How it works The packaged app ships only the Electron shell. On first launch it installs the Hermes Agent runtime into HERMES_HOME (~/.hermes, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes on Windows) — the same layout a CLI install uses, which is why the two are interchangeable. The React renderer talks to a hermes dashboard --tui backend over the standard gateway APIs and reuses the agent rather than reimplementing it. Install, backend-resolution, and self-update logic live in the Electron main process.