6.0 KiB
Nous Tool Gateway — Complete Reference
Source: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/tool-gateway Source: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/nous-portal
What's Included
| Tool | Partner | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Web search & extract | Firecrawl | Agent-grade search + full-page extraction. No rate limits — gateway handles scaling. |
| Image generation | FAL | 9 models under one endpoint (see Model IDs below). Default: FLUX 2 Klein 9B. |
| Text-to-speech | OpenAI TTS | High-quality TTS without separate OpenAI key. Enables voice mode. |
| Cloud browser automation | Browser Use | Headless Chromium for browser_navigate, browser_click, browser_type, browser_vision. No Browserbase account needed. |
| Cloud terminal sandbox | Modal | Serverless terminal sandboxes for code execution (optional add-on). |
Billing
- Pay-as-you-use against your Nous subscription
- Mix & match — route some tools through Nous, keep your own keys for others
- Same quality — same backends, just fronted by Nous
- No lock-in — bring your own keys anytime, per-tool
Eligibility
- Paid subscription required — Free-tier Nous accounts can use Portal for inference but don't include managed tools
- Free tool pool — Some accounts get a small managed-tool allowance covering gateway calls without a paid subscription. Gateway surfaces it with a setup prompt on first use.
Setup Entry Points
# Fresh install: OAuth + set Nous as provider + enable gateway all at once
hermes setup --portal
# Switch inference provider to Nous Portal, then offered to enable gateway for all tools
hermes model
# À la carte: enable gateway per-tool, one at a time
hermes tools
Key behavior: hermes tools lists Nous-managed backends even if you've never signed in. Selecting one triggers Portal login inline — no need to run hermes model first. This path only logs you in and enables the single tool picked; it does not switch inference provider or prompt for other tools.
Check Status
hermes portal info # Portal auth + Tool Gateway routing summary
hermes portal tools # Gateway catalog with current routing per tool
hermes status # Full system status (Tool Gateway is one section)
Example hermes portal info output:
◆ Nous Tool Gateway
Nous Portal ✓ managed tools available
Web tools ✓ active via Nous subscription
Image gen ✓ active via Nous subscription
TTS ✓ active via Nous subscription
Browser ○ active via Browser Use key
✓ active via Nous subscription= routed through gateway○ active via [key]= using your direct API key
Mix & Match
| Strategy | Example |
|---|---|
| All through Nous | Easiest; one subscription, done |
| Gateway for web + images, own TTS | Keep ElevenLabs voice, Nous handles rest |
| Gateway only for missing keys | "I have Browserbase but no Firecrawl" |
Switch anytime:
hermes tools # Interactive picker per tool category
Select tool → pick Nous Subscription (or any direct provider). No config editing. If not logged in, picking Nous Subscription kicks off Portal login inline.
Image Model IDs
Default: fal-ai/flux-2/klein/9b (fast, good default). Override per-call by passing model ID to image_generate:
| Model | ID | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| FLUX 2 Klein 9B | fal-ai/flux-2/klein/9b |
Fast, good default |
| FLUX 2 Pro | fal-ai/flux-2-pro |
Higher fidelity FLUX |
| Z-Image Turbo | fal-ai/z-image/turbo |
Stylized, fast |
| Nano Banana Pro | fal-ai/nano-banana-pro |
Google Gemini 3 Pro Image |
| GPT Image 1.5 | fal-ai/gpt-image-1.5 |
OpenAI image gen, text+image |
| GPT Image 2 | fal-ai/gpt-image-2 |
OpenAI latest |
| Ideogram V3 | fal-ai/ideogram/v3 |
Strong prompt adherence + typography |
| Recraft V4 Pro | fal-ai/recraft/v4/pro/text-to-image |
Vector-style, graphic design |
| Qwen Image | fal-ai/qwen-image |
Alibaba multimodal |
Live list:
hermes tools→ Image Generation shows current models.
Configuration Reference (config.yaml)
Most users never need this — hermes model and hermes tools cover all workflows. For scripting or direct edits:
Per-Tool use_gateway Flag
web:
backend: firecrawl
use_gateway: true
image_gen:
use_gateway: true
tts:
provider: openai
use_gateway: true
stt:
provider: openai
use_gateway: true
browser:
use_gateway: true
Critical Note: Hermes 4 Models
Hermes 4 (Hermes-4-70B, Hermes-4-405B) is NOT recommended for use inside Hermes Agent.
- Tuned for chat and reasoning, not rapid-fire tool-calling loops
- Use for: Nous Chat, research workflows, or via subscription proxy from other tooling
- For agent work, pick a frontier agentic model instead:
/model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6 # best general-purpose agentic model
/model openai/gpt-5.5-pro # strong reasoning + tool calling
/model google/gemini-3-pro-preview # huge context window
/model deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro # cost-effective coder
Day-to-Day Usage
# Inspect what's wired up
hermes portal # Log in + set up (alias for `hermes auth add nous --type oauth`)
hermes portal info # Portal auth + Tool Gateway routing summary
hermes portal tools # Gateway catalog with current routing per tool
hermes status # Full system status (Tool Gateway is one section)
OAuth Over SSH / Remote Hosts
See OAuth over SSH / Remote Hosts — uses ssh -L port forwarding or --manual-paste for browser-only environments (Cloud Shell, Codespaces).
Profile Setup
If using Hermes profiles, the Portal refresh token is automatically shared across all profiles via shared token store. Sign in once, all profiles pick it up.