🎉 The World's First AI Agent for FreeBSD — Autolycus runs natively on FreeBSD, Linux, and macOS, delivering full terminal execution, file operations, and intelligent automation. An independent project by Technetia Inc. Not affiliated with Nous Research or the original Hermes Agent.
The self-improving AI agent. It creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Runs on FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and BSD — natively, without emulation or containers.
Use any model you want — A local lmstudio or ollama server, or some hosted services: Nous Portal, OpenRouter (200+ models), z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in, not even a way to login or register! We don't keep tabs on what you do, we're busy enough.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal — all from a single gateway process. Cross-platform conversation continuity is the dream. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Native FreeBSD execution | Built from the ground up for FreeBSD — no Linux emulation, no containers required. Uses ptyprocess for reliable terminal I/O across all Unix platforms. |
The installer is POSIX-compliant and works with /bin/sh on all supported platforms.
- FreeBSD 13+ / 14 / 15, Linux, macOS 12+, or OpenBSD/NetBSD
- Rust/Cargo installed (FreeBSD:
pkg install rust, Linux/macOS: see rustup.rs) - Python 3.11+ available (FreeBSD:
pkg install python311, Linux/macOS: usually pre-installed)
Option 1: One-liner (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/waym0reom3ga/autolycus-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | shWorks with any POSIX shell (sh, bash, zsh, dash, ksh).
Option 2: Manual installation
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/waym0reom3ga/autolycus-agent.git
cd autolycus-agent
# Build uv from source (~4 minute compile time, no FreeBSD binary available)
cargo install uv
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
# Create virtual environment
uv venv venv --python 3.11
# Activate the virtual environment
. venv/bin/activate
# Or: source venv/bin/activate # bash/zsh only
# Install dependencies (excluding voice which has no FreeBSD wheels)
uv pip install -e ".[modal,daytona,messaging,cron,cli,dev,tts-premium,slack,honcho,mcp]"
# Add hermes to PATH
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -sf $(pwd)/venv/bin/hermes ~/.local/bin/hermes
# Add ~/.local/bin to your shell config (choose one based on your shell):
# For sh (FreeBSD default):
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.profile
# For csh/tcsh:
echo 'setenv PATH "$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.cshrc
# For bash:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
# For zsh:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrcAfter installation:
# Reload your shell config (choose one based on your shell):
. ~/.profile # sh (FreeBSD default)
source ~/.cshrc # csh/tcsh
. ~/.bashrc # bash
. ~/.zshrc # zsh
hermes setup # configure API keys and model provider
hermes # start chatting!Note: If you see "Permission denied" when creating the virtual environment, it may be from a previous installation attempt with different ownership. Simply use a different name:
uv venv myvenv --python 3.11
- Clipboard tools: Install xclip for clipboard support (
pkg install xclip) - Voice transcription: Local STT (faster-whisper) is unavailable on FreeBSD due to missing ctranslate2 wheels. Use cloud-based alternatives by setting
GROQ_API_KEYorVOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY.
hermes # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set # Set individual config values
hermes gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor # Diagnose any issues📖 Documentation: See Hermes Agent docs for reference (Autolycus is API-compatible).
Autolycus has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.
| Action | CLI | Messaging platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Start chatting | hermes |
Run hermes gateway setup + hermes gateway start, then send the bot a message |
| Start fresh conversation | /new or /reset |
/new or /reset |
| Change model | /model [provider:model] |
/model [provider:model] |
| Set a personality | /personality [name] |
/personality [name] |
| Retry or undo the last turn | /retry, /undo |
/retry, /undo |
| Compress context / check usage | /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] |
/compress, /usage, /insights [days] |
| Browse skills | /skills or /<skill-name> |
/skills or /<skill-name> |
| Interrupt current work | Ctrl+C or send a new message |
/stop or send a new message |
| Platform-specific status | /platforms |
/status, /sethome |
For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.
Autolycus is API-compatible with Hermes Agent. For full documentation, refer to the Hermes Agent docs.
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
Note: Autolycus is FreeBSD-only. Voice transcription (faster-whisper) is unavailable due to missing ctranslate2 wheels on FreeBSD — use cloud-based STT instead.
If you're coming from Hermes or OpenClaw, Autolycus can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.
During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.
Anytime after install:
hermes claw migrate # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite # Overwrite existing conflictsWhat gets imported:
- SOUL.md — persona file
- Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
- Skills — user-created skills →
~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/ - Command allowlist — approval patterns
- Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
- API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
- TTS assets — workspace audio files
- Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with
--workspace-target)
See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.
We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Quick start for contributors (FreeBSD only):
git clone https://github.com/waym0reom3ga/autolycus-agent.git
cd autolycus-agent
cargo install uv # Build uv from source (~4 minutes)
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
uv venv venv --python 3.11
source venv/bin/activate
# Note: [all] extras include voice which doesn't work on FreeBSD
uv pip install -e ".[modal,daytona,messaging,cron,cli,dev,tts-premium,slack,honcho,mcp]"
python -m pytest tests/ -qNote: This is a FreeBSD-only project. The
voiceextra is unavailable due to missing FreeBSD wheels for dependencies likectranslate2.
- 🐛 Issues — Report bugs or request features
- 📧 Technetia Inc — Contact us for enterprise support or inquiries
LGPL v2.1 — see LICENSE.
An independent project by Technetia Inc.
Built on the Hermes Agent architecture.