Nous Research to make Hermes Agent leaner: bundled memory providers become plugins
What's the deal? TekniumDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, co-founder of Nous Research, said on 17 September 2026 that the company will make Hermes Agent "more like Pi, and less like OpenClawDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →" — meaning a leaner core with bundled integrations pulled out and distributed as plugins. The first step is removing all bundled memory providers, which will be maintained by their creators in their own repositories and listed in Hermes's plugins market. Teknium framed the move as a test run for pulling integrations out of the core codebase, easing the maintenance and support burden on the team. Hermes Agent ships with a default memory system, but third-party providers such as HonchoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (by Plastic Labs) and Mem0 will no longer be bundled with the core.
Why it matters: The change signals a product-philosophy shift for one of the fastest-growing open-source agent frameworks of 2026: a smaller, well-maintained core extended through a plugins ecosystem rather than a bundle that maintained integrations on behalf of partners. Teknium said the plugins API was already strong enough to support tool providers and memory systems, but lacked discoverability until the plugins catalog launched. Nous will work directly with memory providers to migrate users to the independent plugins automatically, so there is no interruption to existing setups.
- Leaner core: bundling and packaging fewer things with the core agent, more plugins.
- Memory providers first: bundled providers move to maintainer-owned repositories and the plugins market.
- Not a pivot: Teknium clarified the change is architectural scope, not a shift away from being a personal assistant agent towards becoming a coding agent.
- Further stages: the memory-provider migration is the first stage; more integrations are expected to follow.
Read more: Teknium on X (17 September 2026)
