• Reference
• Tools & Skills Reference
• Toolsets Reference

Toolsets Reference

Toolsets are named bundles of tools that control what the agent can do. They’re the primary mechanism for configuring tool availability per platform, per session, or per task.

How Toolsets Work​

Every tool belongs to exactly one toolset. When you enable a toolset, all tools in that bundle become available to the agent. Toolsets come in three kinds:

• Core— A single logical group of related tools (e.g.,filebundlesread_file,write_file,patch,search_files)
• Composite— Combines multiple core toolsets for a common scenario (e.g.,debuggingbundles file, terminal, and web tools)
• Platform— A complete tool configuration for a specific deployment context (e.g.,hermes-cliis the default for interactive CLI sessions)

file read_file write_file patch search_files debugging hermes-cli

Configuring Toolsets​

Per-session (CLI)​

hermes chat --toolsets web,file,terminalhermes chat --toolsets debugging        # composite — expands to file + terminal + webhermes chat --toolsets all              # everything

Per-platform (config.yaml)​

toolsets:  - hermes-cli          # default for CLI  # - hermes-telegram   # override for Telegram gateway

Interactive management​

hermes tools                            # curses UI to enable/disable per platform

Or in-session:

/tools list/tools disable browser/tools enable homeassistant

Core Toolsets​

browser browser_back browser_cdp browser_click browser_console browser_dialog browser_get_images browser_navigate browser_press browser_scroll browser_snapshot browser_type browser_vision web_search web_search browser_cdp browser_dialog /browser connect browser.cdp_url browser_dialog pending_dialogs frame_tree browser_snapshot clarify clarify code_execution execute_code coding file terminal search web skills browser todo memory session_search clarify code_execution delegation vision cronjob cronjob debugging file terminal web delegation delegate_task discord discord hermes-discord discord_admin discord_admin hermes-discord feishu_doc feishu_doc_read feishu_drive feishu_drive_add_comment feishu_drive_list_comments feishu_drive_list_comment_replies feishu_drive_reply_comment hermes-cli file patch read_file search_files write_file homeassistant ha_call_service ha_get_state ha_list_entities ha_list_services HASS_TOKEN computer_use computer_use cua-driver $PATH context_engine image_gen image_generate video_gen video_generate image_url kanban kanban_block kanban_comment kanban_complete kanban_create kanban_heartbeat kanban_link kanban_list kanban_show kanban_unblock HERMES_KANBAN_TASK kanban all * memory memory project project_create project_list project_switch safe image_generate vision_analyze web_extract web_search includes search web_search session_search session_search skills skill_manage skill_view skills_list spotify spotify_albums spotify_devices spotify_library spotify_playback spotify_playlists spotify_queue spotify_search spotify terminal process terminal todo todo tts text_to_speech vision vision_analyze video video_analyze --toolsets web web_extract web_search x_search x_search x_search hermes tools XAI_API_KEY yuanbao yb_query_group_info yb_query_group_members yb_search_sticker yb_send_dm yb_send_sticker hermes-yuanbao

Platform Toolsets​

Platform toolsets define the complete tool configuration for a deployment target. Most messaging platforms use the same set ashermes-cli:

hermes-cli | Toolset | Differences fromhermes-cli | | — | — | | hermes-cli | Full toolset — the default for interactive CLI sessions. Includes file, terminal, web, browser, memory, skills, vision, image_gen, todo, tts, delegation, code_execution, cronjob, session_search, and clarify, plus thesafe(read-only) bundle. | | hermes-acp | Dropsclarify,cronjob,image_generate,text_to_speech, and all four Home Assistant tools. Focused on coding tasks in IDE context. | | hermes-api-server | Dropsclarifyandtext_to_speech. Keeps everything else — suitable for programmatic access where user interaction isn’t possible. | | hermes-cron | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-telegram | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-discord | Addsdiscordanddiscord_adminon top ofhermes-cli. | | hermes-slack | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-whatsapp | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-signal | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-matrix | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-mattermost | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-email | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-sms | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-bluebubbles | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-dingtalk | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-feishu | Adds the fivefeishu_doc_/feishu_drive_tools (only used by the document-comment handler, not the regular chat adapter). | | hermes-qqbot | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-wecom | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-wecom-callback | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-weixin | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-yuanbao | Adds the fiveyb_*tools (DM/group/sticker) on top ofhermes-cli. | | hermes-homeassistant | Same ashermes-cli(the Home Assistant tools are already present by default and activate whenHASS_TOKENis set). | | hermes-webhook | Same ashermes-cli. | | hermes-gateway | Internal gateway orchestrator toolset — union of everyhermes-toolset; used when the gateway needs to accept any message source. |

hermes-cli hermes-cli safe hermes-acp clarify cronjob image_generate text_to_speech hermes-api-server clarify text_to_speech hermes-cron hermes-cli hermes-telegram hermes-cli hermes-discord discord discord_admin hermes-cli hermes-slack hermes-cli hermes-whatsapp hermes-cli hermes-signal hermes-cli hermes-matrix hermes-cli hermes-mattermost hermes-cli hermes-email hermes-cli hermes-sms hermes-cli hermes-bluebubbles hermes-cli hermes-dingtalk hermes-cli hermes-feishu feishu_doc_* feishu_drive_* hermes-qqbot hermes-cli hermes-wecom hermes-cli hermes-wecom-callback hermes-cli hermes-weixin hermes-cli hermes-yuanbao yb_* hermes-cli hermes-homeassistant hermes-cli HASS_TOKEN hermes-webhook hermes-cli hermes-gateway hermes-<platform>

Dynamic Toolsets​

MCP server toolsets​

Each configured MCP server generates amcp-toolset at runtime. For example, if you configure agithubMCP server, amcp-githubtoolset is created containing all tools that server exposes.

mcp-<server> github mcp-github

# config.yamlmcp_servers:  github:    command: npx    args: ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"]

This creates amcp-githubtoolset you can reference in–toolsetsor platform configs.

mcp-github --toolsets

Plugin toolsets​

Plugins can register their own toolsets viactx.register_tool()during plugin initialization. These appear alongside built-in toolsets and can be enabled/disabled the same way.

ctx.register_tool()

Custom toolsets​

Define custom toolsets inconfig.yamlto create project-specific bundles:

config.yaml

toolsets:  - hermes-clicustom_toolsets:  data-science:    - file    - terminal    - code_execution    - web    - vision

Wildcards​

• allor*— expands to every registered toolset (built-in + dynamic + plugin)

all *

A handful of tools have an additional availability check on top of toolset membership and arenotturned on byall/*alone:

all *

• Capability-gatedtools (browser,computer_use,code_execution, Feishu, Home Assistant, cronjob) appear only when their backend/credential prerequisite is configured.
• Workflow-gatedtools — thekanbantoolset — are deliberately opt-in.all/*doesnotenable kanban; you must listkanbanexplicitly (or be a dispatcher-spawned worker withHERMES_KANBAN_TASKset). Kanban tools mutate shared board state, so they stay off by default even underall.

computer_use code_execution kanban all * kanban HERMES_KANBAN_TASK all

Relationship tohermes tools​

hermes tools

Thehermes toolscommand provides a curses-based UI for toggling individual tools on or off per platform. This operates at the tool level (finer than toolsets) and persists toconfig.yaml. Disabled tools are filtered out even if their toolset is enabled.

hermes tools config.yaml

See also:Tools Referencefor the complete list of individual tools and their parameters.