We took Hermes Agent — Nous Research's Python/Electron AI agent — and SLERMed it: started ripping the whole thing out and rebuilding it from scratch in C11. Not a wrapper. Not a thin translation layer. A ground-up reimplementation that runs as a single native binary with zero Python dependency. It's an in-progress port — see Parity Summary for exactly how much is done.
SLERM (verb): to take someone's full work and make your own version from scratch. Not a fork — a ground-up reimplementation.
Version: v672 (PORT phase)
Last updated: 2026-09-15
Live counts from
make parity-walkway(sentinel PARITY:AUTO). Do not hand-edit — regenerated from the live scanner on every run.
Parity: 6,466 PORTED (35.5%) · 11,715 REAL_GAP (11 DA-4 stubs, 11,704 genuine) · 0 BOOTLEG
Watercup: 313 PASS / 22,604 total (1.4%) — trace-cup parity vs LIVE Python
Upstream sync checkpoint: 2,072 ahead / 2,560 behind upstream/main (last merge 2026-09-14 (upstream fetched)). The behind-count is the staleness timer.
git clone https://github.com/waefrebeorn/slermes
cd slermes
make -j$(nproc)
./slermesDependencies: build-essential libssl-dev libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev
| Doc | Description |
|---|---|
| Getting Started | Build, configure, run in 2 minutes |
| Architecture | System design, data flow, directory layout |
| CLI Commands | Slash commands with examples |
| TUI Reference | Terminal UI layout, shortcuts, RPC methods |
| Pet System | Petdex mascot install, configure, animate |
| Build System | Make targets, dependencies, packaging |
| Development | Building, testing, contributing |
| Parity Summary | Live parity scan results (what's ported vs. not) |
| Real Gap List | Honest REAL_GAPs across modules |
| FAP | Behavioral divergences the scanner can't see + the oracle harness |
| Water-Cup Parity Oracle | Trace-cup deep gate: right output, wrong path fails |
| Bootleg Audit | Empty-body audit: findings and fix campaign |
| Lib Audit | Dependency libs vs Python twins |
| Full Documentation | Complete documentation index |
The live scanner (tests/slermes_parity_battleground.py) is the single source of truth for completion. Run make parity-walkway to refresh all walkway files. Any number not from the scanner is stale — trust the scanner, not prose.
Slermes is an independent C11 fork of Hermes Agent. We pull Python source from upstream (NousResearch/hermes-agent) and port features to C. The fork-base merge keeps upstream as an ancestor (behind=0) while our C11 tree stays byte-identical. See BANNER.md for the canonical sync workflow.
Waefrebeorn Umbrella License v3.0 — custom source-available license. Not OSI-approved, not FSF-approved. See the LICENSE file.