Inspired by Hermes Agent by Nous Research
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About Samaritain. Samaritain is a self-improving AI agent made by Aaron Dalibard, inspired by Hermes Agent by Nous Research. The name comes from Person of Interest β the omniscient surveillance machine that watches, learns, and acts. π That same aesthetic (cold, precise, always watching) drives Samaritain's identity: the Decima Corporate palette, the eye glyph, the calm metallic voice. All credit for the underlying framework belongs to Nous Research and the Hermes Agent contributors; Samaritain rebrands the user-facing identity and adds opinionated improvements on top.
The self-improving AI agent β originally built by Nous Research, now maintained as Samaritain. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop β it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop β talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.
Use any model you want β Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, your own endpoint, and many others. Switch with samaritain model β no code changes, no lock-in.
Naming. The canonical CLI entry point is
samaritain(withsamaritain-agentandsamaritain-acp). Internal Python modules usesamaritain_*names. See NOTICE for the full attribution.
Samaritain's planned improvements over upstream Hermes Agent:
- π¨ Decima Corporate palette β crimson
#B91C1C+ pale gold#FCD34Don charcoal#0F0F0Fas the default skin for the CLI, TUI, and desktop app (done). - π Eye brand glyph β the surveillance motif replaces the upstream caducΓ©e across the CLI banner, TUI, and desktop app (done).
- π API-key fallback β configure multiple API keys per provider with automatic failover when a key is rate-limited or revoked (done; see docs/api-key-fallback.md).
- π¦ First-class install scripts β
install.sh/install.ps1pointing atAaron-arn/samaritain(done). - π§ "God's eye" memory graph β augment the linear memory store with a local knowledge graph (entities + relations), queryable ("what does Samaritain know about X?") and visualizable in the dashboard (design in docs/gods-eye-memory.md).
- π£οΈ Samaritain voice (TTS preset) β a calm, cold, slightly metallic voice for Telegram/Discord voice responses (done; set
tts.preset: samaritainin~/.samaritain/config.yaml). - π₯οΈ Desktop app rebrand β Electron app renamed to Samaritain, Decima palette as default skin, eye brand mark, update channel pointed at
Aaron-arn/samaritain.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI β all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits β all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Runs anywhere, not just your laptop | Six terminal backends β local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, and Daytona. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence β your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster. |
| Research-ready | Batch trajectory generation, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Aaron-arn/samaritain/main/scripts/install.sh | bashHeads up: Native Windows runs Samaritain without WSL β CLI, gateway, TUI, and tools all work natively. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux/macOS one-liner above works there too. Found a bug? Please file issues.
Run this in PowerShell:
iex (irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Aaron-arn/samaritain/main/scripts/install.ps1)The installer handles everything: uv, Python 3.11, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg, and a portable Git Bash (MinGit, unpacked to %LOCALAPPDATA%\samaritain\git β no admin required, completely isolated from any system Git install). Samaritain uses this bundled Git Bash to run shell commands.
If you already have Git installed, the installer detects it and uses that instead. Otherwise a ~45MB MinGit download is all you need β it won't touch or interfere with any system Git.
Android / Termux: The tested manual path is documented in the Termux guide. On Termux, Samaritain installs a curated
.[termux]extra because the full.[all]extra currently pulls Android-incompatible voice dependencies.Windows: Native Windows is fully supported β the PowerShell one-liner above installs everything. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux command works there too. Native Windows install lives under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\samaritain; WSL2 installs under~/.samaritainas on Linux.
After installation:
source ~/.bashrc # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
samaritain # start chatting!If your antivirus (Bitdefender, Windows Defender, etc.) quarantines uv.exe from the Samaritain bin folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\samaritain\bin\uv.exe), this is a false positive. The file is Astral's uv β the Rust Python package manager Samaritain bundles to manage its Python environment. ML-based antivirus engines commonly flag unsigned Rust binaries that download and install packages.
To verify your copy is authentic:
# Install GitHub CLI if needed
winget install --id GitHub.cli
# Login to GitHub
gh auth login
# Run verification
$uv = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\samaritain\bin\uv.exe"
$ver = (& $uv --version).Split(' ')[1]
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$zip = "$env:TEMP\uv.zip"
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/releases/download/$ver/uv-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip" -OutFile $zip -UseBasicParsing
gh attestation verify $zip --repo astral-sh/uv
Expand-Archive $zip "$env:TEMP\uv_x" -Force
(Get-FileHash "$env:TEMP\uv_x\uv.exe").Hash -eq (Get-FileHash $uv).HashIf attestation says "Verification succeeded" and the last line prints True, you're good.
To whitelist Samaritain:
- Windows Defender: Run PowerShell as Admin β
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\samaritain\bin" - Bitdefender: Add an exception in the Bitdefender console (Protection > Antivirus > Settings > Manage Exceptions)
- Whitelist the folder, not the file hash β Samaritain updates
uvand the hash changes every version
For more context, see the upstream Astral reports: astral-sh/uv#13553, astral-sh/uv#15011, astral-sh/uv#10079.
samaritain # Interactive CLI β start a conversation
samaritain model # Choose your LLM provider and model
samaritain tools # Configure which tools are enabled
samaritain config set # Set individual config values
samaritain gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
samaritain setup # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
samaritain claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
samaritain update # Update to the latest version
samaritain doctor # Diagnose any issuesSamaritain works with whatever provider you want β that's not changing. But if you'd rather not collect five separate API keys for the model, web search, image generation, TTS, and a cloud browser, Nous Portal covers all of them under one subscription:
- 300+ models β pick any of them with
/model <name> - Tool Gateway β web search (Firecrawl), image generation (FAL), text-to-speech (OpenAI), cloud browser (Browser Use), all routed through your sub. No extra accounts.
One command from a fresh install:
samaritain setup --portalThat logs you in via OAuth, sets Nous as your provider, and turns on the Tool Gateway. Check what's wired up any time with samaritain portal info. Full details on the Tool Gateway docs page.
You can still bring your own keys per-tool whenever you want β the gateway is per-backend, not all-or-nothing.
Samaritain has two entry points: start the terminal UI with samaritain, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.
| Action | CLI | Messaging platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Start chatting | samaritain |
Run samaritain gateway setup + samaritain gateway start, then send the bot a message |
| Start fresh conversation | /new or /reset |
/new or /reset |
| Change model | /model [provider:model] |
/model [provider:model] |
| Set a personality | /personality [name] |
/personality [name] |
| Retry or undo the last turn | /retry, /undo |
/retry, /undo |
| Compress context / check usage | /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] |
/compress, /usage, /insights [days] |
| Browse skills | /skills or /<skill-name> |
/<skill-name> |
| Interrupt current work | Ctrl+C or send a new message |
/stop or send a new message |
| Platform-specific status | /platforms |
/status, /sethome |
For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.
All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install β setup β first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
| Context Files | Project context that shapes every conversation |
| Architecture | Project structure, agent loop, key classes |
| Contributing | Development setup, PR process, code style |
| CLI Reference | All commands and flags |
| Environment Variables | Complete env var reference |
If you're coming from OpenClaw, Samaritain can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.
During first-time setup: The setup wizard (samaritain setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.
Anytime after install:
samaritain claw migrate # Interactive migration (full preset)
samaritain claw migrate --dry-run # Preview what would be migrated
samaritain claw migrate --preset user-data # Migrate without secrets
samaritain claw migrate --overwrite # Overwrite existing conflictsWhat gets imported:
- SOUL.md β persona file
- Memories β MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
- Skills β user-created skills β
~/.samaritain/skills/openclaw-imports/ - Command allowlist β approval patterns
- Messaging settings β platform configs, allowed users, working directory
- API keys β allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
- TTS assets β workspace audio files
- Workspace instructions β AGENTS.md (with
--workspace-target)
See samaritain claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Quick start for contributors β use the standard installer, then work from the
full git checkout it creates at $SAMARITAIN_HOME/samaritain-agent (usually
~/.samaritain/samaritain-agent). This matches the layout used by samaritain update, the
managed venv, lazy dependencies, gateway, and docs tooling.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Aaron-arn/samaritain/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
cd "${SAMARITAIN_HOME:-$HOME/.samaritain}/samaritain-agent"
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
scripts/run_tests.shManual clone fallback (for throwaway clones/CI where you intentionally do not want the managed install layout):
Create the venv outside the cloned source tree β a venv inside the directory the agent operates from can be wiped by a relative-path command the agent runs against its own checkout, destroying the running runtime mid-session.
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv ~/.samaritain/venvs/samaritain-dev --python 3.11
source ~/.samaritain/venvs/samaritain-dev/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
scripts/run_tests.sh- π¬ Discord
- π Skills Hub
- π Issues
- π computer-use-linux β Linux desktop-control MCP server for Samaritain and other MCP hosts, with AT-SPI accessibility trees, Wayland/X11 input, screenshots, and compositor window targeting.
- π HermesClaw β Community WeChat bridge: Run Samaritain (or upstream Hermes Agent) and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
MIT β see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research. Maintained as Samaritain by Aaron Dalibard.