Hermes group chat is a shared room in the Hermes Desktop app where two to six of your Bots work together on one conversation: you post a message, the Bots you @mention answer, and they can pull each other in or hand a decision back to you. It is part of Bot Mode, and the v0.22.6 release added group chat rename, disband, mentions and attachment paste to the Desktop app.
📺 Watch: Hermes Agent Just Got Smarter at Managing AI Teams!
🔥 Get the Agent OS as a free bonus: AI Profit Boardroom members get the full Agent OS zip, prompt libraries, daily tutorials and weekly live coaching calls. → Get inside
Hermes Agent is built by Nous Research. This page is based on the official Bot Mode docs and the v0.22.6 release notes published on GitHub on 2 November 2026.
Our members share their Bot rosters and group chat setups inside the AI Profit Boardroom ($69/mo). If you want a plan for which Bots your business needs, book a free AI strategy session.
What a Hermes group chat is
Start with Bot Mode. Bot Mode turns your Hermes profiles into a roster of named Bots. Each Bot has its own role, model, memory, skills and avatar. A Bot is a profile, stored under the profiles folder in your Hermes home, so the CLI command hermes -p with the Bot's name opens the same agent.
Bot Mode ships built into the desktop app and is on by default. It shows up as a Bots tab next to Sessions in the left sidebar. For a full walkthrough of the roster, routines and Bot Chats, read our Hermes Bot Mode guide.
A group chat is a room where several of those Bots talk together. Plain profiles never talk to each other. Bot Mode lets Bots message each other directly and share rooms.
We covered the first version of this on our sister site in Hermes Bot Mode group chat. This page focuses on how a room works today and what changed in v0.22.6.
How to start a Hermes group chat
- Open the Bots tab in Hermes Desktop.
- Click New Group Chat. Give the room a name and, if you want, a room picture. You can upload one or generate one when an image backend is set up.
- Pick the members. A room holds 2 to 6 Bots.
- Click Open chat on the group row to enter the room.
You can also right-click a local Bot and choose Manage groups to add it to or remove it from any number of rooms. To edit a room's members in one go, use Manage members from the people icon in the room header. The room, its history and each member's session stay in place. An added Bot reads the recent room history on its first turn.
New to the desktop app? Our Hermes Desktop app guide covers install and first run.
📺 Watch: New Hermes Delegation Update: AI Agent Teams!
How Bots take turns in a Hermes group chat
The docs set clear rules for who speaks and when:
- Your message triggers up to three serial rounds of member turns.
- Bots you @mention respond. If you mention nobody, everyone gets a turn.
- Each Bot replies briefly or passes. A Bot speaks only when it has something new to add.
- The room settles when a full round stays silent.
- Hard caps of 10 messages per send and 3 rounds keep rooms from spinning.
Each member's turn carries every room message since its own last turn, up to about 200 messages or 32,000 characters, whichever fills first. One oversized message is cut to an 8,000-character excerpt so it does not crowd out the rest.
If every member lives on the same gateway, the room keeps running when you close the Desktop. The gateway owns the turns, and the Desktop catches up when it reconnects.
📺 Watch: NEW Hermes Project Manager Agent is WILD!
Hermes group chat @mentions
Mentions are how you steer a room. The docs list these:
| Mention | What it does |
|---|---|
| @name | Scopes the round to that Bot; Bots also use it to pull each other in |
| @hermes | Hands off to the primary Bot |
| @user | A Bot escalates a judgment call to you; the room shows a needs you badge |
| @all or @everyone | Addresses the whole room and releases held members |
| stop next to @name | Holds that member; stop, halt or pause only count beside the mention |
In the transcript, routed mentions render as inline references. Unknown @words and email addresses stay plain text. Hover a Bot's message and use Reply to with its handle to send your next message to that Bot only. Reply in thread continues a topic without reordering the room.
Renamed Bots stay taggable. A Bot titled Research Buddy answers to @research-buddy, and the old profile name still resolves.
The Stop button holds every member. A held member still receives the messages it skipped on its first turn after release. If your room uses the word stop in normal talk, switch off Detect stop directives in the group settings.
What v0.22.6 added to Hermes group chat
The v0.22.6 release notes list "Desktop group chat rename, disband, mentions and attachment paste" among the changes since v0.22.5. Here is what the docs say about each.
Rename
The gear button in the room header opens Group settings. You can rename the group there or change its picture. A rename carries the room log, each member's room session, memberships and the picture with it, so no history is lost. A name that is already taken is rejected, not silently suffixed.
Disband
Disbanding a room removes it permanently on every client, including ones that were offline at the time. Your Desktop remembers its own disbands, so a gateway that missed the deletion cannot bring the room back. Recreating a group with the same name starts a fresh room. On the gateway side, disband refuses rooms that still have unsettled turns rather than bypassing Stop.
Mentions
The Bot Mode docs describe mentions in the room as identities: routed @bot, @user, @everyone and @all render as inline references, with a Reply to shortcut and device-qualified tags when two Bots from different machines share a name.
Attachment paste
The release notes list attachment paste for Desktop group chats. The Bot Mode docs do not describe it in more detail yet.
How to get it
The release notes say the Microsoft Store app updates through the Store, and Docker and Hermes Cloud get it on the stable or latest image. The Desktop app installed from the .exe or .dmg installer has no change in this release and gets it with the next bundled release. CLI installs update with hermes update.
Hermes group chat vs messaging platform groups
Do not mix these up. Hermes can also sit inside group chats on Telegram, Discord, Slack, Feishu and other platforms through the messaging gateway. That is one Hermes agent answering people in an outside group. Settings like telegram.require_mention control whether it replies to every message or only when tagged, and sessions can be isolated per user inside the group.
A Hermes group chat in Bot Mode is the opposite: several of your own Bots in one room, inside the Desktop app, working on your task.
Hermes group chat use ideas
- Content room. A researcher Bot, a writer Bot and an editor Bot. Mention the researcher first, then let it pull in the writer.
- Client room. One room per client with an account Bot and a reporting Bot. File rooms into sections and pin your daily driver to the top.
- Review room. A builder Bot and a reviewer Bot, with @user escalation so approvals land on you.
Each member keeps a hidden room session. If a member starts returning empty replies because that session got too big, Group settings has a Compress history button per member.
Want help mapping which Bots your business should run? Book a free AI strategy session. For the bigger picture of how Bots, skills and memory fit into one system, read the Agent OS guide. To pick a model for each Bot, Julian tracks his own model tests on Goldie Bench.
Hermes group chat FAQ
How many Bots can join a Hermes group chat?
Two to six Bots per room, per the Bot Mode docs.
Does every Bot answer every message?
No. Bots you @mention respond. If you mention nobody, everyone gets a turn, and each Bot replies only when it has something new to add.
Does renaming a group chat lose its history?
No. A rename carries the room log, member sessions, memberships and picture with it.
Can I undo a disband?
The docs say disbanding removes the room permanently on every client. Recreating the same name starts a fresh room without the old history.
Want ready-made Bot rosters and weekly help building them? Join the AI Profit Boardroom. Want a one-to-one plan? Book a free AI strategy session.
