Common Failure Modes
These are the problems that waste the most time: Symptom Likely cause Fix Hermes opens but gives empty or broken replies Provider auth or model selection is wrong Run hermes model again and confirm provider, model, and auth Custom endpoint "works" but returns garbage Wrong base URL, model name, or not actually OpenAI-compatible Verify the endpoint in a separate client first Gateway starts but nobody can message it Bot token, allowlist, or platform setup is incomplete Re-run hermes gateway setup and check hermes gateway status hermes --continue can't find old session Switched profiles or session never saved Check hermes sessions list and confirm you're in the right profile Model unavailable or odd fallback behavior Provider routing or fallback settings are too aggressive Keep routing off until the base provider is stable hermes doctor flags config problems Config values are missing or stale Fix the config, retest a plain chat before adding features
From the official Hermes Agent documentation.