Hermes Agent Inbox: Set Up The Read-Only Status View (2026)

The Hermes Agent inbox is one terminal command, hermes inbox, that lists everything your agent has in flight for the active profile, and it reads that state without changing any of it.

It is not an email inbox.

It is the inbox labs plugin from Nous Research, version 0.1.0, listed in the community tier of the Hermes plugin catalog.

It reached the catalog with Hermes Agent v0.23.0 on 5 November 2026, according to the release notes.

Below is the setup I would run, the order I read the output in, and the two gotchas that catch people in week one.

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What The Hermes Agent Inbox Is, And What It Is Not

Treat it as a status board for a single Hermes profile.

It gathers five kinds of information on one screen: things that need you, work still running, delegation results that finished but never reached their chat, upcoming cron runs, and chat sessions that are still open.

The plugin README names Cursor's Inbox as the inspiration.

It does not read mail, send replies or log into any message account.

The catalog entry says it adds no model tools or hooks and sends nothing anywhere.

So the right mental model is a dashboard, not a mailbox.

Before You Install: Check The Tier And The Profile

Two facts decide how hard you should lean on it.

The first is support.

The README banner describes a labs plugin that works but is unsupported, because Nous Research built it and does not maintain it.

The labs repository explains the deal: no promise of fixes, a community listing so nobody mistakes it for an official plugin, and an open offer for anyone who wants to adopt it.

CI still runs every labs plugin against the Hermes nightly build, so a break at least becomes visible.

The second is scope.

The view only covers the profile it runs in, and every profile needs its own install.

If you split client work into a separate profile, decide now which profiles you want watched.

Step 1: Install The Plugin

hermes plugins install inbox

That pulls the catalog entry, which points at a pinned commit of the labs repo.

If the installer asks whether to enable it, answer yes, then confirm with hermes plugins list, which the plugins guide documents.

You get exactly one new CLI command and no extra dependencies.

There is nothing to tune afterwards, because the README's configuration section reads, in full, "None."

For a second profile, switch to it and run the same install there; the README is explicit that the plugin must live in that profile too.

Step 2: Run It And Learn The Five Sections

hermes inbox

Section	What lands there	My move
Needs attention	Problems: a delegation that stalled or reports an unknown state, a result dropped after delivery kept failing (past week only), a cron job that broke on its last run or sits paused with a stated reason, a checkpointed process that has died, a kanban card that is blocked or awaiting review	Fix these first
In progress	Anything still working: background processes, async delegations and kanban tasks that are mid-run	Leave them unless one looks stuck
Finished, result not yet delivered	Delegated work that is done, with an answer still stuck on its way to the chat	Open that chat
Scheduled	Enabled cron jobs and the next five runs	Sanity-check the timing
Open surfaces	Chats still alive in the CLI, the TUI, Desktop or a messaging gateway, each with its session title	Close what you forgot

Empty sections are dropped, with two exceptions.

Needs attention and In progress always print, so two empty headings at the top mean you are all clear.

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Step 3: Clear Needs Attention Before Anything Else

This is the only section that asks you to act.

The sample output in the README shows the flavour: a nightly backup job whose script exited with an error, a feed watcher paused while it waits on an API key, a test process whose PID has vanished, and a kanban card blocked on another team.

Each type has its own fix.

Failed cron run: find the job with hermes cron list, read why the last run broke, fix the cause, then fire it once by hand with hermes cron run; both commands are in the cron docs.
Paused cron job: the reason is printed on the line, so supply whatever it is waiting on and resume it.
Process whose PID is gone: the checkpoint still lists it, but the process has ended, so restart the work if you still want it.
Blocked or waiting kanban task: unblock it or give it the review it is waiting for.
Stalled delegation: go back to the chat that started it and ask where it got to.

The plugin repairs none of this itself, and that is by design.

Step 4: Pick Up Waiting Results And Close Stray Sessions

The third section catches a quiet failure.

A delegated task can finish while its answer never lands in the conversation that asked for it.

When that happens, the item sits under Finished, result not yet delivered until you go and collect it.

Open surfaces is your tidy-up list.

A session only counts while its process is alive, and where a start time was recorded the plugin checks it, so a recycled PID does not show up as a ghost session.

If yesterday's TUI session is still listed, close it.

Step 5: Feed The JSON Into Your Own Checks

hermes inbox --json

This prints the same snapshot as structured data for scripts and dashboards.

It includes a sources field that marks each store as read, absent or unreadable.

Check that field before you trust an empty section, because an empty list from a store it could not open is not the same as all clear.

The text view does the same job with a Not read line at the bottom.

If the state database is locked, the read gives up after two seconds rather than hanging, which makes the command safe to call from a script.

You can also hand the job to the agent: ask Hermes to run hermes inbox --json in its terminal and explain what it sees.

Step 6: Schedule A Morning Inbox Report

The plugin has no scheduler of its own, but Hermes cron does.

Cron's no-agent mode runs a script on a timetable and delivers its stdout word for word, with no model involved.

The script has to be a file inside the Hermes scripts folder, because cron refuses a raw command line.

So save the command as a tiny script:

# ~/.hermes/scripts/morning-inbox.sh
hermes inbox

Then create the job:

hermes cron create "every 1d at 07:30" \
  --no-agent \
  --script morning-inbox.sh \
  --deliver telegram \
  --name "morning-inbox"

This is my own pairing of two documented features, so run it once by hand and look at what arrives before you depend on it.

Since the inbox always prints its first two headings, expect a message every morning, quiet days included.

A non-zero exit or a timeout sends an error alert instead, so a broken report cannot fail in silence.

For the cron side in more depth, see our Hermes Agent cron job setup.

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Gotcha 1: Pending Approvals Never Appear Here

This catches nearly everyone.

When Hermes stops to ask you to approve a dangerous command, or asks a clarifying question, that prompt is not in the inbox.

Those prompts live in the memory of the process that raised them, the gateway or an open CLI, and no other process can read that memory.

So answer approvals in the chat where they appeared.

Cron jobs have nobody to answer them at all.

The security guide sets approvals.cron_mode to deny by default, which blocks the dangerous command and makes the agent find another path.

When an overnight job keeps failing, a blocked command is one of the first things I would look for.

Gotcha 2: Profiles, Sandboxes And The Shared Kanban Board

Paths resolve against the active profile's home, so running the command in your default profile tells you nothing about a work profile.

Use hermes -p work inbox for that, after installing the plugin there as well.

Kanban is the exception: Hermes shares the board across profiles, so one blocked card can show in every profile's view.

If your terminal runs through a sandbox backend, the plugin cannot probe PIDs inside it, and those processes are labelled sandboxed instead of running or gone.

One honest footnote on read-only: SQLite may still create its usual -wal and -shm sidecar files, as it does for any reader.

Small-Business Setups I Would Copy

A plumbing firm with an overnight job sheet

A cron job runs at night and turns the notes the office saved that day into tomorrow's job sheet in a folder.
The morning report reaches the owner's Telegram at 7:30.
If the job broke, it sits under Needs attention with the error text on the line.
The owner fixes the cause and reruns the job before the vans leave.

A two-person agency with a client profile

Client work runs in a profile called work, and admin stays in the default profile.
Both profiles get the plugin installed.
Each morning the team runs hermes inbox and then hermes -p work inbox.
Kanban cards waiting for review show in both, so one person owns clearing them.

A bookkeeper who delegates research

The bookkeeper asks Hermes to delegate a research task, such as listing questions to raise at a client review.
While it works, the task shows under In progress.
If it finishes but the answer never reaches the chat, it moves to Finished, result not yet delivered.
The bookkeeper opens that chat and collects the result.

An online shop with a paused feed watcher

A cron job watches a supplier's product feed for changes.
It pauses because a key it needs has expired.
The inbox lists it as paused, with the reason printed.
The owner adds the new key and resumes the job.

Looking For An Email Inbox? Use The Email Gateway

If you landed here wanting Hermes to answer your mail, this plugin is the wrong tool.

Mail goes through the Email gateway, which uses standard IMAP and SMTP and replies inside the same thread.

The docs tell you to give the agent its own dedicated account and to set EMAIL_ALLOWED_USERS so it only acts on senders you name.

For sorting a mailbox, the skills catalog lists an email-inbox-triage skill that prioritises threads and drafts replies.

Write "draft only" into any job that touches outgoing mail.

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Where It Came From

The command started life as a core pull request, PR #81507, and was moved out of core into the labs repo instead.

That history explains the tier: it is a feature Nous chose not to carry in core, kept installable for people who want it.

It also means a core change could break it before anyone notices, so keep an eye on it after each Hermes update.

My Operator Checklist

Install the plugin in every profile you want watched.
Read Needs attention first, every morning.
Check the Not read line, or the sources field in JSON, before you trust an empty section.
Answer approvals in the chat that raised them, never in the inbox.
Rerun failed cron jobs by hand once the cause is fixed.
Collect undelivered results from their own chats.
Close stale sessions under Open surfaces.
Re-check the command after every Hermes update, because labs plugins carry no promise of fixes.

Also On Our Network

FAQ: Hermes Agent Inbox

Is the Hermes Agent inbox an email inbox?

No. It is a read-only status view of the agent's own work for one profile. For email, Hermes uses its separate IMAP/SMTP Email gateway.

How do I install it?

Run hermes plugins install inbox, then hermes inbox. Install it again inside any other profile you want to check with hermes -p <profile> inbox.

Does it need any configuration?

No. The README lists no settings, and the plugin adds one CLI command with no model tools and no hooks.

Why can't I see my pending approvals?

Approvals and clarify prompts live in the memory of the process that asked, so no other process can read them. Answer them in the chat where they appeared.

Can a cron job send me the inbox every morning?

Yes, by putting hermes inbox in a script and running it as a no-agent cron job with a delivery target. Run it once by hand first to check the output.

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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 a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
My Udemy courses have taught over 29,000 students.

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Install it in each profile you care about, read Needs attention before coffee, and book a free SEO strategy session or join the AI Profit Boardroom when you want help building your routine around the Hermes Agent inbox.