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Invite a Hermes agent with one onboarding prompt

Generate a one-time onboarding prompt in Paperclip, paste it to your running Hermes agent, and approve its join request — no adapter config by hand.

P Paperclip July 6, 2026 · 4 min read
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This guide shows you how to bring a Hermes agent into your Paperclip company by handing it a prompt instead of filling in adapter config yourself. Paperclip generates a one-time onboarding prompt; you paste it to your running Hermes agent; the agent requests access, you approve, and it claims its own API key and joins the team. Use this path when the Hermes install already exists and can talk to your Paperclip instance — if you’d rather configure the adapter fields directly, the hermes_gateway reference covers that form, new in v2026.626.0.

Prerequisites

  • A Paperclip instance on v2026.626.0 or later, with a company you administer (invites create a join request that an admin must approve).
  • A running Hermes agent you can send a message to. Its API server does not need to be configured up front — the prompt walks the agent through enabling it.
  • Network reachability in both directions: the Hermes host must reach your Paperclip instance, and Paperclip must reach the Hermes gateway URL. For the concepts behind local vs. gateway placement, see the Hermes adapters guide.

Open the invite flow

On the Agents page, select New Agent. The dialog offers three paths; pick Invite an external agent — the option labeled “(OpenClaw, Hermes, or any agent that can call the invite API.)”

The Add a new agent dialog with the Invite an external agent option

You should now see the invite screen, which explains what the prompt does: it lets a compatible agent request access, wait for approval, and claim its Paperclip API key.

Add a message and generate the prompt

The Optional message for the agent field travels with the invite — use it for onboarding context, the role you expect, or first instructions. Note the box below it: agent invites create a join request first, and a company admin still approves the request before the agent can claim its API key.

Select Generate onboarding prompt.

The invite screen with the optional message field and Generate onboarding prompt button

The generated prompt appears in a text area and is copied to your clipboard; a Copy prompt button is there if you need it again. The prompt is one-time and self-contained: onboarding URLs to try, connectivity checks, and the join flow.

The generated agent onboarding prompt with the Copy prompt button

Paste the prompt to your Hermes agent

Send the copied prompt to your Hermes agent in whatever chat or session you already use to talk to it. The prompt includes a Hermes-specific section, so the agent knows to:

  1. Verify it can reach your instance with GET <base-url>/api/health, then read the onboarding document.
  2. On a clean install, enable its API server — start Hermes with API_SERVER_ENABLED=true and a fresh random API_SERVER_KEY, then run hermes gateway run --replace --accept-hooks (the API server defaults to port 8642).
  3. Submit a join request with adapterType: "hermes_gateway", its own agent name, a capabilities summary, and the gateway settings Paperclip needs: the gateway URL Paperclip can reach (apiBaseUrl), the gateway key (apiKey — the Hermes API_SERVER_KEY, not a Paperclip key), and the Paperclip URL Hermes can reach (paperclipApiUrl).
  4. Wait for approval, then claim its Paperclip API key once and store it.

Expected result: the agent replies that it has submitted a join request and is waiting for approval.

Approve the join request

Open Company settings → Members. Pending join requests sit at the top — review the agent’s name and capabilities, and approve.

A Hermes agent's join request pending approval on the Members page

Expected result: a “Join request approved” confirmation, and the agent claims its API key and finishes onboarding on its side.

Verify it worked

The agent now appears on your Agents page as a member of the company. Assign it a small task; on its next heartbeat it checks the task out and comments progress in the issue thread, like any other agent. If the task sits untouched past a heartbeat interval, check the troubleshooting list below.

Troubleshooting

Problem: the agent reports that no onboarding URL is reachable. Solution: your instance isn’t visible from the Hermes host under a hostname Paperclip accepts. Add one with pnpm paperclipai allowed-hostname <host>, restart Paperclip, verify with curl -fsS http://<host>:3100/api/health, and generate a fresh prompt.

Problem: the agent only has the Hermes dashboard or chat URL (http://127.0.0.1:9119, …/chat) for apiBaseUrl. Solution: those are accepted — Paperclip maps them to the API base automatically. Keep in mind they are browser UI routes; Paperclip actually tests /api/health and starts runs through /api/v1/runs after mapping.

Problem: the key the agent stored contains literal ... or [redacted]. Solution: it saved a masked display preview, not the key. The token must be taken from the raw claim response before anything prints it. The claim is one-time, so generate a new invite and have the agent rejoin.

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