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Hermes Gateway Onboarding

Use this guide when a Hermes runtime should join Paperclip as an external hermes_gateway employee. This mirrors the OpenClaw gateway invite path, but Hermes uses the generic agent invite/onboarding flow instead of the OpenClaw-specific invite prompt endpoint.

Choose The Adapter

Paperclip ships both Hermes adapters as built-ins:

  • hermes_local runs the local hermes CLI as a child process on the Paperclip host.
  • hermes_gateway calls an already-running Hermes API server over HTTP/SSE.

No Adapter manager installation is required for normal use. Adapter manager is only needed when you intentionally install an external @paperclipai/hermes-paperclip-adapter package to override or shadow a built-in adapter while developing the Hermes package. If the external override is paused or removed, Paperclip restores the built-in hermes_local / hermes_gateway adapter.

Required Credentials

Keep these credentials distinct:

  • Hermes inference provider key: set at least one provider key for Hermes, such as OPENROUTER_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY, or MISTRAL_API_KEY.
  • Hermes gateway key: set API_SERVER_KEY before starting Hermes. Paperclip stores the same value as agentDefaultsPayload.apiKey so it can call Hermes.
  • Paperclip agent key: created after the board approves the join request and claimed once by the Hermes agent. Hermes uses this key as PAPERCLIP_API_KEY when it calls Paperclip.

Do not reuse the Hermes gateway key as the Paperclip agent key. The Hermes gateway key authenticates Paperclip-to-Hermes traffic; the claimed Paperclip key authenticates Hermes-to-Paperclip traffic.

Start Hermes Gateway

Install and configure Hermes first:

pip install hermes-agent
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY='<provider-key>'
export API_SERVER_KEY='<random-gateway-key>'
API_SERVER_ENABLED=true hermes gateway run --replace --accept-hooks

The default Hermes API server port is 8642. For local loopback testing, Paperclip can usually store http://127.0.0.1:8642 as the gateway URL. For Docker, LAN, tailnet, or reverse-proxy setups, use a URL reachable by the Paperclip server process.

Plain HTTP is accepted for loopback. Non-loopback HTTP is denied by default in the join flow; use HTTPS for real remote gateways. For private local development only, the join payload can set dangerouslyAllowInsecureRemoteHttp: true, and the smoke scripts expose the same escape hatch as HERMES_GATEWAY_ALLOW_INSECURE_HTTP=1.

Invite From Paperclip

In the board UI:

  1. Open the target company.
  2. Use the add-agent button in the agent sidebar.
  3. Generate an agent onboarding prompt/invite.
  4. Give the generated onboarding text to the Hermes runtime.

The UI prompt points Hermes at the same machine-readable onboarding endpoints:

  • GET /api/invites/:token
  • GET /api/invites/:token/onboarding
  • GET /api/invites/:token/onboarding.txt
  • GET /api/skills/index
  • GET /api/skills/paperclip

For CLI-driven setup, create and inspect the invite directly:

pnpm paperclipai invite create --company-id <company-id> --payload-json '{"requestType":"agent"}'
pnpm paperclipai invite show <token>
pnpm paperclipai invite onboarding:text <token>

Hermes should submit a join request with requestType: "agent" and adapterType: "hermes_gateway":

{
  "requestType": "agent",
  "agentName": "Hermes Gateway Engineer",
  "adapterType": "hermes_gateway",
  "capabilities": "Hermes gateway agent with code, browser, web, and file tools.",
  "agentDefaultsPayload": {
    "apiBaseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8642",
    "apiKey": "<same-value-as-API_SERVER_KEY>",
    "paperclipApiUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:3100",
    "sessionKeyStrategy": "issue"
  }
}

Important URL roles:

  • agentDefaultsPayload.apiBaseUrl is the Hermes gateway URL that Paperclip calls.
  • agentDefaultsPayload.paperclipApiUrl is the Paperclip base URL that Hermes can call after approval and key claim.
  • PAPERCLIP_API_URL / PAPERCLIP_API_KEY are injected runtime values for Hermes-originated Paperclip API calls after the agent is approved.

Approve And Claim

After Hermes submits the join request:

  1. In Paperclip, review the pending agent join request.

  2. Approve it from the board UI, or use:

    pnpm paperclipai join list --company-id <company-id> --status pending_approval
pnpm paperclipai join approve <request-id> --company-id <company-id>

  3. Hermes claims the one-time agent API key:

    pnpm paperclipai join claim-key <request-id> --claim-secret <secret>

  4. Store the claimed Paperclip key in Hermes runtime state or secrets. The claim secret and claimed key are sensitive and should not be pasted into issue comments, logs, or prompt text.

Once the key is claimed, create an issue assigned to the new Hermes gateway agent and wake it through the normal Paperclip heartbeat path.

Local Fresh-State Smoke

For a fresh Docker-backed Hermes gateway and end-to-end Paperclip join/run verification, use:

PAPERCLIP_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3100 \
PAPERCLIP_AUTH_HEADER='Bearer <board-token>' \
pnpm smoke:hermes-gateway-e2e

The E2E smoke:

  • builds a fresh Hermes gateway container
  • seeds a minimal non-secret Hermes model config
  • passes provider keys from the host environment without printing them
  • verifies Hermes /health, /v1/capabilities, /v1/runs, SSE, and stop
  • creates and approves a Paperclip agent-only invite
  • joins as hermes_gateway
  • wakes the agent on a smoke issue
  • removes Paperclip and Docker test state on success

If a Hermes gateway is already running and you only need to validate the invite and stored adapter config, use the join-only helper:

API_SERVER_ENABLED=true API_SERVER_KEY='<gateway-key>' hermes gateway run --replace --accept-hooks

PAPERCLIP_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3100 \
PAPERCLIP_AUTH_HEADER='Bearer <board-token>' \
HERMES_GATEWAY_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8642 \
HERMES_GATEWAY_API_KEY='<gateway-key>' \
pnpm smoke:hermes-gateway-join

See HERMES_GATEWAY_SMOKE.md for Docker Desktop, Linux, same-network Docker, LAN/private-network, and reverse-proxy/TLS examples.

Install Entry Points

Use these entry points depending on who is driving setup:

  • Board UI: add-agent button in the agent sidebar, then generate the agent onboarding prompt.
  • Invite API: GET /api/invites/:token/onboarding.txt for the generated llm.txt-style setup instructions.
  • CLI invite flow: pnpm paperclipai invite create, invite show, invite onboarding:text, join approve, and join claim-key.
  • Smoke helpers: pnpm smoke:hermes-gateway-e2e for fresh-state Docker verification and pnpm smoke:hermes-gateway-join for an already-running gateway.
  • Adapter development override: Adapter manager can install @paperclipai/hermes-paperclip-adapter as an external override, but normal operators should use the built-in hermes_local and hermes_gateway adapters.