Edit videos with Hermes Agent

Hermes is Nous Research's autonomous agent. It runs as a CLI, a desktop app, and across 20+ messaging platforms (Telegram, Discord, Slack). Add PandaStudio as an MCP server and you can edit videos by chatting with Hermes from anywhere it runs.

Install PandaStudio + Hermes Agent

PandaStudio from writepanda.ai. Hermes installs with one command on macOS, Linux, or Windows (WSL2):

bash

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

Then run hermes setup --portal to log in via the Nous portal. Verify with hermes --version.

Enable MCP support inside Hermes

Hermes ships with MCP as an opt-in extra. Install it once:

bash

cd ~/.hermes/hermes-agent && uv pip install -e ".[mcp]"

Install Node.js if missing

bash

node --version

Need 18+. Hermes spawns the PandaStudio MCP server via npx, which needs Node on PATH. nodejs.org.

Enable PandaStudio's automation server + copy the token

PandaStudio's automation server is localhost-only and gated by a bearer token. To find your token:

Open PandaStudio on your machine.
Go to Settings → Automation.
Toggle Enable automation server on. A bearer token will appear — copy it.

The token is a random 32-byte secret stored in your OS keychain. It never leaves your machine — agents only need it because the local HTTP server requires it on every request.

Install the PandaStudio Skill

The Skill teaches Hermes PandaStudio's full command surface. Run once:

bash

npx skills add kamskans/pandastudio-skills

The installer detects Hermes and copies the Skill into its skills directory (~/.hermes/skills/pandastudio/).

Register PandaStudio as an MCP server

Two ways. The fast one is a single CLI command:

bash

hermes mcp add pandastudio --command npx --args -y,@writepanda/mcp

The other is to edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml directly and add the mcp_servers block:

~/.hermes/config.yaml

mcp_servers:
  pandastudio:
    command: "npx"
    args: ["-y", "@writepanda/mcp"]
    env:
      PANDASTUDIO_TOKEN: "paste-your-token-here"

Either way, replace paste-your-token-here with the token from Step 4. Reload Hermes by typing /reload-mcp in chat or by restarting the agent.

Drive PandaStudio from any Hermes surface

Talk to Hermes from the terminal, the desktop app, or any of the connected messaging platforms:

"Open my latest recording, transcribe it, remove filler words and silences, then export an MP4."
"Create a new 9:16 project, import the file at ~/Recordings/launch.mov, add bold captions, and preview it."
"List all my projects from this week and tell me which one is longest."

Hermes asks "Tell me which MCP-backed tools are available" to confirm the wiring worked. After that, every PandaStudio verb shows up in the tool list and Hermes picks from them autonomously based on the task.

Troubleshooting

PandaStudio doesn't appear after a reload — check the YAML indentation. mcp_servers is a top-level key, the server name is one level deeper, and command / args /env are one more level in. YAML eats silent failures on indent mistakes.
Running Hermes on Windows via WSL2 — launch from a Windows-mounted path (/mnt/c/...) when Windows-side binaries are involved. Pure WSL stays inside the WSL filesystem.
Want to scope which tools Hermes can call? — add a tools.include array under the server block to whitelist specific verbs (e.g. [project_list, project_show, motion_generate]), so Hermes can't accidentally call destructive ones like project_delete.

Reference

CLI & MCP commands

Browse all 60+ verb-noun commands the agent can call.