Hermes MissingNo is the new free stealth model that Nous Research has put on Nous Portal for Hermes Agent, and this page walks you through enabling it step by step.
MissingNo is a coding and agentic reasoning model, and Nous Research announced it on X on 10 October 2026.
It's free for a limited time, and nobody has said which lab built it.
That's what "stealth" means here: you can use the model, but the maker stays hidden for now.
I'll show you how to switch it on in Hermes Cloud, how to run it as its own Hermes profile, and what happened when I tested it.
I'll also show you what to do on the day it gets taken down or turns into a paid model.
A quick note on that video before we start.
My MissingNo video isn't public yet, so I've embedded my Solar Mini 4 walkthrough above, which shows the same Hermes Cloud free-model screens you'll use here.
What Hermes MissingNo Is
Hermes MissingNo means running the MissingNo model as the brain of a Hermes Agent.
Hermes Agent is the open-source agent from Nous Research that handles the tools, the memory, the skills and the chat.
The model is the part that does the thinking, and you can swap it whenever you like.
The name is a Pokémon joke, because MissingNo is short for "missing number", the famous glitch Pokémon from the first games.
Nous Research leaned into that, and their announcement opened with "Wild MISSINGNO. appeared!".
Here's everything I could verify about the model from Nous Research's own post and the Nous inference API on 12 October 2026.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who released it | Nous Research made it available on Nous Portal and announced it on X on 10 October 2026. |
| Who built it | The lab is not announced, which is why it's called a stealth model. |
| What it's for | Nous describes it as a coding and agentic reasoning model that is highly token efficient. |
| Cost | It's free for a limited time, and no end date has been published. |
| Model ID | The Nous inference API lists it as stealth/missingno. |
| Context window | The listing shows 262,144 tokens, with up to 131,072 output tokens. |
| Inputs | It takes text only, so it won't read images. |
| Tools | The listing shows tool calling, parallel tool calls and structured outputs. |
| Reasoning | Reasoning is always on, with five depth levels from low to max, and medium as the default. |
| Not published | I couldn't find a parameter count, an official benchmark or the name of the lab. |
My own guess is that it could be Nous Research's own model, but that is only a guess and nobody has confirmed it.
If you want the background on the company behind Hermes, my post on Hermes Agent by Nous Research covers it.
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What MissingNo Costs, And Why That Can Change
MissingNo costs nothing right now.
The Nous inference API showed a price of zero for both input and output when I checked on 12 October 2026.
There's a catch, and it's the same one every stealth model has.
Nous Research said it's free for a limited time, and they didn't say how long that is.
So it may be removed, it may come back under a real name, or it may become a paid model.
That's why I never build a workflow that only works on one free model.
I build the workflow in Hermes, and I treat the model as one setting I can change in ten seconds.
Before You Start
You need very little to get going.
- You need a Nous Portal account, because that's where the free models live.
- You need either Hermes Cloud or Hermes Agent installed on your own machine.
- You need about ten minutes for the setup and the tests.
If you don't have Hermes yet, my guide on how to set up Hermes Agent in one click is the fastest way in.
How To Enable MissingNo In Hermes Cloud
Hermes Cloud is the easiest route, because the agent runs on Nous Research's servers instead of your laptop.
Here are the ten steps I followed.
- Go to portal.nousresearch.com/cloud and click Deploy.
- Log in to your Nous Portal account.
- Click Create agent and give the agent a name.
- Open Manage agents once the agent has been created.
- Click on the agent you just made.
- Click Open dashboard to load that agent's Hermes dashboard.
- Go to the model section of the dashboard.
- Search for "Nous Research" as the provider, or just type "missing" into the search box.
- Pick the stealth model from the results, which is MissingNo.
- Reload the page, open the chat and send your first message.
The reload in step ten matters, because the chat can keep using the old model until the page refreshes.
There's also a lazy route, and I like it.
You can ask Hermes to configure Hermes Cloud for you, and let the agent change its own model setting.
I'd still open the model section afterwards and check that it really says MissingNo.
One thing is simpler here than it was with Solar Mini 4.
When I checked the Nous inference API, I found one MissingNo entry and it was priced at zero, so I didn't see a paid twin sitting next to it.
That can change, so read the label before you click.
How To Run MissingNo As A Hermes Profile
I keep one Hermes profile per model inside my Agent OS.
A profile is an isolated copy of Hermes with its own model, settings and memory.
Right now I have a profile for Step 5 Preview, which is another free model, and a separate one for MissingNo.
That way I can test a new brain without touching the agent I rely on every day.
Here's how to set that up on your own machine.
- Run
hermes portalto log in to Nous Portal and set it as your provider. - Run
hermes profile create missingnoto make a fresh profile. - Open that profile's model picker, which you can reach with
hermes dashboardand then Models. - Choose Nous Portal as the provider and type "missing".
- Pick MissingNo and save it as the main model.
- Chat in the profile with
hermes -p missingno.
If MissingNo doesn't show up in the picker, your model list is probably stale.
hermes model --refresh wipes the model picker cache and re-fetches every provider's live list.
If you use my Agent OS, open the Hermes tab, pick the missingno profile and chat from there.
🔥 Want my Hermes profiles and free-model setup done with you? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom, I've got a full Hermes Agent course plus the Agent OS, with step-by-step videos on profiles, Hermes Cloud and free models. You'll be learning alongside 3,400+ members with four coaching calls every week. → Get access here
What Happened When I Tested MissingNo
I ran three kinds of test, and the results were mixed in a useful way.
The /learn command worked really well
The /learn command points Hermes at a source and turns it into a skill the agent can reuse.
MissingNo handled it well, and it was fast.
It created the skill and told me the path where the skill was saved.
That's exactly the kind of job I'd give this model, because it's a clear task with a clear output.
The coding test was only moderate
Coding didn't go as well.
I asked for a simple ping-pong style game.
It took around five minutes to generate, which is slow for something that small.
The game does work, so it isn't a fail.
It's just not frontier level, and it won't replace Claude Opus 5.5 for real build work.
Tool calling was fast
The model was quick at calling agentic tools.
That matters more than people think, because an agent spends most of its time calling tools, not writing essays.
Hermes Cloud models also respond quickly in general, because they're hosted for you.
My test results in one table
| Test | What happened | My take |
|---|---|---|
/learn |
It created a skill fast and named the path. | This was the best result of the day. |
| Coding | A simple ping-pong style game took about five minutes and works. | It's moderate, and it's not frontier level. |
| Tool calling | It called agentic tools quickly. | It suits agent work more than big builds. |
| Speed of replies | Replies came back quickly on Hermes Cloud. | Hosted models feel snappy. |
Where Else You Can Use MissingNo In Hermes
Once the profile exists, the model follows you into everything Hermes does.
- You can use it in Hermes Bots by creating a bot from your active profile.
- You can use it in Hermes Oracle for jobs like competitor analysis.
- You can use it in any other Hermes workflow that reads from that profile.
I also showed a voice agent demo inside my Agent OS.
It's a pop-up voice agent that works with ChatGPT and Hermes, and I asked it for useful Hermes commands.
It listed commands like /learn and /skills, which are the two I'd start with on a new model.
If bots are your thing, my post on Hermes Agent Bot Mode goes deeper on that feature.
What To Do If MissingNo Disappears Or Becomes Paid
This is the part most people skip, and it's the part that saves you later.
A stealth model can vanish, turn paid, or you can simply run out of tokens.
When that happens, go back to the model section and type "free".
There were about eight free models when I recorded, including MissingNo.
| Free model | Notes |
|---|---|
| Step 3.7 Flash | This is a quick StepFun model and a solid first backup. |
| Step 5 Preview | This is the other free model I keep a profile for. |
| Ling 3.0 | This is inclusionAI's free flash family on the list. |
| LongCat | This is Meituan's model, and it has a very large context window. |
| Laguna XS 2.1 | This is Poolside's small coding-flavoured model. |
| Solar Mini 4 | This is Upstage's fast model, so pick the free entry. |
| MissingNo | This is the stealth model this page is about. |
The free list changes often, so treat that table as a snapshot.
If you want help choosing between them, I've ranked the options in the best Hermes Agent model, and my Solar Mini 4 Hermes setup covers the paid-variant trap in detail.
Common Hermes MissingNo Mistakes
The first mistake is changing the model on your main profile.
Make a new profile, so your daily agent keeps working.
The second mistake is forgetting to reload after you change the model.
Reload the dashboard, then check the model name in the chat.
The third mistake is expecting frontier-level code from a free stealth model.
Give it skills, research and tool-heavy jobs, and send big builds to a stronger model.
The fourth mistake is building a business process that depends on it staying free.
Nous Research said "limited time", so plan your backup today.
The fifth mistake is sending it images.
The listing shows text input only, so describe what you need in words.
🔥 Want to know which model to use for which Hermes job? The AI Profit Boardroom has Hermes Agent training, the Agent OS and four weekly coaching calls where you can ask me which brain to give each agent. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
Related Reading
- Hermes Agent by Nous Research explains who makes Hermes and how the pieces fit together.
- Hermes Agent Bot Mode shows the bot feature you can point at your MissingNo profile.
- The best Hermes Agent model ranks the brains I'd pick for different jobs.
- Solar Mini 4 Hermes setup covers another free Nous Portal model and its paid-variant trap.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 How a business or creator would actually use MissingNo in Hermes
- 🌐 MissingNo in Hermes, scored feature by feature
- 🌐 The MissingNo quick start for your Agent OS
- 🌐 How MissingNo compares with the benched free Nous models
FAQ: Hermes MissingNo
What is MissingNo in Hermes Agent?
MissingNo is a stealth coding and agentic reasoning model that Nous Research announced on 10 October 2026.
It's free for a limited time on Nous Portal, and the lab that built it hasn't been named.
How do I enable MissingNo in Hermes Cloud?
Deploy Hermes Cloud, log in, create an agent and open Manage agents.
Click the agent, open its dashboard, go to the model section, type "missing" and pick the stealth model.
Then reload the page and start chatting.
What is the exact model ID for MissingNo?
The Nous inference API lists it as stealth/missingno.
The same listing shows a 262,144-token context window and a price of zero on 12 October 2026.
Is MissingNo good for coding in Hermes?
It's moderate.
A simple ping-pong style game took about five minutes to generate in my test, and it worked.
It isn't frontier level, and it won't replace Claude Opus 5.5.
What do I do if MissingNo is removed or becomes paid?
Open the model section, type "free" and pick another free model.
Step 3.7 Flash, Step 5 Preview, Ling 3.0, LongCat, Laguna XS 2.1 and Solar Mini 4 were all on the free list when I recorded.
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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 70+ people in Bangkok.
- I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I wrote the book "Link Building Mastery", which covers nine link building strategies.
- I run GoldieBench, where I score AI models on real one-shot builds.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
Create the profile, pick the stealth model, run the three tests and keep a backup ready, and you'll get the most out of Hermes MissingNo while it's free.
