# Hermes Agent vs OpenDuet

> Hermes Agent scores 68.2 (B) to OpenDuet's 49.5 (D) for proactive personal assistants. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openduet
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openduet.md (~4,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openduet.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openduet.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

Hermes Agent scores 68.2 (B) on agent readiness against OpenDuet's 49.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do proactive personal assistants.

- Hermes Agent: grade B, 68.2/100, rank #255 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hermes-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hermes-agent.json
- OpenDuet: grade D, 49.5/100, rank #962 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openduet.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openduet.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 1196 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 42
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 52
- Security & auth, 75 against 59
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 37

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

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

### OpenDuet (D)

Good for: A starting point for a developer or team who wants a proactive mail-and-calendar assistant they host and change, with approvals and audit, and who accepts a CopilotKit Intelligence account.

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

Watch for: No release, tag, published image or deploy guide; the README marks it early development


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hermes Agent | OpenDuet | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 42 | Hermes Agent +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 58 | Hermes Agent +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 52 | Hermes Agent +28 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 59 | Hermes Agent +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Hermes Agent +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 37 | Hermes Agent +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 68 | OpenDuet +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.2 · B** | **49.5 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hermes Agent | OpenDuet |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Nous Research | CopilotKit (Tawkit, Inc.) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT. Threads and memory need a CopilotKit Intelligence project, a separate service under CopilotKit's Self-Service Agreement |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | none |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-27 |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 253k stars | 1.6k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 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.

**OpenDuet.** Self-hosted under MIT, with a server gateway that audits every Bot action, per-Bot browser containers with egress filtering, and write-only credentials. Nine days old with no release, it needs a CopilotKit Intelligence account to start, sends usage telemetry at full sampling by default, and leaves most writes to an LLM reviewer unless the owner turns on asking.

## 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`

### OpenDuet

1. Follow the README's Quick start (`bun install`, `bash scripts/start.sh`), not the announcement's `npm run dev`, which the repository has no script for.
2. Run `bun openbot/scripts/setup-learning.ts` after `copilotkit project select`; the server reads `INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY`, not the `CPK_` key the CLI writes.
3. Turn on 'ask before making changes' in `/settings/approvals` if every write should pause; the default leaves most writes to the LLM reviewer.
4. To bring your own agent, register it as a `remote-ag-ui` Bot in `agents.yaml`; its tool calls still pass through the gateway's policy and audit.
5. Set `COPILOTKIT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before starting if usage events must not reach CopilotKit.

## Questions

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

Hermes Agent scores 68.2 (B) on agent readiness against OpenDuet's 49.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Hermes Agent and OpenDuet open source?

Yes. Hermes Agent is open source (MIT). OpenDuet is open source (MIT. Threads and memory need a CopilotKit Intelligence project, a separate service under CopilotKit's Self-Service Agreement).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hermes Agent or OpenDuet

- [asaply vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [asaply vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-openduet.md)
- [Asmi vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Asmi vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-openduet.md)
- [Boba vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Boba vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openduet.md)
- [Brea vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Brea vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openduet.md)
- [Del vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Del vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-openduet.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-hirealpha.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openinstinct.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-orbits.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-orchid-ai.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-szn.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zapia.md)
- [HireAlpha vs OpenDuet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-openduet.md)
- [OpenDuet vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openduet-vs-openinstinct.md)
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- [OpenDuet vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openduet-vs-orchid-ai.md)
- [OpenDuet vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openduet-vs-szn.md)
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- [Boski vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-hermes-agent.md)
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- [Caddy vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-hermes-agent.md)
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- [Gemini Spark vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-hermes-agent.md)
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- [Grok Bot vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.md)
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