Beta. The admin setting is labelled Use dots (Beta), access is rolling out gradually, and Teams access is an invite-only alpha


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hermes Agent | Dots | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 3 | Hermes Agent +54 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 41 | Hermes Agent +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 22 | Hermes Agent +58 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 58 | Hermes Agent +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 10 | Hermes Agent +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 38 | Hermes Agent +46 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 31 | Hermes Agent +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.9 · B** | **28.3 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hermes Agent | Dots |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | Nous Research | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not read |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 253k stars | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Dots.** Actions that affect accounts or share information pass an automatic review, and custom rules can require approval or a hand-off. Dots is a beta on Pro plans from $100 a month, and no status page, terms, privacy policy or way to delete individual saved notes was found in the pages we could read.

## Before you call either

### 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`

### Dots

1. Say what may be sent. Asking a dot to draft replies does not permit sending them, and an action outside a stated scope needs another decision
2. Stop three things separately. Pause stops the main task only, delegated tasks stop in Activity and recurring tasks in Scheduled, and completed actions are not undone
3. Connect each thing separately. A messaging channel grants no access to an inbox, an app or a computer
4. Sign out of websites and disconnect apps yourself when removing access. Revoking dots access or disconnecting an app does not delete information already obtained
5. Keep the connected computer online with the ChatGPT app open for local work. Only one personal computer can be connected at a time

## Questions

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

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Dots's 28.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Are Hermes Agent and Dots open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hermes Agent or Dots

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