The best Hermes Agent skills to set up first are obsidian, google-workspace and claude-code, and all three ship free inside Hermes.
A Hermes skill is a reusable instruction pack, written as a plain SKILL.md file, that Hermes loads only when a job needs it.
I run 159 skills on my own machine, so this is a list from daily use and not a list I copied from a catalogue.
This post gives you my ranked top 10 first.
Then it walks you through installing a skill, switching skills on and off, using them in chat and writing your own.
Top 3 Picks At A Glance
- 🥇 obsidian is the best Hermes Agent skill overall, because it lets Hermes read, search, create and edit the notes that hold your business knowledge.
- 🥈 google-workspace is the best skill for daily admin, because it covers Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sheets in one pack.
- 🥉 claude-code is the best skill for building, because it teaches Hermes to hand coding jobs to the Claude Code CLI.
What A Hermes Agent Skill Actually Is
A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file inside it, and that file tells Hermes how to do one kind of job properly.
The official docs call skills "on-demand knowledge documents", and they follow the open agentskills.io standard.
Skills are different from tools and plugins, and the difference takes two lines to explain.
A tool is a function the model can call, such as the terminal or web search, and a plugin is installed code that adds new tools, hooks or integrations.
A skill is only instructions, so it teaches Hermes how to use the tools it already has for a specific job.
Hermes is free and open source from Nous Research, and the bundled skills cost nothing.
Skills also solve a real problem, which is that an agent without them works out every job from scratch each time.
With a skill in place, Hermes follows a tested procedure and skips the mistakes it made last time.
If you want the other two layers, I've ranked them in the best Hermes Agent plugins and the best Hermes Agent tools.
How I Ranked Them
These rankings are my own first-person picks, and they aren't a measured benchmark.
I ranked each skill on four things an operator cares about.
The first is how often I'd actually reach for it in a normal working week.
The second is how little setup it needs before it does something useful.
The third is whether it works on any model, including cheap and local ones.
The fourth is whether it saves real time on work a business would otherwise pay for.
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The 10 Best Hermes Agent Skills, Ranked For Operators
1. obsidian
The obsidian skill lets Hermes read, search, create and edit notes in your Obsidian vault.
It works on plain files, so there's no API to connect and no account to create.
My agents all share one Obsidian vault as their memory, which is why this skill sits at the top of my list.
Best for: Giving Hermes a long-term memory of your clients, goals and decisions.
Price: It's free and bundled, and Obsidian itself is a free app.
→ See obsidian in the bundled skills catalog
2. google-workspace
The google-workspace skill covers Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Contacts, Sheets and Docs through a sign-in that Hermes manages for you.
It includes a daily brief procedure that pulls your schedule, clashes, meeting prep and urgent email into one summary.
Best for: Morning briefs, inbox checks and anything that lives in a Google account.
Price: The skill is free and bundled, and you need a Google account.
→ See google-workspace in the bundled skills catalog
3. claude-code
The claude-code skill teaches Hermes to delegate coding work to the Claude Code CLI.
Hermes also bundles a codex skill and an opencode skill, which do the same thing for those two coding tools.
Best for: Building features and opening pull requests while Hermes stays the manager.
Price: The skill is free, but you need the Claude Code CLI and either a Claude plan or an API key.
→ See claude-code in the bundled skills catalog
4. youtube-content
The youtube-content skill pulls the transcript from a YouTube video and turns it into summaries, threads or blog posts.
I publish videos daily, so this is the skill that turns one recording into several pieces of content.
Best for: Creators and marketers who repurpose video into written content.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ See youtube-content in the bundled skills catalog
5. grounded-citations
The grounded-citations skill makes Hermes attach a numbered citation and a sources list to every claim it takes from an outside page.
A small ledger script owns the link numbers, so the citations come from pages Hermes actually fetched and not from memory.
Best for: Research, reports and any content where a wrong fact would embarrass you.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ See grounded-citations in the bundled skills catalog
6. humanizer
The humanizer skill finds the tell-tale patterns of AI writing and rewrites the text so it sounds like a person.
It's based on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" guide, which makes it far more specific than a prompt that says "sound human".
Best for: Cleaning up drafts before a client or a reader sees them.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ See humanizer in the bundled skills catalog
7. github
The github skill runs pull requests, issues, reviews and repositories through the GitHub CLI.
Best for: Anyone who ships code and wants Hermes to handle the repository chores.
Price: It's free and bundled, and you need the free gh command-line tool.
→ See github in the bundled skills catalog
8. himalaya
The himalaya skill lets Hermes read and send email from the terminal over IMAP and SMTP.
It needs the separate Himalaya command-line tool, so it takes a little more setup than the Google skill.
Best for: Mailboxes that aren't on Google, such as a custom domain inbox.
Price: It's free and bundled, and Himalaya is an open-source tool.
→ See himalaya in the bundled skills catalog
9. competitor-news-monitor
The competitor-news-monitor skill watches a list of named companies and reports only new, material developments with sources.
You set it up once in chat, and after that it runs on a schedule.
Best for: Agencies and founders who want a weekly competitor digest without reading the news themselves.
Price: It's free and bundled.
→ See competitor-news-monitor in the bundled skills catalog
10. duckduckgo-search
The duckduckgo-search skill gives Hermes free web search with no API key.
It's an official optional skill, so you install it yourself, and it appears as a fallback when the paid web search tool isn't configured.
Best for: New installs and budget setups that need search on day one.
Price: It's free, and there's no key to buy.
→ See duckduckgo-search in the optional skills catalog
The Best Hermes Agent Skills Compared At A Glance
| Rank | Skill | What it does | Bundled or optional | Extra setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | obsidian | Reads, searches and writes vault notes | Bundled | A vault folder |
| 2 | google-workspace | Runs Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sheets | Bundled | A Google sign-in |
| 3 | claude-code | Delegates coding to Claude Code | Bundled | The Claude Code CLI |
| 4 | youtube-content | Turns transcripts into content | Bundled | None beyond Hermes |
| 5 | grounded-citations | Adds numbered sources to claims | Bundled | None |
| 6 | humanizer | Removes AI writing patterns | Bundled | None |
| 7 | github | Handles PRs, issues and reviews | Bundled | The gh CLI |
| 8 | himalaya | Reads and sends IMAP and SMTP email | Bundled | The Himalaya CLI |
| 9 | competitor-news-monitor | Sends cited competitor digests | Bundled | A company list |
| 10 | duckduckgo-search | Searches the web with no key | Optional | One install command |
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How To Install And Enable Hermes Agent Skills
This is the walkthrough I'd follow on a fresh machine.
If Hermes isn't installed yet, start with my guide on how to set up Hermes Agent in one click.
Step 1: See what you already have
Run hermes skills list in your terminal.
Hermes copies its bundled skills into ~/.hermes/skills/ when you install it, so most of my top 10 are already there.
The list shows each skill's name, category, source and whether it's enabled.
Step 2: Search for a skill you don't have
Run hermes skills search followed by a keyword, such as hermes skills search duckduckgo.
You can also run hermes skills browse --source official to page through the optional skills that ship with Hermes.
Step 3: Preview before you install
Run hermes skills inspect with the skill identifier to read what the skill does before it touches your machine.
I always do this for community skills, because a skill is a set of instructions your agent will follow.
Step 4: Install it
Run hermes skills install official/research/duckduckgo-search to add the free search skill.
Every hub install goes through a security scan first, and Hermes asks you to confirm before anything is written.
The public Skills Hub in the docs also has an "Install in Hermes" button that opens the desktop app and runs the same pipeline.
Step 5: Switch skills on and off
Run hermes skills config to open an interactive screen where you can enable or disable individual skills.
I switch off skills I'll never use, because a shorter list is easier for the model to pick from.
Step 6: Keep them updated
Run hermes skills check to see which hub skills have updates, and hermes skills update to pull them in.
Run hermes skills audit whenever you want to re-scan what you've installed.
How To Use A Skill Once It's Installed
Every installed skill becomes a slash command automatically.
You type /obsidian followed by your request, and Hermes loads that skill and does the job.
You can stack up to five skills at the start of one message, such as /github /claude-code fix this bug and open a PR.
You can also just ask in plain English, because Hermes sees a short list of skill names and descriptions and loads the right one itself.
If you want a skill loaded from the first message, start Hermes with the -s flag and the skill name.
For combinations you use every day, hermes bundles create groups several skills under one short command.
How To Write Your Own Hermes Agent Skill
The best skill you'll ever run is usually one you wrote, because it holds your own process.
There are three ways to make one, and I've listed them from easiest to most hands-on.
Route 1: Use the /learn command
Type /learn followed by whatever you want Hermes to learn.
You can point it at a folder, a web page, a PDF, a whole book or the workflow you just walked it through in chat.
Hermes gathers the material with the tools it already has and writes the skill for you.
I used it to turn a whole book into a skill, and my Book Brain Engine guide shows the real run.
Route 2: Write the SKILL.md by hand
Create a folder at ~/.hermes/skills/<category>/<skill-name>/ and add a file called SKILL.md.
Start the file with a short header that has a name, a description and a version.
Then add four sections called When to Use, Procedure, Pitfalls and Verification.
Keep the description short and specific, because that one line is what Hermes reads when it decides whether to load the skill.
You can add references/, scripts/ and templates/ folders beside the file for longer material.
Route 3: Let Hermes write skills as it works
Hermes can create and update its own skills through a tool called skill_manage.
When it works out a tricky multi-step job, or you correct its approach, it can save the working method as a skill.
The docs describe a write-approval setting, so you can make Hermes ask before any skill change lands.
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Operator Tips And Limits For Hermes Agent Skills
A skill is only instructions, so it can't do anything your tools can't already do.
Several skills depend on an outside tool, which means claude-code needs the Claude Code CLI and himalaya needs the Himalaya CLI.
Skills don't replace a good model, and in my experience smaller models skip steps in long procedures more often.
Third-party skills deserve caution, so inspect them first and don't use the --force flag to push past a blocked scan.
Skills inside a cloned project don't load until you run hermes skills trust, and that's a sensible safety default.
Editing a bundled skill is fine, because Hermes keeps your version when it updates.
Which Hermes Agent Skill Should You Set Up First?
Set up obsidian first if your agent keeps forgetting who you are.
Set up google-workspace next if your day runs on Gmail and Calendar.
Set up claude-code when you want Hermes to manage real coding work.
Add duckduckgo-search on day one if you haven't paid for a search key yet.
Write your own skill with /learn as soon as you notice yourself explaining the same process twice.
Related Reading
- The best Hermes Agent plugins covers the code add-ons that give Hermes new tools.
- The best Hermes Agent tools covers the built-in functions that skills rely on.
- How to set up Hermes Agent in one click gets Hermes running before you add skills.
- My Claude Obsidian setup shows the vault structure the obsidian skill works best with.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 How a business actually uses the best Hermes Agent skills
- 🌐 Ten Hermes skills scored in a full verdict
- 🌐 The quick-start for adding skills to an Agent OS
- 🌐 Which models follow Hermes skills best, with bench data
FAQ: Best Hermes Agent Skills
What are the best Hermes Agent skills to set up first?
Set up obsidian first, google-workspace second and claude-code third.
All three are bundled with Hermes Agent, so they cost nothing.
How do I install a Hermes Agent skill?
Run hermes skills search with a keyword, then preview the result with hermes skills inspect.
Then run hermes skills install with the identifier, such as official/research/duckduckgo-search.
What is the difference between a Hermes skill, a plugin and a tool?
A tool is a function the model can call, and a plugin is installed code that adds new tools, hooks or integrations.
A skill is a markdown instruction file that teaches Hermes how to use those tools for one kind of job.
Are Hermes Agent skills free?
Yes, the bundled skills and the official optional skills are free.
Some of them need an outside account or tool, such as a Google account, the GitHub CLI or the Claude Code CLI.
How do I write my own Hermes Agent skill?
The fastest route is the /learn command, which turns a folder, a web page, a PDF or a workflow into a skill.
You can also create a folder in ~/.hermes/skills and write the SKILL.md file by hand.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built Goldie Agency into a seven-figure SEO and link building agency.
- I've grown my YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I run GoldieBench, where I score AI models on real one-shot builds.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery", which is available on Amazon.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Install obsidian, google-workspace and claude-code today, write one skill of your own this week, and you'll be running the best Hermes Agent skills like an operator.
