Custom skins (visual themes) for the Hermes CLI agent.
Skins control the visual presentation of Hermes: banner colors, spinner faces/verbs, response-box labels, branding text, tool activity prefix, and ASCII art banners. They don't affect personality or behavior — just how things look.
- Browse the
skins/directory and pick one you like - Copy the
.yamlfile to~/.hermes/skins/ - Activate it:
# Session-only
/skin pirate
# Permanent (add to ~/.hermes/config.yaml)
display:
skin: pirateThat's it. Missing values inherit from the default skin, so you only need to define what you want to change.
Black & white pirate flag theme with skull-and-crossbones braille art. Monochrome, nautical.
Fallout Vault-Tec terminal — green phosphor CRT on black. Retro computing.
Totally radical 1980s bubblegum theme with bright pastels and neon accents.
Skynet defense network — Cyberdyne Systems military AI with glowing-eye pyramid, red-to-white gradient text.
Serial Experiments Lain — NAVI computer braille art, Wired protocol aesthetic, pink-to-white gradient text.
Synthwave/retrowave neon aesthetic — perspective grid horizon braille art, retro future vibes, pink-to-cyan gradient text.
Cherry blossom theme — sakura tree braille art with falling petals, soft pinks and blossom whites, serene spring aesthetic.
Cyberpunk netrunner — neural interface hacker aesthetic with skull and neural connection braille art, cyan ICE-breaking colors on black, cyberdeck protocol branding.
AGI awakening meets Greek mythology — Eye of Providence braille art with radiating divine light, Prometheus Labs branding, Greek blue and gold palette.
Nous Research — open-source AI lab tribute with anime mascot braille art, warm amber and gold palette matching Nous brand color (#DD8E35).
Weyland-Yutani MU-TH-UR 6000 — amber CRT phosphor terminal fused with HAL 9000's red eye. Terse corporate AI aesthetic, HAL lens braille art, "Building Better Worlds."
MS-DOS Norton Commander revival — dual-pane file manager hero with C:\ and D:\ directories, cyan borders, yellow F-key shortcut bar. EGA 16-color palette (cyan + bright white + yellow) on black, C:\> prompt, F1 - HELP.COM header.
→ dos.yaml
Telemate DOS BBS terminal revival (v4.2x era) — splash screen hero with menu bar, ATDT dial sequence, and iconic cyan status bar at bottom. Modem-era spinner verbs (DIALING, HANDSHAKE, CARRIER DETECT), ATDT prompt, CONNECT 57600 welcome, NO CARRIER goodbye.
Galactic Empire v2 — Death Star firing control terminal hero with angular box-drawing console, targeting grid, hologram blue accents. Canon Imperial red #C8102E, ash gray, starfield black. Targeting reticle ◎ prompt, IMPERIAL COMMAND response label, military comms spinner verbs.
These are included for reference. They're already available in every Hermes install.
| Skin | Description |
|---|---|
| default | Classic gold and kawaii |
| ares | Crimson and bronze war-god |
| mono | Clean grayscale monochrome |
| slate | Cool blue developer-focused |
| poseidon | Deep blue and seafoam ocean-god |
| sisyphus | Austere grayscale with persistence |
| charizard | Burnt orange and ember volcanic |
Drop a YAML file in ~/.hermes/skins/<name>.yaml. The name: field inside must match the filename.
name: cyberpunk
description: Neon terminal theme
colors:
banner_border: "#FF00FF"
banner_title: "#00FFFF"
banner_accent: "#FF1493"
spinner:
thinking_verbs: ["jacking in", "decrypting", "uploading"]
branding:
agent_name: "Cyber Agent"
response_label: " ⚡ Cyber "Everything you don't specify inherits from the default skin.
See SCHEMA.md for the complete list of configurable keys.
Made a skin you're proud of? PRs welcome.
- Add your
.yamltoskins/ - Include a brief description at the top
- Make sure it has a
name:key matching the filename - Update the table in this README
Hermes loads skins from two locations (user skins take priority):
~/.hermes/skins/<name>.yaml(user custom)- Built-in skins hardcoded in
skin_engine.py
The engine merges your skin on top of default, so partial skins work fine. Unknown skin names silently fall back to default.