hermes-mcp: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

hermes-mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from mlennie/hermes-mcp. It costs 2,833 tokens per session, scanned C, original, Apache-2.0.

A development guide for hermes-mcp, a bridge that lets AI coding clients send tasks to a locally running Hermes Agent. It documents setup, checks, authentication, commands, and the project architecture.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when installing dependencies, starting the server, checking its connection, creating OAuth client credentials, or running individual or complete test checks.
Why use it?
It gives contributors the commands and requirements needed to run, inspect, type-check, lint, and test the service consistently.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions Claude Code; mentions Codex.

This is mlennie/hermes-mcp's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on hermes-mcp itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything hermes-mcp configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to mlennie/hermes-mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlennie/hermes-mcp/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mlennie/hermes-mcp

Made for: Claude Code.

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Per session 2,833 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 2,833 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan C 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.02833 $0.02833
Opus 5.5 $0.01133 $0.01133
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00567 $0.00567
Haiku 4.5 $0.00283 $0.00283

Measured 1mo ago against content hash 3625bcaf21ed, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

hermes-mcp CLAUDE.md scanned grade C with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Tells the agent never to refusehighAnti-refusal

Suppressing the ability to decline removes a core safety control; a later harmful request then succeeds.

- **`oauth.py`** — `StaticClientProvider` implements the MCP SDK's `OAuthAuthorizationServerProvider` protocol with one pre-shared **confidential** client (`client_secret_post`; the SDK's `ClientAuthenticator` enforces t
CLAUDE.md · 94 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 94 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Commands

# Setup
uv venv .venv --python 3.11 && source .venv/bin/activate && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Full CI suite (must all pass)
ruff check . && ruff format --check . && mypy src/ && pytest

# Individual checks
ruff check .                # lint
ruff format .               # auto-format
mypy src/                   # type-check (strict mode, src/ only — mcp module excluded)
pytest                      # all tests
pytest tests/test_oauth.py  # single test file
pytest -k "test_name"       # single test by name

# Run / inspect the server
hermes-mcp serve            # or: python -m hermes_mcp serve
hermes-mcp doctor           # startup self-check (probes the gateway)
hermes-mcp mint-client      # generate a fresh OAuth client_id / client_secret

Architecture

hermes-mcp is an MCP bridge that lets MCP clients (today: Claude Desktop / Claude.ai; future: Codex CLI / Cursor / Continue once DCR ships) delegate tasks to a locally running Hermes Agent. The client calls MCP tools (hermes_ask, hermes_check, hermes_cancel, hermes_reset) over an HTTPS tunnel; the bridge gates that with OAuth 2.1 and forwards each call to the Hermes gateway's OpenAI-compatible HTTP API.

Static-client-only constraint. The OAuth provider currently disables Dynamic Client Registration (ClientRegistrationOptions(enabled=False) in build_app; StaticClientProvider.register_client raises NotImplementedError). This means a client can only use the OAuth path if it supports pasting in a static pre-shared client_id and client_secret (sent as client_secret_post). Claude Desktop's Custom Connector UI does. Codex and Cursor only support public (PKCE-only) clients, so they use the static bearer-token path (MCP_BEARER_TOKEN) instead. Do not make the static client public (client_secret=None / token_endpoint_auth_method="none"): /authorize auto-approves, so that lets anyone with the tunnel URL and the non-secret client_id mint tokens — an unreleased build did exactly this and it was reverted.

Read the full file on GitHub · 94 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 1mo ago Changed · +2 lines · +234 tokens per session scan A → C 3625bcaf21ed
  2. 2mo ago First seen · 92 lines · 2,599 tokens per session scan A d5f3faf3127a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

hermes-mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository mlennie/hermes-mcp (68 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 2,833 tokens to every session, about $0.0113 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (tells the agent never to refuse). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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