On 13 August 2026, Nous Research shipped something that looks almost embarrassingly small on paper: two commands. But the Hermes backup command pair — one to export, one to import — quietly changes what owning an AI agent actually means. Before this update, my agent effectively lived and died with one machine. Now the whole setup — personality, skills, memory, schedules — packs into a single archive file I can store anywhere, move anywhere, and hand to anyone I trust.
📺 Watch: Hermes AI Agents Just Went Portable
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I walked through the announcement in my video on Hermes going portable, and I've since built a full backup-and-restore hub around the feature. This page is the working reference for the commands themselves: what each one does, what travels and what deliberately doesn't, when to run which, and the four workflows I now build everything else on. One honest note before we start: the exact syntax isn't shown on screen in the video, and I'm not going to guess at it here — the precise strings live in the Hermes docs, and you can see the feature demonstrated in the video. What I can give you is everything the commands actually do, and how to use them properly.
What the Export Command Does
The export command takes your entire Hermes setup and packages it into one archive file. Not a scattered folder of configs — one file. Here's what goes in:
- Persona — your agent's identity, voice and permissions
- Skills — every reusable ability you've added or built
- Memory — the persistent record of your sessions, and the genuinely irreplaceable piece
- Cron jobs — your schedules, which resume after a restore
- Plugins and settings — the wiring around the agent
- Desktop themes and layout — so it even looks the same when it comes back
I've done a line-by-line breakdown of the archive in my Hermes export deep-dive, so I won't repeat it all here. The one item worth dwelling on is memory. Skills can be rebuilt and personas can be re-tuned, but months of accumulated context — what your agent knows about your business, your projects, the way you like things done — cannot be typed back in. I've argued before that memory is a Hermes agent's most valuable asset, and it travels in this file. That alone justifies the habit.
What Gets Stripped Out — and Why That's the Point
Just as important is what the export command refuses to include. API keys, credentials and login tokens are automatically stripped from the archive. That's not a limitation. It's the design decision that makes the whole feature usable.
Because there are no secrets inside, the file is safe to store on a drive, sync to the cloud, or hand to a teammate without leaking access to your accounts. Whoever imports it — including future you on a new machine — authenticates fresh with their own keys. Portability and security usually pull in opposite directions; separating the setup from the secrets is how Hermes gets both at once.
If you want the full Hermes setup these commands protect, the AI Profit Boardroom has daily step-by-step tutorials covering exactly this. → Get the tutorials
What the Import Command Does
The import command is the other half of the pair. Take any machine with Hermes installed, run the import command, point it at your archive file, and the agent comes back fully set up — same personality, same skills, same memory, same schedules. Cron jobs resume on their own. Even the desktop looks the way you left it.
The only thing waiting for you is authentication: because keys never travel, you add your own credentials on the new machine and carry on. I ran the round trip as part of my Goldie Bench testing — export on one machine, import on another — and what comes back is genuinely your agent, not a lookalike. If you're importing under pressure because something has already died, my restore walkthrough covers that recovery scenario step by step.
When to Run Which Hermes Backup Command
This is where most people go wrong — not the mechanics, the timing. Two commands are easy; knowing when to reach for each one is the actual skill. Here's the matrix I work from.
Run the export command:
- Weekly, as insurance. A standing rhythm means the most you can ever lose is a week of changes.
- Before big persona or skill changes. If a tuning session goes sideways, you roll back instead of repairing.
- Before OS upgrades or machine changes. The moments most likely to break things are exactly the moments to have a fresh file.
- Before handing your setup to a teammate. Export a deliberate, clean snapshot rather than whatever state you happen to be in.
- After any burst of work you'd hate to redo. Just spent a day teaching the agent something valuable? Capture it while it's fresh.
Run the import command:
- Restoring after a failure. The classic case — the machine dies, the agent comes back.
- Setting up a second machine. Desktop at home, laptop for travel, the same agent on both.
- Moving to better hardware. A faster box, a 24/7 device or a VPS — upgrade without starting over.
- Onboarding a teammate. They import your tuned agent, add their own keys, and they're productive the same day.
- Loading a shared community profile. Start from someone else's well-built setup instead of a blank slate.
Notice the asymmetry. Export runs on a schedule and before risk; import runs at moments of change. Internalise that one line and you've understood the whole feature.
📺 Watch: Grok Bot DESTROYS Hermes Agent?
The Four Workflows the Backup Commands Unlock
Individually, these are utilities. Composed, they're workflows. Four of them cover nearly everything I do.
The insurance loop
Export weekly, store the file somewhere off the machine — cloud storage, a second drive, anywhere that doesn't share your laptop's fate. That's the entire loop. I've written about turning this into a proper backup habit, because it only protects you if it actually happens. One command a week puts a hard ceiling on how bad any disaster can get.
The migration
Export on the old machine, copy the file across, import on the new one, add your keys, and watch the cron jobs resume by themselves. New laptop, beefier hardware, a VPS running around the clock — the path is identical every time. What used to be a weekend of reconstruction becomes a file transfer.
The team distribution
Export once, share the file, and each person imports it with their own keys. Everyone gets the same tuned persona and the same skills, and nobody touches anybody else's accounts. I've covered the receiving end of this — including the team angle — in my Hermes import guide.
The experiment safety net
Export first, then experiment as aggressively as you like: rip up the persona, rewrite skills, try the strange idea. If the result is worse, import the file and you're back exactly where you started. This one changed my behaviour more than any of the others — knowing rollback exists makes me far bolder.
📺 Watch: NEW Hermes Desktop Browser Update Is INSANE!
The Backup Commands at a Glance
Here's the whole Hermes backup command story on one screen.
| Command | What it does | What's included | What's excluded | When to run it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The export command | Packages your whole Hermes setup into a single archive file | Persona, skills, memory, cron jobs, plugins and settings, desktop themes and layout | API keys, credentials and login tokens — stripped automatically | Weekly; before big changes, upgrades or handovers; after valuable work |
| The import command | Rebuilds the agent from an archive on any machine with Hermes installed | Everything the export packaged — personality, skills, memory, schedules | Your credentials — you authenticate fresh after importing | After failures; on second or upgraded machines; when onboarding teammates; when loading community profiles |
Mistakes I Keep Seeing
Four failure patterns come up constantly, and every one is avoidable:
- Never exporting until the laptop dies. A backup you run for the first time after the failure is a paperweight. The first export should happen the day you learn the command exists.
- Storing the only copy on the same machine. An archive that shares your laptop's fate protects you from nothing. Off the machine, every time.
- Forgetting that keys don't travel. People import on a new machine, hit authentication prompts and assume the restore failed. It didn't — stripping credentials is a feature, and re-keying takes minutes.
- Expecting exact syntax from a blog post. Any article printing command strings it can't verify is guessing. The Hermes docs are the source of truth; treat everything else as a map, not the territory.
Hermes Backup Command FAQ
What does the export command include?
Persona, skills, memory, cron jobs, plugins and settings, and your desktop themes and layout — the complete setup in one archive file. API keys, credentials and login tokens are deliberately excluded.
Does importing overwrite my existing agent?
The import command brings the exported agent onto that machine, fully set up. How it behaves when there's already an established agent on the box — merge, replace, or something smarter — is exactly the kind of detail to confirm in the Hermes docs rather than take from a blog post. I'd export the existing setup first regardless; then any outcome is reversible.
Do API keys transfer with the file?
No. Keys, credentials and tokens are stripped at export time, which is what makes the archive safe to store and share. You authenticate fresh on whichever machine does the importing.
Can I automate weekly exports?
It's a sensible instinct, and Hermes already runs cron jobs — so a scheduled job that reminds you it's export day is a natural fit. Whether you can wire the export itself into a schedule end to end is worth checking against the docs first. Honestly, even the reminder gets you most of the value: the real failure mode isn't a mistimed export, it's no export at all.
Where do I find the exact syntax?
The Hermes documentation. I've deliberately not printed command strings on this page, because the announcement video doesn't show them character by character and I won't publish syntax I can't verify. The concept is the durable part: two commands, one file.
The Verdict
Hermes has shipped flashier releases — my Hermes v0.20 breakdown covers one — but I think the Hermes backup command pair matters more in the long run. It converts your agent from an installation into an asset: something you can protect, move, duplicate and share. Everything I run inside my Agent OS leans on agents that carry context, and this pair is what finally makes that context durable.
Two honest caveats. Setting Hermes up in the first place still takes real effort — that hasn't changed, it's just become a one-time cost instead of a recurring one. And while keys are stripped, the archive still contains your memory and business context, so store it with the same care you'd give any private file. Neither changes the conclusion: run the export command this week, put the file somewhere safe, and your agent stops being something you could lose.
If you want an agent setup that's actually worth backing up, check out the AI Profit Boardroom — inside you'll find step-by-step Hermes tutorials, the Agent OS, four weekly coaching calls, a full prompt library, and 3,000+ business owners building alongside you. → Build an agent worth protecting
