A few weeks ago I launched the first version of Hermes IDE — an AI-powered shell wrapper for developers who live in the terminal. The response blew me away.
Today I want to share what's new, what's changed, and why I'm more excited about this project than ever.
The core idea
Most AI dev tools ask you to change how you work. Switch to a new editor. Learn a new interface. Leave your shell behind.
Hermes does the opposite. It wraps your existing shell — zsh, bash, fish — and adds AI superpowers on top. Your dotfiles, your aliases, your muscle memory: all intact.
The code is now publicly available on GitHub: github.com/hermes-hq/hermes-ide
What's new
Project-aware sessions
Hermes organizes your terminal sessions under projects. Each session gets its own name, description, color, and isolated environment. Your "E-commerce API" project has sessions for Auth, Payments, and Order Processing. Your "Mobile App" has its own. Everything color-coded and named — no more guessing which terminal window is which.
Parallel branches with git worktrees
This is the feature I'm most excited about.
Hermes uses git worktrees to give each session its own isolated copy of your repo. That means you can run feature/oauth-google in one session and feature/stripe-webhooks in another — same repo, side by side.
No stashing. No branch switching. No conflicts.
You can keep a long CI run going in session A while writing code in session B. Each worktree is fully isolated: file changes, running processes, AI agent — all scoped to that session alone.
The Prompt Composer
Most developers type a raw message to their AI and hope for the best. The Prompt Composer closes the gap between what you type and what you actually mean.
You assign a role (Backend Engineer, Security Auditor, DevOps, Architect — 23 built-in roles), choose a style (Concise, Step-by-step, Verbose), scope the task to specific files or directories, and preview the compiled prompt before it's sent. You see exactly what the model receives.
There are 105 built-in templates across 18 categories — debugging, database migrations, security audits, legal compliance, and more.
Run multiple AI agents at once
Hermes doesn't lock you into one AI provider. Each session can use a different model:
- Claude — deep reasoning and careful code generation
- Gemini — fast multimodal tasks
- Aider — pair programming with file edits
- Codex — code generation and tool execution
- Copilot — inline completions
Combined with parallel sessions: Claude analyzing your architecture in one pane, Aider refactoring a module in another, Codex running automated tool execution in a third. All at the same time, each on its own branch.
Built-in Git panel
Full git workflow without leaving the terminal. Stage, commit, push, pull, stash, branch, view diffs with syntax highlighting, and resolve merge conflicts — all from the sidebar. It always shows your branch, ahead/behind indicators, and the status of every file.
Everything else that makes the difference
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Ghost-text completions — real-time, context-aware suggestions as you type, accepted with
Cmd+Tab - Project Realms — auto-scans your codebase for languages, frameworks, and architecture; keeps AI context always up to date
- Three execution modes — Manual, Assisted, and Autonomous; switch anytime
- Process Manager — monitor CPU/memory and kill rogue processes without leaving the terminal
- File Explorer with regex search across all project files
- Cost Dashboard — tracks token usage and dollar spend per AI provider per session
- 30+ keyboard shortcuts — fully keyboard-first
- 11 themes — including a Tron theme with animated energy lines and an 80s CRT phosphor glow
A growing plugin ecosystem
Hermes is built to be extended. One of my favorites so far is Pixel Office — a plugin that gives you a real-time visual view of your agents at work. You can literally watch them navigating files, running commands, and making decisions as they happen.
The plugin system is open. Contributions are very welcome.
Free, open source, no account required
Hermes is free. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It respects your existing shell configuration out of the box — no migration, no onboarding, no sign-up.
If you've ever felt like the terminal was the one part of your dev environment that AI hadn't really touched yet — this is the answer.
👉 Download: hermes-ide.com
👉 GitHub: github.com/hermes-hq/hermes-ide
If you run into issues, have feature ideas, or want to contribute — open an issue or a PR. This is just the beginning.
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