How-To Series · Episode 42 / 59 · Module 7: Power Tools

Hermes · MCP

GitHub, your database, Stripe, Notion. Plug them in once.

After this videoYou can now connect Hermes to anything that speaks MCP.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, lets Hermes borrow tools that already exist instead of writing a native tool for every service. Point it at a server and Hermes auto-discovers the tools. Two kinds, both under mcp_servers in config.yaml: stdio (a local subprocess with command/args/env) and HTTP (a remote url + headers). Add via config or hermes mcp add --preset, restart, and the tools appear, prefixed mcp_<server>_<tool> so they never collide. Per-server filtering (include / exclude / enabled: false) doubles as a security control. It goes both ways too: hermes mcp serve turns Hermes into an MCP server other agents can use.

About these resources. Every command in this video comes from the MCP doc.

Sources · What this video distills

1 docs page · every command below traces to one of them
Primary · stdio vs HTTP servers, config, presets, tool prefixing, per-server filtering, hermes mcp serve
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Read ↗

Commands shown · Copy and paste

each shows the source doc it came from
Add a server (config.yaml)from source ↗
mcp_servers.github: { command: "npx", args: ["-y","@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"], env: { GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: "***" } }
Preset shortcutfrom source ↗
hermes mcp add codex --preset codex
Reload after changesfrom source ↗
/reload-mcp
Run Hermes as an MCP serverfrom source ↗
hermes mcp serve

Going deeper · Related Hermes docs

further reading · not sources of facts shown above

Next in the series · Episodes that build on this

E43
Built-In Plugins Tour
E44
Build Your Own Plugin
E49
In Your Editor (ACP)