Hermes Agent on a Raspberry Pi: real setups
Most people here run the agent on the Pi and the model at a cloud provider. The recurring problems are SD cards dying, 4 GB boards slowing down with several agents, and 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS failing to build packages during updates.
10 public reports, summarized and credited to their authors. We haven't run them ourselves. Checked Oct 22, 2026.
Quick answers
- Can a Raspberry Pi run Hermes Agent?
- Yes, and most people run the model at a cloud provider. On a Pi 5 with 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, one install guide saw the idle agent use just over 250 MB of RAM, and the install took about 2.8 GB of disk. A Pi 4 also works with a cloud model but installs and starts slower.
- Can Hermes Agent use a local model on a Raspberry Pi?
- Only some. Hermes needs 64K of context, so small models like Llama 3.2, Qwen 2.5 and Qwen3 1.7B are rejected. Gemma 4 (gemma4:e2b) passes, and the guide suggests the 8 GB Pi 5 for it. It didn't benchmark the speed.
- What goes wrong running Hermes on a Pi?
- SD cards dying (one Pi 5 owner lost two and moved to an SSD), 4 GB boards slowing down with several agents or PDFs at once, and 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS failing to build packages like Pillow during hermes update.
From the reports below. Sources are linked on each one.
Raspberry Pi 5
- RAM
- 8 GB
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- SATA SSD
- Worked
- Runs fine on a SATA SSD. Prompts take a while to process at the Pi's speed.
- Broke
- Two SD cards died, so they moved to an SSD. File search gets slow when the agent searches too broadly.
u/someoneyouknow23 · 2026-09-30 · r/hermesagent: Anyone running Hermes on a Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi 500+
- RAM
- 16 GB, 256 GB storage
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- Several profiles and Linux users, WhatsApp gateway, Hermes Desktop over remote desktop
- Worked
- A dedicated Pi shared with a few friends through a WhatsApp group chat, plus a separate user with remote desktop for Hermes Desktop. It sends a push notification when a job finishes or gets stuck. Default memory, with the agent keeping PLAN.md, SPEC.md and PROGRESS.md files per project.
- Broke
- Nothing reported.
u/DriverX310 · 2026-10-01 · r/hermesagent: Anyone running Hermes on a Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi 5
- RAM
- 8 GB
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- USB SSD
- Worked
- Says it usually doesn't use much in the way of resources.
- Broke
- Nothing reported.
u/CommanderROR9 · 2026-08-14 · r/hermesagent: Which hardware do you recommend running Hermes 24/7
Raspberry Pi 4
- RAM
- 4 GB, 1 TB SSD over USB 3.0
- Model runs
- API
- Setup
- Headless Linux
- Worked
- Ran well for API-only use.
- Broke
- Slowed down when processing several PDF files or running several agents at once, so they started shopping for a mini PC.
u/Outrageous-Edge-3914 · 2026-08-13 · r/hermesagent: Which hardware do you recommend running Hermes 24/7
Raspberry Pi 4B
- RAM
- 4 GB, SanDisk T5 SSD over USB
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Worked
- Runs, with a similar setup to the Pi 4 above.
- Broke
- Hitting RAM limits. Plans to move to a Beelink SER8 mini PC with 32 or 64 GB.
u/Cancer2977 · 2026-08-14 · r/hermesagent: Which hardware do you recommend running Hermes 24/7
Raspberry Pi 4
- RAM
- 8 GB
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Worked
- Ran Hermes on it before switching.
- Broke
- Moved to a Mac mini M4 (16 GB) after the same slowdown as the 4 GB Pi above, and to free the Pi for another project.
u/itsdodobitch · 2026-08-13 · r/hermesagent: Which hardware do you recommend running Hermes 24/7
Raspberry Pi 5
- RAM
- 4 GB (8 GB suggested for local models)
- Model runs
- API (OpenRouter); local Ollama tried
- Model
- Cloud model via OpenRouter; gemma4:e2b for local
- Setup
- Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, Hermes 0.21.6, Telegram, systemd service via hermes gateway install
- Worked
- The idle agent used just over 250 MB of RAM. The install takes about 2.8 GB of disk. A Pi 4 also works with a cloud model, but installs and starts slower.
- Broke
- Small local models like Llama 3.2, Qwen 2.5 and Qwen3 1.7B are rejected because Hermes needs 64K of context. Gemma 4 (gemma4:e2b) passes, but the guide suggests the 8 GB Pi 5 for it and didn't benchmark its speed.
raspberry.tips · 2026-10 · raspberry.tips: Install Hermes Agent on Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi (aarch64)
- RAM
- Not stated
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- Two Hermes profiles, each with its own Telegram gateway as a systemd service
- Worked
- The Pi itself was healthy: no disk, RAM or swap pressure, normal temperature, no throttling.
- Broke
- Both gateways crashed with SIGSEGV (exit 139) during Telegram reconnects after httpx.ReadError. The issue is closed on GitHub.
rab1dd0g · 2026-05-14 · GitHub issue #25666
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
- RAM
- 1 GB (per the same reporter's #8397)
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- Raspberry Pi OS 12 Bookworm, 32-bit (armv7l), Python 3.11.2, Hermes 0.19.0
- Worked
- Installing libjpeg62-turbo-dev let the failed update finish.
- Broke
- hermes update, including Telegram /update, failed while building Pillow from source. PyPI has no 32-bit ARM wheel for it, and uv doesn't read the piwheels setting Raspberry Pi OS uses. The same reporter's earlier issue (#8397) describes installs hanging for hours on the Pi 3B while building voice dependencies.
arasovic · 2026-07-26 · GitHub issue #72132
Raspberry Pi with a 16K-page kernel (aarch64)
- RAM
- Not stated (RAM was not the problem)
- Model runs
- Not stated
- Setup
- Raspberry Pi OS, Hermes local browser tools
- Worked
- Debian's system Chromium starts fine on the same Pi.
- Broke
- The Chromium that Playwright ships crashes its GPU process right away with SIGSEGV, so the browser tools don't work, even though a health check can still look fine.
LordD9 · 2026-09-23 · GitHub issue #120672
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