# Nemoclaw Hermes Swarm > Use when deploying Hermes bots in NemoClaw sandboxes. Bring up, extend, verify, and debug a sandboxed bot swarm with ./swarm. - Skill: `nvidia/nemoclaw-hermes-swarm` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add nvidia/nemoclaw-hermes-swarm` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/nvidia/nemoclaw-hermes-swarm/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - License: Apache-2.0 - Author: NVIDIA (https://skillmd.com/u/nvidia) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/nvidia/nemoclaw-hermes-swarm --- # Hermes bots in NemoClaw sandboxes You are operating the `nemoclaw-hermes-swarm` example. It runs several Hermes bots on one machine, each in its own OpenShell (NemoClaw) sandbox, with NeMo Relay tracing into an OpenTelemetry collector. Everything goes through one command, `./swarm`, in the example's root directory. The machine needs Docker, `openshell`, `nemoclaw`, and Hermes 0.21+. It can be a Linux host the user reaches over SSH, or the user's own Mac (Colima) or Linux box, where the bots appear in Desktop under "This device". An OpenAI-compatible inference endpoint must already exist; deploying a model is out of scope. ## Two habits first - **Never `openshell policy set`.** It replaces a sandbox's whole policy and silently drops its inference and teammate rules. Only ever add, and only through `./swarm` (which uses `nemoclaw policy-add`). - **Login shell for every remote command.** `openshell`, `nemoclaw`, and `hermes` live in `~/.local/bin`, which non-login shells do not put on PATH. `ssh host 'openshell ...'` fails with `command not found`. Use `ssh host 'bash -lc "cd ~/nemoclaw-hermes-swarm && ./swarm status"'`. ## From nothing to a working swarm ```bash cp swarm.env.example swarm.env # INFERENCE_BASE_URL, INFERENCE_MODEL umask 077; printf '%s' '' > ~/.secrets/inference.key ./swarm up ``` `swarm up` runs preflight, builds the image with Hermes baked in, starts the collector, creates every bot in `BOTS`, restores bots recorded by earlier `swarm add` commands, wires the mesh, and prints a status table. First run is 8 to 12 minutes, dominated by the image build and two sandbox creations. Re-running is idempotent and is also how you recover after a reboot: existing bots are restored, missing configured bots are created. Then have the user restart Hermes Desktop; the roster is read at launch. For a remote host they first add it under Settings, Connections, Add connection, SSH. For their own machine there is nothing to add. ## One bot at a time ```bash ./swarm add nemoclaw-analyst --soul souls/nemoclaw-researcher.md # meshed to all others ./swarm add nemoclaw-analyst --soul ./my-role.md ./swarm rm nemoclaw-analyst --yes # sandbox, profile, key, peers ./swarm ls ./swarm status # health ladder per bot ./swarm test # configuration-aware live suite ./swarm traces nemoclaw-analyst # relay state + collector counters ``` `add` takes 3 to 4 minutes, so give the terminal tool a timeout of at least 600 seconds. New bots share the inference endpoint; there is no model load. If a tool call still times out mid-`add`, do not conclude failure: run `./swarm ls` and `./swarm status` and read the result. `add` refuses a name that is already tracked; use `./swarm up` to restore or reconcile it, or remove it explicitly before changing its role. `./swarm` fixes its own environment (real `HOME` from the passwd database, `HERMES_HOME`/`HERMES_PROFILE` cleared, `~/.local/bin` on `PATH`), so it works from an agent's terminal tool, where `HOME` is rewritten to the profile's private directory. Do not wrap it in `hermes -p`. If a bot creation ever stops right after `api port NNNN` with exit 1 and no error, that is the symptom of an older copy without this fix: the key file was looked up under the wrong home. ## Writing a role (SOUL) The soul file is the bot's system prompt and matters more than any config. Give it a method rather than an identity. Two paragraphs that fixed observed failures: ```markdown Deliver a usable answer in THE SAME MESSAGE. Never ask the user to scope the task and never promise to report back later. Nothing re-prompts you. If a source is unreachable, report what you have and name the blocker in one line. Three failed attempts with the same tool means the path is closed. ``` Never let a bot claim a fact a tool did not return this session. Without a reachable source, models produce plausible issue numbers and versions from training data. `swarm add` appends a short Runtime section (you are a NemoClaw bot in sandbox X, here is what you can reach) and a Teammates section to whatever soul you give it. Name bots `nemoclaw-`. The name is the @handle in Desktop, the host profile, and the sandbox, so the roster reads as a fleet of NemoClaw bots. To give one bot more network reach than the others, add `policies/.yaml` (a preset; see `policies/nemoclaw-researcher.yaml`). `swarm add` applies it automatically when the file exists. Bots without a file get only the model endpoint, the collector, and their teammates. For a local video that an owned, Ready `nemoclaw-vss` bot should analyze, the host operator must add it explicitly: ```bash ./swarm video-add /absolute/path/to/clip.mp4 ``` Use the sanitized filename the command prints in chat. Chat text and Desktop attachments never select or copy host files. The VSS tools accept only a file already under `/sandbox/videos`, never a URL or host path. The operator command accepts one nonempty, regular, non-symlink `.mp4`, `.webm`, `.mov`, `.mkv`, or `.avi` no larger than 40 MiB. ## Diagnosing "a bot is down" In this order. Stop at the first failure. 1. **Is the Desktop app running on the user's machine?** `pgrep -f "Hermes.app/Contents/MacOS/Hermes"`. Several bots erroring at once with no error text is nearly always the client having exited. Relaunch. 2. **Does the bot answer directly?** `hermes -p chat -q "Reply with OK"` on the host. A reply means the bot is fine and the fault is Desktop-side. 3. **Is the model endpoint up?** `./swarm doctor` checks auth and that the model is listed. Since 0.21 a dead endpoint surfaces in Desktop as `[reason: model_unavailable]` rather than a generic error. 4. **`./swarm status`.** Each rung is a real probe: sandbox phase, api_server 200, a chat turn through the sandbox, relay active, host profile running. 5. **Restart the Desktop app.** Every in-sandbox gateway restart invalidates the Desktop's backend, so `swarm up` after a reboot means the user restarts the app too. Never restart gateways right before a demonstration. ## Failures that look like something else - **Bot works over HTTP but is missing from the roster.** Two gateways per bot: one inside the sandbox (serves the api_server), one on the host (`hermes -p gateway run`) that makes the profile report `running`. The roster lists only the second. `swarm up` starts both; `swarm status` checks both. - **`403` vs `502` vs `000` from inside a sandbox.** 403: policy denied it (host not allowed, *or the calling binary is not listed*; policies bind to both). 502: allowed, but nothing listening, usually a service on host loopback. 000 with `CONNECT tunnel failed, response 403` in stderr: HTTPS to an unlisted host, also a denial. `127.0.0.1` inside a sandbox is the sandbox; cross to the host with `host.openshell.internal`. - **`policy-add` says `Preset must declare preset.name`.** Files given to policy-add are presets: top-level `preset: {name, description}`, no `version:`. `policies/otlp-export.yaml` is the reference shape. - **`message_teammate` says "No API key available … HERMES_PEER_NEMOCLAW-X_KEY".** An old copy of the teammates plugin; Hermes turns dashes into underscores in that variable name and the plugin now does too. `swarm up` reinstalls it. - **Relay "not active" but spans arrive.** The activation line is logged at INFO to `/sandbox/.hermes/logs/agent.log` inside the sandbox, not `gateway.log` and not the stderr captured on the host. Trust the collector counters (`./swarm traces `); they are the only delivery signal. - **A repeated identical prompt returns instantly and no new session appears.** The api_server dedupes identical requests through its response store. Use a unique token when probing. - **`swarm rm` printed nothing.** It asked for confirmation on a stdin that was closed. Pass `--yes` when scripting. - **Removed bots reappear as `stopped` profiles a minute later.** The Desktop's host backend (`hermes serve --isolated`) cached the profile list at start and its cron ticker recreates `/cron/` every 60 s. Kill that process, remove its `~/.hermes/desktop-ssh//`, delete the ghosts, and have the user restart Desktop. - **A bot replies `(pass)`.** Correct. The room prompt says reply only with something new. - **A chained task stalls.** `@b research, @c summarise, @a brief` deadlocks when `@b` never got the message. Check whether the *first* bot in the chain received anything. ## Traps in your own diagnostics - **`gateway.pid` holds JSON**, not a bare PID. Ask `hermes profile list`. - **Nested shell quoting mangles keys** and yields 401s from healthy endpoints. Read keys from files inside a script; never interpolate them through `ssh '… "… \"…\" …" …'`. Same for `python -c` through `sandbox exec`: two shells eat the quotes. Use a heredoc on stdin. - **`pkill -f ` over SSH can match your own session** and kill it. Patterns that include the sandbox name (`sandbox exec -n nemoclaw-x`) match the ssh command that contains them. Kill by PID or by a pattern the outer command cannot contain (`--timeout 0`). - **`docker ps` showing `Up` proves nothing.** Probe the port. ## Before claiming success Run `./swarm test` and quote its `SUMMARY: N passed, 0 failed` line along with the enabled sections. The total varies with the tracked bots and optional services. If something failed, name the check and the error rather than reporting a clean run. Do not trust a bot's self-description; it can recite its role while every tool is broken. For a public change, `./swarm presubmit` gates secrets, internal hostnames, SPDX headers, and shell syntax. ## Deeper reading | Topic | File | |---|---| | How the pieces fit, network boundaries | `docs/architecture.md` | | Symptoms and fixes | `docs/troubleshooting.md` | | Roles, policies, models | `docs/customizing.md` | | Tracing: Relay, collector, LangSmith | `docs/tracing.md` | | What is and is not protected | `SECURITY.md` |