Hermes Agent Connectors: Linear, Notion and Gmail Setup (2026)
Hermes Agent connectors act in Linear, Notion and Gmail through the Nous tool gateway. Here is how to connect them, manage accounts and turn them off.
Quick Answer
Hermes Agent connectors let Hermes act inside hosted apps such as Linear, Notion and Gmail through the Nous tool gateway. You sign in once in your browser and the tools are usable in the same turn. You do not need a Nous account to start: first use creates a free connectors-only identity. Each app can have several named accounts, such as work and home.
What Are Hermes Agent Connectors?
Connectors are hosted apps that Hermes reaches through the Nous tool gateway, so Hermes can act inside them without you wiring API keys yourself. The v0.22.0 release notes list connectors as a headline feature of that release. Connector tools are never registered locally. The agent finds them through tool search, which sends each query to the gateway.
The desktop Connectors page replaces the old MCP tab and lists hosted apps and MCP servers together. The TUI and CLI show the same setup card.
Connectors vs Tool Gateway
| Connectors | Tool Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted apps such as Linear, Notion and Gmail | The Nous service that carries connector calls, plus web search, image generation, text-to-speech and cloud browsers |
| Account to start | A free connectors-only identity, created on first use | A paid Nous Portal subscription; some accounts get a free tool pool |
| Managed in | Desktop Connectors page, TUI /connectors, CLI hermes connectors |
hermes tools and hermes portal info |
How the agent finds connector tools
Connector tools are named connectors__<connector>__<tool>. The agent finds them with tool_search, loads their schemas with tool_describe, and runs them with tool_call. The connectors section of the Tool Search documentation describes this flow.
How Do You Connect Linear, Notion or Gmail?
Open the Connectors page in the desktop app, or run /connectors in the TUI, or ask the agent to use the app. If the account is not connected yet, the call returns CONNECTION_REQUIRED with a sign-in link. Complete the browser sign-in, and the tools are usable in the same turn.
In the desktop app, the manage_connections tool shows a card and waits until each app is connected or skipped. Elsewhere it returns a connect link per app for you to open.
Manage connections from the CLI
hermes connectors lists, connects, renames and disconnects connector accounts, and /connectors does the same in the TUI. hermes portal info shows Portal auth and gateway routing. This guide does not list flags for these commands, so check each command’s help output for exact syntax.
The free identity and how to opt out
If you have no Nous account, the first manage_connections action, or opening the desktop Connectors page, creates a free Nous identity. It does not change your model provider. Until that identity exists, tool_search sends nothing to the gateway. To keep it from being created, set nous.guest: false, as the Tool Search documentation describes.
How Do Multiple Accounts Work?
Several named accounts per app are supported, for example work and home. Hermes has no default account. When an app has several named accounts, the agent must pick one with the connector_alias field. The Tool Gateway documentation sets out these rules.
Naming rules
Names are 1 to 32 characters: lowercase letters, digits or hyphens, starting with a letter or digit. An unnamed account shows the app’s own label. The agent names a new account from what you said, asks if it is unsure, and tells you the name it chose.
How connector_alias works
The field is required when every active account is named and optional when some are unnamed. The call fails if it is left out while several accounts are named, or if it names an account that does not exist. The error lists the valid names.
Reconnect and removal
Reconnecting a broken account replaces it under the same name. The old account is kept automatically as retired. The agent never removes an account. You remove accounts yourself, one at a time.
What Happens When Connectors Are Off or the Gateway Is Down?
With tools.connectors.enabled set to false, connector routes are never touched, and the tool-search bridge behaves as if the connector feature did not exist. A signed-in account that the gateway does not serve for connectors sees no connector tools either. Local tools keep working in both cases.
Slow or unreachable gateway
The gateway call is bounded at 30 seconds. A slow or unreachable gateway degrades connector search to local results only, with no error shown to the model.
Stopping a batch mid-run
A /stop between entries leaves the unstarted ones unsent, and their slots report INTERRUPTED, according to the Tool Search documentation. PR #106842 describes unstarted calls never leaving the machine.
How Do You Turn Connectors Off?
Set tools.connectors.enabled to false. To stop the free identity from being created, set nous.guest: false. Advanced deployments can pin CONNECTOR_GATEWAY_URL to a custom connectors origin. The self-hosted gateway section covers that for custom infrastructure only.
FAQ
Do I need a Nous account to use connectors?
No account is needed to start. On first use, Hermes creates a free connectors-only identity. Set nous.guest: false if you want to block that identity from being created.
Can I connect work and personal accounts to the same app?
Yes. Account names are 1 to 32 lowercase letters, digits or hyphens, starting with a letter or digit; the agent names new accounts from what you say. When an app has several named accounts, the agent must pass connector_alias to choose one.
What happens if the agent uses the wrong account?
A wrong alias fails, and the error lists valid account names. Ask for the account by name. Reconnecting a broken account replaces it under the same name, and the old one is kept as retired.
How This Guide Was Built
This guide is based on official documentation and the v0.22.0 release notes; we did not run the connectors hands-on. We consulted the release notes, the Tool Gateway docs, the Tool Search docs, the CLI reference and PR #106842, which predates the release. Exact CLI flags, the connector list beyond Gmail, Linear and Notion, and pricing beyond the documented subscription were not verified.
📖 Related Reads
- NoCode Insider — AI workflow automation with no-code tools, agents, and APIs
- ToolBrain — tool reviews, LLM comparisons, and AI workflow guides
Cross-links automatically generated from Hermes Tutorials.