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hermes-config/skills/mlops/inference/llama-cpp/references/hermes-ollama-config.md
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2026-07-12 10:17:17 -04:00

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Hermes Local Model Configuration (Ollama)

When using local models via Ollama with Hermes Agent, the main model and each auxiliary task must be configured separately. This reference covers the full wiring.

Quick Check

grep -A3 'provider:' ~/.hermes/config.yaml | grep -B1 'provider:'

This shows every provider setting. Any still pointing at a cloud provider that should be local needs updating.

Main Model

hermes config set model.provider ollama
hermes config set model.default qwen2.5:14b
hermes config set model.base_url http://localhost:11434

Auxiliary Sections

Each uses a model and must be configured independently. Changing model.provider does NOT affect them.

Section Purpose Priority
auxiliary.vision Image analysis High
auxiliary.delegation Subagent chat model High
auxiliary.web_extract Web page summarization Medium
auxiliary.compression Context window compression Medium
auxiliary.approval Smart command approval Low
auxiliary.mcp MCP server execution Low
auxiliary.curator Skill lifecycle Low
auxiliary.title_generation Session naming Low
auxiliary.skills_hub Skills catalog search Low
auxiliary.kanban_decomposer Kanban task breakdown Low
auxiliary.profile_describer Profile descriptions Low
auxiliary.triage_specifier Model request routing Low

Per-section config pattern

hermes config set auxiliary.vision.provider ollama
hermes config set auxiliary.vision.model llava:13b
hermes config set auxiliary.vision.base_url http://localhost:11434

hermes config set delegation.provider ollama
hermes config set delegation.model qwen2.5:14b
hermes config set delegation.base_url http://localhost:11434

Repeat for each auxiliary section as needed. Low-priority ones can safely stay on the default cloud provider for speed.

Switching Back to Cloud

hermes config set model.provider deepseek
hermes config set model.default deepseek-v4-pro

Gateway Restart

Config changes require a restart:

hermes gateway restart

Pitfall: hermes gateway restart is blocked inside the gateway process to prevent restart loops. The user must run it from their own shell terminal.

Pitfalls

  • Auxiliary models not switched — changing main model does not touch vision/compression/delegation.
  • VRAM exhaustion — loading vision model while LLM is loaded can OOM. Ollama unloads idle models after 5 min.
  • Speed expectations — local 14B is slower than cloud API. First cold-load takes 10-30 seconds.
  • Config changes need /reset or relaunch — they don't hot-reload mid-session.
  • Small cloud models may outpace local ones for latency-sensitive tasks (web extraction, compression).