Toolsets Reference

Toolsets are named bundles of tools that control what the agent can do. They’re the primary mechanism for configuring tool availability per platform, per session, or per task.

How Toolsets Work

Every tool belongs to exactly one toolset. When you enable a toolset, all tools in that bundle become available to the agent. Toolsets come in three kinds:

Core — A single logical group of related tools (e.g., file bundles read_file, write_file, patch, search_files)
Composite — Combines multiple core toolsets for a common scenario (e.g., debugging bundles file, terminal, and web tools)
Platform — A complete tool configuration for a specific deployment context (e.g., hermes-cli is the default for interactive CLI sessions)

Configuring Toolsets

Per-session (CLI)

hermes chat --toolsets web,file,terminal
hermes chat --toolsets debugging        # composite — expands to file + terminal + web
hermes chat --toolsets all              # everything

Per-platform (config.yaml)

toolsets:
  - hermes-cli          # default for CLI
  # - hermes-telegram   # override for Telegram gateway

Interactive management

hermes tools                            # curses UI to enable/disable per platform

Or in-session:

/tools list
/tools disable browser
/tools enable rl

Core Toolsets

Toolset	Tools	Purpose
`browser`	`browser_back`, `browser_click`, `browser_console`, `browser_get_images`, `browser_navigate`, `browser_press`, `browser_scroll`, `browser_snapshot`, `browser_type`, `browser_vision`, `web_search`	Full browser automation. Includes `web_search` as a fallback for quick lookups.
`clarify`	`clarify`	Ask the user a question when the agent needs clarification.
`code_execution`	`execute_code`	Run Python scripts that call Hermes tools programmatically.
`cronjob`	`cronjob`	Schedule and manage recurring tasks.
`delegation`	`delegate_task`	Spawn isolated subagent instances for parallel work.
`feishu_doc`	`feishu_doc_read`	Read Feishu/Lark document content. Used by the Feishu document-comment intelligent-reply handler.
`feishu_drive`	`feishu_drive_add_comment`, `feishu_drive_list_comments`, `feishu_drive_list_comment_replies`, `feishu_drive_reply_comment`	Feishu/Lark drive comment operations. Scoped to the comment agent; not exposed on `hermes-cli` or other messaging toolsets.
`file`	`patch`, `read_file`, `search_files`, `write_file`	File reading, writing, searching, and editing.
`homeassistant`	`ha_call_service`, `ha_get_state`, `ha_list_entities`, `ha_list_services`	Smart home control via Home Assistant. Only available when `HASS_TOKEN` is set.
`image_gen`	`image_generate`	Text-to-image generation via FAL.ai.
`memory`	`memory`	Persistent cross-session memory management.
`messaging`	`send_message`	Send messages to other platforms (Telegram, Discord, etc.) from within a session.
`moa`	`mixture_of_agents`	Multi-model consensus via Mixture of Agents.
`rl`	`rl_check_status`, `rl_edit_config`, `rl_get_current_config`, `rl_get_results`, `rl_list_environments`, `rl_list_runs`, `rl_select_environment`, `rl_start_training`, `rl_stop_training`, `rl_test_inference`	RL training environment management (Atropos).
`search`	`web_search`	Web search only (without extract).
`session_search`	`session_search`	Search past conversation sessions.
`skills`	`skill_manage`, `skill_view`, `skills_list`	Skill CRUD and browsing.
`terminal`	`process`, `terminal`	Shell command execution and background process management.
`todo`	`todo`	Task list management within a session.
`tts`	`text_to_speech`	Text-to-speech audio generation.
`vision`	`vision_analyze`	Image analysis via vision-capable models.
`web`	`web_extract`, `web_search`	Web search and page content extraction.

Composite Toolsets

These expand to multiple core toolsets, providing a convenient shorthand for common scenarios:

Toolset	Expands to	Use case
`debugging`	`web` + `file` + `process`, `terminal` (via `includes`) — effectively `patch`, `process`, `read_file`, `search_files`, `terminal`, `web_extract`, `web_search`, `write_file`	Debug sessions — file access, terminal, and web research without browser or delegation overhead.
`safe`	`image_generate`, `vision_analyze`, `web_extract`, `web_search`	Read-only research and media generation. No file writes, no terminal access, no code execution. Good for untrusted or constrained environments.

Platform Toolsets

Platform toolsets define the complete tool configuration for a deployment target. Most messaging platforms use the same set as hermes-cli:

Toolset	Differences from `hermes-cli`
`hermes-cli`	Full toolset — all 36 core tools including `clarify`. The default for interactive CLI sessions.
`hermes-acp`	Drops `clarify`, `cronjob`, `image_generate`, `send_message`, `text_to_speech`, homeassistant tools. Focused on coding tasks in IDE context.
`hermes-api-server`	Drops `clarify`, `send_message`, and `text_to_speech`. Adds everything else — suitable for programmatic access where user interaction isn’t possible.
`hermes-telegram`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-discord`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-slack`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-whatsapp`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-signal`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-matrix`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-mattermost`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-email`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-sms`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-bluebubbles`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-dingtalk`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-feishu`	Same as `hermes-cli`. Note: the `feishu_doc` / `feishu_drive` toolsets are used only by the document-comment handler, not by the regular Feishu chat adapter.
`hermes-qqbot`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-wecom`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-wecom-callback`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-weixin`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-homeassistant`	Same as `hermes-cli` plus the `homeassistant` toolset always on.
`hermes-webhook`	Same as `hermes-cli`.
`hermes-gateway`	Internal gateway orchestrator toolset — union of the broadest possible tool set when the gateway needs to accept any message source.

Dynamic Toolsets

MCP server toolsets

Each configured MCP server generates a mcp-<server> toolset at runtime. For example, if you configure a github MCP server, a mcp-github toolset is created containing all tools that server exposes.

# config.yaml
mcp_servers:
  github:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"]

This creates a mcp-github toolset you can reference in --toolsets or platform configs.

Plugin toolsets

Plugins can register their own toolsets via ctx.register_tool() during plugin initialization. These appear alongside built-in toolsets and can be enabled/disabled the same way.

Custom toolsets

Define custom toolsets in config.yaml to create project-specific bundles:

toolsets:
  - hermes-cli
custom_toolsets:
  data-science:
    - file
    - terminal
    - code_execution
    - web
    - vision

Wildcards

all or * — expands to every registered toolset (built-in + dynamic + plugin)

Relationship to `hermes tools`

The hermes tools command provides a curses-based UI for toggling individual tools on or off per platform. This operates at the tool level (finer than toolsets) and persists to config.yaml. Disabled tools are filtered out even if their toolset is enabled.

See also: Tools Reference for the complete list of individual tools and their parameters.