Installing LemonCrow into Hermes Agent

Support level: MCP server (stdio JSON-RPM)

Hermes Agent by Nous Research is a general-purpose agent framework that uses a YAML-based configuration file at $HERMES_HOME/config.yaml (defaults to ~/.hermes/config.yaml).

Quick Install

make install

Hermes Agent only supports global (user-wide) configuration — there is no project-local config concept.

bash scripts/install_hermes.sh

What Gets Installed

Artifact	Global install
MCP server config	`$HERMES_HOME/config.yaml` or `~/.hermes/config.yaml`
Toolset entry	Added `mcp-lemoncrow` to `platform_toolsets.cli`

The installer merges an lc entry into the mcp_servers key of config.yaml:

mcp_servers:
  lc:
    command: lc mcp
    args:
      - --host
      - hermes
    timeout: 120
    connect_timeout: 60
    enabled: true

platform_toolsets:
  cli:
    - mcp-lemoncrow
    - hermes-cli

The platform_toolsets.cli entry is essential — without it, Hermes CLI profiles may filter out MCP-discovered tools from normal sessions even though the server connects successfully. Keeping mcp-lemoncrow first also makes the LemonCrow toolset the default preference when Hermes composes CLI capabilities.

Verify

make verify

Or manually:

lc mcp --host hermes --version

Check that the config file contains the lc entry:

cat ~/.hermes/config.yaml

Expected Behavior

Hermes Agent connects to the LemonCrow MCP server on session start
LemonCrow tools appear in Hermes' dynamic toolset under mcp-lemoncrow
Hermes agents can use context for pre-task reasoning, trace for recording, and rescue for failure recovery
With LEMONCROW_DEV_MODE=1, all tools are fully active
trace remains the stable observable recording surface

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
"lc mcp: command not found"	Run `pip install lemoncrow` or reinstall via `make install`
Tools not showing up in Hermes	Verify `mcp-lemoncrow` is in `platform_toolsets.cli` — start a new Hermes session
`$HERMES_HOME` not set	Installer defaults to `~/.hermes/config.yaml`. Set `HERMES_HOME` to customize.
Tools fail with "hermes" label	Check `config.yaml` has `--host hermes` in the lc args
MCP connection timeout	Increase `connect_timeout` and `timeout` values in `config.yaml`

Uninstall

lc uninstall

Or manually remove the lc block from mcp_servers and remove mcp-lemoncrow from platform_toolsets.cli in $HERMES_HOME/config.yaml.

Quick Install​

What Gets Installed​

Verify​

Expected Behavior​

Troubleshooting​

Uninstall​