Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent, by Nous Research, can send OpenAI chat completions requests to a custom provider. Kontinent AI serves that format at https://api.kontinentai.com/v1/chat/completions, for Claude, GPT and Gemini models.

Before you start, make sure that you have:

• Hermes Agent, installed.
• A Kontinent AI key. See Quickstart.
• Balance from a top-up or a redemption code. Hermes Agent sends prompts that are too long for the starter balance.

1. Set the key

Put the key in ~/.hermes/.env:

KONTINENT_API_KEY=sk-kont-...

You can also run hermes config set KONTINENT_API_KEY sk-kont-.... Hermes Agent writes a name in capital letters to ~/.hermes/.env.

2. Add the provider

Open ~/.hermes/config.yaml. Add the kontinent provider and set the model:

providers:
  kontinent:
    api: https://api.kontinentai.com/v1
    key_env: KONTINENT_API_KEY
    transport: chat_completions
    context_length: 200000
    extra_body:
      max_tokens: 16000

model:
  default: claude-sonnet-5-5
  provider: custom:kontinent

If the file already has a providers or a model key, change that key. Do not add a second one.

Key	What it does
api	Our API. Hermes Agent adds /chat/completions to it
key_env	The name of the variable that holds the key
transport	chat_completions sends OpenAI chat completions requests
context_length	The context window. 200,000 tokens is the smallest window of the models on this page
extra_body.max_tokens	The output limit for each request. Without it, the limit is 16,000 tokens, our default
model.default	The model that Hermes Agent uses. It must be a model id from the list on this page
model.provider	custom:kontinent selects the provider above

To use a different model in a session, type /model custom:kontinent:gpt-5.5.

3. Make sure that the connection works

Send one small request with curl:

export KONTINENT_API_KEY="sk-kont-..."
curl -sS -w '\n%{http_code}\n' https://api.kontinentai.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KONTINENT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001", "max_tokens": 16, "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Say OK."}]}'

A JSON response that ends with 200 shows that the key and the URL are correct. Then do these steps:

1. Run hermes doctor. Hermes Agent shows the problems in the configuration, if there are problems.
2. Run hermes chat --oneshot -q "Say OK.". Hermes Agent prints the answer.
3. Run hermes. The banner shows the model and the provider.

Models

These models work on the chat completions endpoint. This list comes from our model catalogue. You can use each of them as model.default:

• claude-opus-5-5
• claude-opus-5
• claude-sonnet-5-5
• claude-sonnet-5
• claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
• claude-fable-5-1
• gpt-5.5
• gpt-6.1-sol
• gpt-5
• gemini-3.1-pro-preview
• gemini-3.5-flash
• glm-5.3
• qwen3.8-max
• deepseek-v4.1-flash

All of these models accept tools, and an agent needs tools. Hermes Agent also needs a context window of 64,000 tokens or more, and all of these models have it. For most agent work, use claude-sonnet-5-5. For long and difficult tasks, use claude-opus-5-5, gpt-5.5 or gemini-3.1-pro-preview. For quick tasks at a lower cost, use claude-haiku-4-5-20251001.

Costs and limits

• Hermes Agent uses the same model for its background tasks, for example session titles and summaries. Each of these requests costs money. We record the cost of each request, and the dashboard shows it.
• Each request counts toward the limit of 60 requests a minute for each key.

Problems

Problem	What to do
401	Make sure that ~/.hermes/.env has KONTINENT_API_KEY
402	Your balance is too low. Top up on the balance page
400 that says is not served on /v1/chat/completions	Set model.default to a model from the list on this page
404 that names a model	Make sure that model.default is a model id from the list on this page

The Hermes Agent documentation for custom providers is at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com.