# Hermes for a team: the open-source path from one operator

> Hermes Agent is built around one operator and one persistent memory. When a team needs shared access, scoped tools, and a review trail, the questions become who may start a session and what a person reviews afterward. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System built for that.

URL: https://hermesalternative.com/hermes-for-teams

## What an agent may reach, as a file

`kortix.yaml`

```yaml
agents:
  release-bot:
    file: agents/release-bot.md
    connectors: [github]
    kortix_permissions: [project.gitops.push]
    secrets: [GITHUB_AGENT_TOKEN]
```

Source: https://kortix.com/docs/project/manifest

From the Kortix manifest reference. This agent holds `project.gitops.push`, not `project.gitops.merge`.

## What a single-operator agent leaves out

Hermes Agent is a personal agent: it remembers your projects, writes its own skills, and runs on a server you control. Those strengths are shaped around one person. A message reaches the agent from Telegram, Discord, or the terminal, and the memory it builds is the memory of that operator's environment. Its own [project site](https://www.hermes-agent.org) describes a persistent personal agent that learns your projects.

A team asks different questions. Who may start a session, and on which repo? Which tools may an agent touch without asking? Can two people run work at the same time without colliding? What record exists after an agent takes an action?

## The four things a team needs

A team surface has to answer four things before it can scale past one operator:

- Roles and groups that match the org, so access is granted to a team rather than pasted into one person's configuration.
- Scoped tools, so each agent reaches only the connectors and secrets it needs, down to the arguments of a call.
- Per-session isolation, so two sessions never share a working machine or a branch.
- An audit trail, so every action an agent takes is recorded and reviewable.

## How Kortix answers each

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System. An agent is `agents/<name>.md` (behavior) plus an `agents.<name>` block in `kortix.yaml` (governance), so what an agent may reach is a file the team reviews. Per-resource permissions for people and agents. Roles, groups, and an audit trail. Every action is recorded.

One isolated sandbox per session. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch. Session work reaches `main` through a change request. Merge is default-deny for agents, so a person decides what lands. Approval gates you set control which tool calls proceed. Off until you set them.

## Where Kortix runs for a team

Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-host is free. Your configuration stays a git repo the team owns, so roles and reach are reviewable the same way code is. To see how the pieces compare one to one, read [Kortix compared with Hermes](/kortix-vs-hermes). If you already run Hermes Agent and want a team surface around it, the [migration guide](/migrate-from-hermes) covers moving agents and skills into a Kortix project.

## Team questions about moving from Hermes

### Is Hermes Agent multi-user?

Hermes Agent’s own documentation describes a personal agent that learns one operator’s projects, memory, and environment, reachable from the terminal or a messaging app. It documents parallel sub-agents. It does not describe shared roles, groups, or a team audit trail. Kortix documents those directly.

### How does Kortix tell one agent’s reach from another’s?

An agent is `agents/<name>.md` (behavior) plus an `agents.<name>` block in `kortix.yaml` (governance). The reach lives in the manifest, so a team reviews and diffs it like code.

### Can a team self-host Kortix?

Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-host is free.

### What does Kortix cost for a team?

Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project. The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled.

## Give a whole team the same agents, with review.

Start with one job and one agent, then add roles and gates as the team grows.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Migrate from Hermes](https://hermesalternative.com/migrate-from-hermes)

Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem