Hermes Agent v0.9.0 Closes the Feature Gap With OpenClaw

nous research just shipped hermes agent v0.9.0

we compared it with openclaw - feature by feature

verdict: the gap is gone

check the picture

our deeper OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent comparison

what v0.9.0 shipped

nous research released hermes agent v0.9.0 on april 13 and called it "the everywhere release". it came after 487 commits and 269 merged pull requests from 24 contributors. the main additions:

• android – hermes runs natively on phones through termux
• imessage and wechat – imessage via bluebubbles, wechat via the ilink bot api, plus a wecom callback mode for enterprise apps. hermes now works on 16 messaging platforms
• fast mode – the /fast command routes openai and anthropic models through priority queues for lower latency
• local web dashboard – settings, sessions and skills in a browser, without the terminal
• pluggable context engine – developers can swap in their own logic for what the agent sees each turn
• backup and restore – hermes backup and hermes import move configs, sessions, skills and memory between machines

the release also added native xai and xiaomi mimo providers, qwen oauth and a security hardening pass.

what the comparison shows

the table above checks 13 features against openclaw. hermes matches openclaw on 9 of them.

three rows are catch-up, where openclaw was first. openclaw shipped a pluggable context engine in early march and fast mode in its v2026.3.12 release. imessage support reached openclaw back in january.

one row goes to hermes alone: free access to qwen models through qwen oauth.

the table compares features only. it does not measure speed, cost or reliability.

update, october 16, 2026: six months later

both projects kept a fast release pace after april. the table shows where they stand today.

openclaw still has the bigger github following: about 392k stars against 254k.

usage tells a different story. on october 15, openrouter's daily list of top apps put hermes agent first with 1.68t tokens. openclaw was tenth with 195b.

hermes shipped 33 releases after v0.9.0, from v0.10.0 on april 16 to v0.22.2. openclaw shipped 174, most of them pre-releases.

in april hermes caught up on features. six months later it leads openclaw in openrouter usage, while openclaw keeps the larger github audience.

sources

• hermes agent v0.9.0 release notes – april 13, 2026
• openclaw v2026.3.12 release notes – fast mode, march 2026
• hermes agent releases – v0.10.0 to v0.22.2
• openclaw releases – v2026.10.10-beta.1, oct 15
• openrouter rankings – top apps, data through october 15, 2026