CLI & sessions

The Hermes CLI is the primary interface for local work. Understanding sessions helps you work efficiently offline.

Starting a session

# Default session
hermes

# From a project directory (loads context files)
cd ~/Projects/FDE/hermes-course/hermes-mastery-docs
hermes

# With a specific profile
hermes --profile work

Useful slash commands

Command	What it does
/model [name]	Show or switch model mid-session
/personality [name]	Switch personality
/memory	View or manage stored memory
/skills	Search, install, list skills
/tools	Manage tools
/compress	Summarize history to reclaim context
/usage	Show token usage vs. the context limit
/new (/reset)	Start a fresh session
/clear	Clear the screen and start a new session
/reload-mcp	Reload MCP servers after a config change
/help	All commands

/compress and /usage matter most with local models: small context windows fill up fast during multi-step agent work, and compressing in place beats losing your thread.

Session lifecycle

Start session → Hermes loads SOUL.md + context files + memory
             → You give tasks → Hermes uses tools
             → Session ends → Memory persists for next time

Memory and skills carry over. Conversation history is stored in ~/.hermes/sessions/.

Working across directories

Change to ~/Projects/FDE/hermes-course and list all markdown
files. Then read the README and summarize the project in 3 bullets.

Hermes can navigate the filesystem. Start sessions from the project root when possible so context files load automatically.

Multi-step tasks

For complex offline work, guide Hermes in stages:

Step 1: Scan docs/ and list all pages missing from the sidebar.
Wait for my OK before editing config.mts.

This prevents the agent from making too many changes at once, which matters more with slower local models.

Ending and resuming

Sessions persist. To resume recent work, use flags on launch:

hermes --continue            # resume the most recent session (or -c)
hermes --continue <name>     # resume by name
hermes --resume <id>         # resume a specific session by id or title (or -r)

Inside a session, /resume <name> does the same thing.

Next: the learning loop.