Custard vs. Hermes Agent
Short answer: Hermes is an open-source agent that goes everywhere, from your terminal to your chat apps. Custard is a Mac app just for coding, built on agents you already use.
Side by side.
| Question | Hermes Agent | Custard |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hermes AgentNous Research's open-source agent for the terminal, servers and messaging apps. | CustardA Mac app where the coding agents you already have work as a team. |
| Agents it runs | Hermes AgentHermes itself, on almost any model you point it at. | CustardClaude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Antigravity. Pick one per job, or mix them. |
| Remembers who's who | Hermes AgentLong-term memory, plus skills it writes for itself. | CustardNamed Agents with a job and a face, who remember your decisions across Threads. |
| Several on one job | Hermes AgentOne agent, with scheduled jobs and tools over MCP. | CustardGroupies: agents from different makers split the work and check each other. |
| Where it runs | Hermes AgentmacOS, Linux, WSL, Docker or a server over SSH. | CustardOn your Mac, next to your code. No Custard cloud in the middle. |
| Sign-in | Hermes AgentYour own model keys: Nous Portal, OpenRouter and others. | CustardNo new account. Codex, OpenCode and Antigravity keep their sign-ins; Claude Code uses your Anthropic API key. |
Checked against each product's own pages in November 2026.
Where Hermes Agent is ahead today.
- It reaches you in your chat apps, wherever you are. Custard's iPhone app isn't out yet.
- It runs on Linux, Docker and servers over SSH. Custard is a Mac app.
- It's open source today. Custard's code isn't public yet.
Which one's for you?
Pick Hermes if…
you want one general-purpose agent you can message from anywhere, and you like tinkering with its setup yourself.
Add Custard if…
you want the coding agents you already pay for working together on your code, with a window to watch them in and nothing to configure.
Custard doesn't run Hermes. If you use both, let Hermes handle the errands and Custard the code.
Custard isn't for you yet if you're on Windows or Linux, want AI typing beside you in your editor, or need agents running in the cloud while your Mac is off.
Bring your agents.
Made for the Mac.