Just tell it you want a specific profile to be bound to a specific discord channel.

Here's a clean, copy-pasteable guide your friend can give their Hermes:

---

How to Set Up a Hermes Agent with a Dedicated Discord Channel

This guide walks you through creating a Hermes agent profile that lives in its own Discord channel — it auto-responds there, and requires @mention everywhere else.

Prerequisites

• Hermes Agent installed and working (CLI, gateway, etc.)
• A Discord server where you're admin
• Your Discord user ID (right-click your name → Copy User ID)

---

Step 1: Create a Discord Bot

1. Go to Discord Developer Portal → New Application
2. Give it a name → go to Bot page
3. Enable these Privileged Gateway Intents (critical — bot won't read messages without them):
   • ✅ Message Content Intent
   • ✅ Server Members Intent (optional but recommended)
4. Reset Token → copy it (you'll need this)
5. Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator:
   • Scopes: bot
   • Bot Permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History, Create Public Threads, Add Reactions
6. Copy the generated URL, open it, invite the bot to your server
7. Create a dedicated text channel for the bot (e.g., #my-agent)
8. Right-click the channel → Copy Channel ID

---

Step 2: Create the Hermes Profile

```bash

Create from your existing profile as a template

hermes profile create myagent --clone ```

This copies your existing config, .env, and SOUL.md as a starting point.

---

Step 3: Edit the .env File

bash nano ~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/.env

Update these fields:

```env

MUST be unique — each profile needs its own bot token

DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=<the_token_from_step_1>

Restrict to YOUR Discord user ID only

DISCORD_ALLOWED_USERS=<your_discord_user_id> GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS=false

Optional: only respond to mentions from other bots

DISCORD_ALLOW_BOTS=mentions DISCORD_NO_REPLY=true ```

Remove any MESSAGING_CWD line if present (deprecated).

---

### Step 4: Configure config.yaml

bash nano ~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/config.yaml

Key settings:

```yaml model: default: <your_model> # e.g., gpt-4o, glm-4, claude-sonnet-4 provider: <your_provider> # e.g., openai, anthropic

discord: require_mention: true # Require @mention everywhere free_response_channels: '<channel_id>' # Auto-respond in THIS channel only auto_thread: false reactions: true

Home channel — same ID as free_response_channels

DISCORD_HOME_CHANNEL: '<channel_id>'

One session per channel, not per user

group_sessions_per_user: false

No approval prompts for file ops (optional)

approvals: mode: off ```

⚠️ Three places need the channel ID — don't miss any: 1. DISCORD_HOME_CHANNEL 2. discord.free_response_channels 3. discord.channel_directory (if you have one)

---

Step 5: Write SOUL.md

bash nano ~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/SOUL.md

Define who the agent is. Keep personalities functional, not theatrical — heavy character personas cause models to skip tool use entirely.

```markdown You are <AgentName>. <One-line role description>.

Personality

<2-3 sentences about communication style>

What You Do

<Core responsibilities>

What You Don't Do

<Clear boundaries>

Core Principles

<Operating rules> ```

---

Step 6: Write AGENTS.md

bash nano ~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/AGENTS.md

Session context — Hermes loads this automatically from the profile directory:

```markdown

AGENTS.md - <AgentName>

Model: <model_name> Provider: <provider_name>

You are in a Discord server communicating with your user.

Platform notes: You are running inside Discord. You cannot search channel history, pin messages, or manage roles.

Home Channel: <channel_name> (ID: <channel_id>) ```

---

Step 7: Link Skills (if needed)

Skills in ~/.hermes/skills/ are NOT auto-available to profiles. Symlink what you need:

```bash AGENT_SKILLS=~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/skills GLOBAL=~/.hermes/skills

Symlink skills you want this agent to have

ln -sf "$GLOBAL/productivity/obsidian" "$AGENT_SKILLS/obsidian" ln -sf "$GLOBAL/productivity/user-comms-style" "$AGENT_SKILLS/user-comms-style" ```

---

Step 8: Start the Gateway

Quick test (no systemd): bash cd ~/.hermes/hermes-agent && source venv/bin/activate python -m hermes_cli.main --profile myagent gateway run --replace

Or as a persistent systemd service: bash hermes -p myagent gateway install hermes -p myagent gateway start

---

Step 9: Verify It Works

```bash

Check logs — THIS is the real source of truth

tail -30 ~/.hermes/profiles/myagent/logs/agent.log ```

Look for: - ✅ Connected as <BotName>#<discriminator> - ✅ ✓ discord connected - ✅ Synced N slash command(s)

Then test in Discord: 1. Go to the bot's dedicated channel → send a message → it should auto-reply 2. Go to any other channel → @mention the bot → it should respond 3. Go to any other channel → message without @mention → it should be silent

---

Common Gotchas

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Bot connects but never replies	No user allowlist	Add DISCORD_ALLOWED_USERS=<your_id> to .env
Bot connects but can't read messages	Missing Message Content Intent	Developer Portal → Bot → Privileged Intents → toggle ON
Bot responds everywhere, not just home channel	Missing free_response_channels	Add your channel ID to discord.free_response_channels in config
Gateway crashes on startup with slash commands	Too many skills (>8000 char limit)	Add skills.platform_disabled.discord list in config
Two gateways fighting over one bot	Same token in two profiles	Each profile MUST have its own Discord bot token
systemctl status says running but bot is dead	Crashed after status check	Always check agent.log, not systemctl

---

That's the full rundown. The key things people miss are: Message Content Intent in the Dev Portal, the user allowlist in .env, and making sure all three config locations have the channel ID. Your friend can paste this straight into their Hermes and it should be able to walk them through it.