Install Hermes Desktop and connect ScriptEngine.

First, one distinction

Hermes Desktop is the Hermes GUI.

Hermes Desktop is Nous Research’s native chat application. It is not a separate agent: the Desktop app and command-line interface share the same Hermes runtime, provider configuration, API keys, sessions, skills and memory.

The browser-based hermes dashboard is a different management interface. This tutorial covers the native Desktop app.

Step 1

Prepare the account and key

• Create a ScriptEngine account and add credits.
• Store the full provisioned API key beginning with sk-se-.
• Choose a current model ID returned by ScriptEngine’s authenticated model discovery.
• Use Windows 10/11, Apple-silicon macOS, or a supported Linux installation.

Step 2

Install Hermes Desktop

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
hermes desktop

Step 3

Complete first launch

Let Desktop finish its managed Hermes installation. If onboarding offers provider setup before you are ready, choose the option to configure a provider later and open the main application.

Hermes Desktop should now have a chat composer, project sidebar and Settings area. The model picker sits beside the composer; Settings → Model controls the profile-wide default after a provider has been configured.

Step 4

Add ScriptEngine in Desktop

Open Settings → Providers → Custom Endpoints, then use the Add Endpoint form.

1. Enable Use for new chats.
2. Enable Discover models.
3. Select Test. Desktop calls the authenticated /v1/models endpoint.
4. Choose one of the discovered model IDs as the default, then select Save.

If your Desktop build does not show Custom Endpoints

Some earlier Desktop releases expose less of this flow. Update Desktop, or configure the same shared runtime once from a terminal:

hermes model

Choose the option whose label begins Custom endpoint, enter https://scriptengine.org/v1 and your key, choose Chat Completions, select a discovered model, leave context blank, and use ScriptEngine as the display name. The parenthetical wording beside Custom endpoint varies between Hermes releases. Relaunch Desktop afterward.

Step 5

Return to Hermes Desktop

1. Quit and reopen Desktop if it was running while you changed the provider from a terminal.
2. Start a new chat. The saved ScriptEngine endpoint should be available to the current profile.
3. Open the composer’s model picker to confirm the selected custom model.
4. If another model is selected, choose the configured custom provider and the ScriptEngine model.

The composer model picker changes the current chat or Desktop-local selection. Use for new chats sets the saved custom endpoint as the default for new Desktop conversations.

Alternative

Manual configuration fallback

If neither Desktop setup nor the provider wizard can run, close Desktop and edit the shared Hermes configuration:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\config.yaml and %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\.env
• macOS or Linux: ~/.hermes/config.yaml and ~/.hermes/.env

HERMES_CUSTOM_SCRIPTENGINE_ORG_API_KEY=YOUR_SCRIPTENGINE_API_KEY

model:
  provider: custom
  default: YOUR_MODEL_ID
  base_url: https://scriptengine.org/v1
  api_key: ${HERMES_CUSTOM_SCRIPTENGINE_ORG_API_KEY}
  api_mode: chat_completions

Replace the placeholder only in your local file, save it, and relaunch Desktop. Do not append /chat/completions to the base URL.

Step 6

Test the first Desktop chat

Create a new chat and send:

Reply with exactly: ScriptEngine connected

A normal model response containing ScriptEngine connected confirms that Desktop loaded the shared custom provider, authenticated your key and reached the selected model.

If you prefer an independent check, follow the direct /v1/models key test in the Hermes CLI tutorial.

Fix common errors

Troubleshooting

The custom model does not appear in Desktop

Run the endpoint’s Test action again. If your release lacks the Custom Endpoints section, quit Desktop, run hermes model, finish setup, and relaunch the app. Both interfaces must use the same Hermes home/profile.

Windows Desktop and CLI show different settings

Confirm both use %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes. A WSL2 installation uses ~/.hermes inside Linux and does not automatically share native Windows configuration.

HTTP 401 or authentication failed

Re-run the provider wizard with the complete active ScriptEngine key. Check whether the key has been rotated, revoked or copied with surrounding whitespace.

HTTP 404 from the model request

Set the base URL to exactly https://scriptengine.org/v1. Remove duplicate /v1 segments or request-specific paths.

Desktop opens but no response arrives

Run hermes doctor and then the one-shot CLI test from the companion tutorial. If the CLI test succeeds, relaunch Desktop and start a fresh chat.

Verification

Official sources

Hermes Agent and Hermes Desktop are developed by Nous Research. ScriptEngine is a separate custom API provider. This guide was checked against:

• Hermes installation guide
• Hermes Desktop guide
• Hermes custom-provider guide
• Hermes Desktop source