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Claude Duet vs Hermes Agent
Facts only, side by side. Listed as alternatives to each other. No winner: which one fits depends on your country, plan and what you need it to do.
Facts checked up to
Claude Duet : Waitlist in the US , From $20/mo (Pro) , iOS, Android, Web
Hermes Agent : Available worldwide , Free , macOS, Windows, Linux, Self-host, Slack, WhatsApp
Main differences (from vendor pages)
| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Price | From $20/mo (Pro) | Free |
| Where | Waitlist in the US | Available worldwide |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, Web | macOS, Windows, Linux, Self-host, Slack, WhatsApp |
| Calendar | Yes | — |
| Makes purchases | Yes | — |
| Runs an online store | Yes | — |
Access
10 rows| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Claude Duet: Anthropic anthropic.com | Hermes Agent: Nous Research nousresearch.com |
| Kind | Claude Duet: Always-on agent | Hermes Agent: Self-hosted |
| Status | Claude Duet: Waitlist Research preview by waitlist, starting with US Pro and Max subscribers. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available Regular stable releases; latest v0.22.5, published on GitHub 2026-10-23 (release notes dated Oct 22), after v0.22.4 on 2026-10-21. github.com · checked |
| Launched | Claude Duet: Oct 21, 2026 claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Jul 22, 2025 api.github.com · checked |
| Where | Claude Duet: The US claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Worldwide hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Excluded | Claude Duet: None stated | Hermes Agent: None stated |
| Platforms | Claude Duet: iOS, Android, Web claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: macOS, Windows, Linux, Self-host, Slack, WhatsApp hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Requires | Claude Duet: Claude Pro or Max, a US Claude account, and a waitlist invitation support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Minimum age | Claude Duet: Not stated | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Price from | Claude Duet: $20/month Pro claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Free Open source (MIT) hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
What it can do
16 rows
| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Duet: Yes Morning brief across email; drafts replies and sends from connected accounts (e.g. Gmail) only with your approval; can clear out unneeded inbox mail. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Receives and replies to email over IMAP/SMTP (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) in-thread. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked | |
| Calendar | Claude Duet: Yes Briefs on Google Calendar, schedules meetings and flags conflicts (e.g. a call right before a flight). support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Browses the web | Claude Duet: Yes Uses its own cloud browser for sites without a connector; you can't watch or take over the browser yet. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Web search and browser automation. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Makes purchases | Claude Duet: Yes Buys with Link by Stripe or Shop Pay after you approve each purchase; one-time card per purchase. Finds unpaid QuickBooks/Stripe invoices and drafts reminders; preps Gusto payroll. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Phone calls | Claude Duet: No Doesn't make phone calls or send text messages to other people. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Files | Claude Duet: Partly Returns docs, sheets, decks and dashboards in the Make tab; can't see files on your computer and can read but not change your Claude work. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes read_file / write_file / patch tools with a write denylist and optional write sandbox. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Writes / runs code | Claude Duet: Yes Prototyping and building web apps; the team uses it to ship code. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Terminals and Python RPC scripts. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Messages you first | Claude Duet: Yes Sends a short brief each morning, then messages you during the day only when something in your connected apps needs your attention. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Scheduled jobs run unattended and deliver results to a chat platform, e.g. "Every morning at 9am … send me a summary on Telegram." hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Memory | Claude Duet: Yes Carries over memory, skills and connected apps from your Claude account. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes MEMORY.md and USER.md in ~/.hermes/memories/ injected each session; auto-generated skills. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Multiple agents | Claude Duet: Not stated | Hermes Agent: Yes Isolated subagents with their own conversations and terminals. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Runs when app is closed | Claude Duet: Yes Does not need your laptop or phone to be on. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Cron jobs (natural language or cron expressions) run via the gateway; a stopped local agent does not run tasks; hosted agents in Nous Portal. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| App connectors | Claude Duet: Yes Over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace (Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, Docusign, HubSpot, Canva); can set up, design and manage a Shopify store. Microsoft 365 not available yet. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes MCP servers and a plugin catalog; smart home via the official Home Assistant plugin (docs/user-guide/messaging/homeassistant). hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Voice | Claude Duet: Yes Message by typing or voice. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Voice mode across CLI and messaging: talk by microphone, spoken replies, live Discord voice channels, wake word. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Runs an online store | Claude Duet: Yes Anthropic: "Set up, design, and manage your Shopify store." A richer visual storefront editor is "coming soon". claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Smart home | Claude Duet: Not stated | Hermes Agent: Yes Official Home Assistant integration through the homeassistant plugin. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Applies for jobs | Claude Duet: Not stated | Hermes Agent: Partly Only with the third-party Job Search plugin (agent-data) listed in the Hermes docs: it filters new postings into a digest; applying is not described. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
Safety (as stated by the vendor)
6 rows
| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Data it can access | Claude Duet: Uses the connectors you set up in your Claude account (e.g. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign, Calendly). You start every connection and can disconnect any app at any time; memory of earlier information is kept after disconnecting. Can search your past Claude chats; turn off "Search and reference chats" in Settings > Memory to stop it. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Whatever the operator's user account can reach on the host, plus connected messaging, email and MCP servers. Provider API keys and gateway tokens are stripped from shell/MCP/cron subprocesses by default, but skills and plugins can read in-process credentials. github.com · checked |
| Asks before sensitive actions | Claude Duet: Yes Designed to show what it will do and wait for approval before sending a message, paying, signing or deleting. Trading securities, moving money between accounts or accessing someone else’s account are off-limits even with approval. support.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Yes Dangerous shell commands need explicit approval (approvals.mode smart|manual|off; cron/unattended default deny). SECURITY.md calls the gate a heuristic, not a security boundary. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Sees your passwords | Claude Duet: No "It never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens." Site passwords are typed into a separate form on your device that sends them straight to the browser. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not stated |
| Trains on your data | Claude Duet: Yes, unless you opt out Duet runs on your consumer Claude Pro/Max account; Anthropic lists model training as "Opt-out" on those plans. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Not clearly stated Hermes is self-hosted; training depends on the model provider you connect. Nous Portal's privacy policy says inference payloads may be used for training unless you enable Privacy Mode. portal.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Isolation | Claude Duet: Runs on its own cloud computer (virtual machine with its own browser); approvals, logins and safety checks run there. claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Default terminal backend runs commands directly on the host; Docker, SSH, Modal and Singularity backends sandbox shell/file tools. Only OS-level isolation (Docker image or NVIDIA OpenShell wrapping the whole process) is a real boundary per SECURITY.md. github.com · checked |
| Retention | Claude Duet: Claude consumer chats you delete are removed from history immediately and from back-end storage within 30 days; if you allow model improvement, data may be kept de-identified for up to 5 years. No Duet-specific retention period is published. privacy.claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Conversations, memories and skills are stored locally and kept when the agent stops. Keep a backup of your Hermes data directory when moving to another computer. hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
By country
25 rows
| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Claude Duet: Waitlist claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Canada | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| United Kingdom | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Ireland | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Australia | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| New Zealand | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Germany | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| France | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Spain | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Italy | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Netherlands | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Switzerland | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| India | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Pakistan | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| United Arab Emirates | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| South Africa | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Philippines | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Vietnam | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Indonesia | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Malaysia | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Hong Kong | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Singapore | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Japan | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Brazil | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
| Mexico | Claude Duet: Not listed claude.com · checked | Hermes Agent: Available hermes-agent.nousresearch.com · checked |
Freshness
1 row
| Fact | Claude Duet | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Last fact checked | Claude Duet: Oct 23, 2026 | Hermes Agent: Oct 23, 2026 |
Full details, FAQ and change history: Claude Duet · Hermes Agent. Where sources disagree, both claims are on the agent page.