references/hermes-tools.md
Hermes Agent Tool Mapping
Section titled “Hermes Agent Tool Mapping”Skills speak in actions (“dispatch a subagent”, “create a todo”, “read a file”). On Hermes Agent these resolve to the tools below.
| Action skills request | Hermes tool |
|---|---|
| Read a file | read_file |
| Create a new file | write_file |
| Edit a file (targeted patch) | patch |
| Run a shell command | terminal |
| Search file contents | search_files |
| Find files by name | terminal with find |
| Fetch a URL / read a webpage | web_extract(urls=[...]) |
| Search the web | web_search(query=...) |
| Dispatch a subagent | delegate_task(goal=..., context=..., toolsets=[...], role="leaf") |
| Task tracking | todo tool |
| Invoke a skill | skill_view("skill-name") |
Instructions file
Section titled “Instructions file”When a skill mentions “your instructions file,” on Hermes Agent this is AGENTS.md in the project directory, or SOUL.md globally at ~/.hermes/SOUL.md.
Invoking a skill
Section titled “Invoking a skill”Hermes Agent has a skills toolset with skill_view and skills_list tools.
To invoke a superpowers skill, use:
skill_view("brainstorming")skill_view("test-driven-development")If skill_view cannot find a superpowers skill (it may not appear in the catalog
until the plugin fully registers it), fall back to reading the SKILL.md directly:
read_file(path="~/.hermes/plugins/superpowers/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md")This fallback is the same mechanism used by other harnesses without native skill loading.
Subagent dispatch
Section titled “Subagent dispatch”Use delegate_task to spawn isolated subagents for parallel or sequential workstreams:
delegate_task(goal="...", context="...", toolsets=[...], role="leaf")If delegate_task is unavailable, do the work inline rather than inventing tool calls.
Task tracking
Section titled “Task tracking”Use the todo tool for task tracking within a session. For multi-agent task boards, use hermes kanban CLI if available. Treat older TodoWrite references as the task-tracking action.
Original Markdown source
# Hermes Agent Tool Mapping
Skills speak in actions ("dispatch a subagent", "create a todo", "read a file"). On Hermes Agent these resolve to the tools below.
## Tools
| Action skills request | Hermes tool ||---|---|| Read a file | `read_file` || Create a new file | `write_file` || Edit a file (targeted patch) | `patch` || Run a shell command | `terminal` || Search file contents | `search_files` || Find files by name | `terminal` with `find` || Fetch a URL / read a webpage | `web_extract(urls=[...])` || Search the web | `web_search(query=...)` || Dispatch a subagent | `delegate_task(goal=..., context=..., toolsets=[...], role="leaf")` || Task tracking | `todo` tool || Invoke a skill | `skill_view("skill-name")` |
## Instructions file
When a skill mentions "your instructions file," on Hermes Agent this is **`AGENTS.md`** in the project directory, or **`SOUL.md`** globally at `~/.hermes/SOUL.md`.
## Invoking a skill
Hermes Agent has a `skills` toolset with `skill_view` and `skills_list` tools.To invoke a superpowers skill, use:
```skill_view("brainstorming")skill_view("test-driven-development")```
If `skill_view` cannot find a superpowers skill (it may not appear in the cataloguntil the plugin fully registers it), fall back to reading the SKILL.md directly:
```read_file(path="~/.hermes/plugins/superpowers/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md")```
This fallback is the same mechanism used by other harnesses without native skill loading.
## Subagent dispatch
Use `delegate_task` to spawn isolated subagents for parallel or sequential workstreams:
```delegate_task(goal="...", context="...", toolsets=[...], role="leaf")```
If `delegate_task` is unavailable, do the work inline rather than inventing tool calls.
## Task tracking
Use the `todo` tool for task tracking within a session. For multi-agent task boards, use `hermes kanban` CLI if available. Treat older `TodoWrite` references as the task-tracking action.