Customize Hermes CLI Appearance with Skins
Change Hermes CLI colors, spinner animations, branding, and response styling with built-in or custom skins.
Skins let you personalize the Hermes CLI — change banner colors, spinner animations, branding text, and response styling. Use built-in themes or create your own to match your aesthetic.
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Before you start:
- ☑Hermes Agent installed
- ☑Basic YAML knowledge for custom skins
Steps
- 1
View available skins
Built-in skins: default (gold/kawaii), ares (crimson/bronze), mono (grayscale), slate (cool blue)
- 2
Switch skins at runtime
Type /skin ares in the CLI to switch immediately
- 3
Set default skin
In config.yaml, set display: skin: ares
- 4
Create a custom skin
Add a YAML file to ~/.hermes/skins/my-theme.yaml
- 5
Define colors and branding
Set colors, spinner faces, thinking verbs, agent_name, and prompt_symbol
Pro Tips
- 💡Skin 'ares' has a crimson war-god theme with spinner wings — popular alternative to default
- 💡Skin 'mono' is clean grayscale — great for minimalist setups or low-color terminals
- 💡Custom skins inherit from default — only specify the fields you want to change
- 💡Colors use hex format: #FFD700 for gold, #DC143C for crimson
Troubleshooting
❌ Custom skin not appearing
✅ Ensure the file is at ~/.hermes/skins/name.yaml (not .yml). Run /skin name to activate.
❌ Colors not rendering
✅ Your terminal may not support true color. Try a simpler skin like 'mono' or check terminal color settings.
❌ Spinner animations not showing
✅ Spinner faces use Unicode characters. Ensure your terminal font supports them (Nerd Fonts recommended).