hermes-mordred

Privacy-preserving plugins for the Hermes agent: hardware-backed keys, Tor/VPN routing, local-LLM policy enforcement, encrypted audit data, end-to-end gateway messages, and macOS-integrated at-rest encryption.

Mordred is a cooperative control layer inside Hermes, not an operating-system sandbox. See the specification for the security boundary and accepted limitations.

Status: active alpha. See the latest alpha release and release notes. New users should start with the Quickstart.

The plugin

The package registers one Hermes plugin, mordred (a single hermes_agent.plugins entry point), made of these components:

Hermes (and Hermes Desktop) lists it as one plugin, mordred; enabling or disabling it turns every component on or off together. Releases up to 0.1.0a20 registered six plugins instead (mordred_network, mordred_privacy_check, ...). hermes-mordred plugins migrate (also run by install.sh, configure, and upgrade) replaces those names in plugins.enabled / plugins.disabled with mordred. The plugins.mordred_* settings sections in config.yaml keep their names.

Requirements

• Python 3.11 or newer and hermes-agent>=0.13.0.
• macOS or Linux for the established operator workflows. Scoped native Windows implementations exist; general Windows product, Windows 11, and live-device acceptance remain incomplete. Mobile support is deferred. See Platform Support.
• Transparent .env, configuration, and workspace encryption use macOS integrations. Memory uses the macOS file vault, a dedicated Linux TPM-wrapped key, or dedicated Windows CNG custody. Linux memory works through setup, encryption enable all, and standalone commands; Private Telegram has its dedicated flow. Linux setup/all skip env/config file-vault enrollment. Windows support is reported per capability.
• Hermes database encryption (state.db and the other SQLite stores) is macOS-only and requires the separate databases encrypt command after memory setup. Linux TPM and Windows CNG memory encryption do not encrypt databases.

Install (users, from PyPI)

Start with an installed Hermes Agent, then run the Mordred installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mordredagent/hermes-mordred/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
hermes-mordred setup
hermes-mordred status

install.sh only installs the package; hermes-mordred setup is what configures Mordred and creates keys. It runs configure, which enables the mordred plugin. Manual configuration is covered by the usage guide. Version pins, optional features, inspect-before-running steps, platform commands, and expected output are documented in the Quickstart.

Keep it up to date

hermes-mordred update          # newest release, same extras, Hermes's own packages untouched
hermes-mordred update --check  # only tell me

Restart the Hermes gateway (or Hermes Desktop) afterwards. Hermes Desktop users can also press Update Mordred on the Mordred page; a notice appears there when a newer release is known. Details, refusals and the installer fallback are in the usage guide.

Use it

Use hermes-mordred status for the overall state. On macOS, guided setup also offers agent-memory protection through hermes-mordred encryption enable memory. To protect conversation databases too, follow the database encryption steps. For native Windows, follow the TPM workflow and capability limits. The complete command reference and security ceremonies live in the usage guide.

Once Hermes 0.19.0+ is configured and the plugins are enabled, hermes mordred <command> exposes the same command tree. On older Hermes versions, or before the first configure, keep using hermes-mordred.

Verify discovery

hermes-mordred plugins list

It shows the mordred plugin and whether each component registered. Some Hermes versions omit package entry points from hermes plugins list.

Documentation

Detailed setup, operations, and troubleshooting are maintained in the dedicated guides:

License

MIT