Hermes Connection Help · Clief Notes

Hermes Connection Help

Hi Fam. Any Hermes users can assist with local connection issue?

I am trying to stabilize a recurring Hermes Desktop connection issue that has been happening for months. Claude/Codex need it fix it on nearly every bootup :(

The Windows Hermes Desktop app is configured in **remote mode**, not local gateway mode. It connects to a Hermes gateway running on a Hetzner VPS through a local SSH port forward.

The model: Hermes Desktop on Windows > Windows SSH local port forward > SSH into Hetzner server Hermes > Hermes gateway on VPS lookback via SSH (I am non-technical, so if this is not correct way tell me!)

When the issue happens, Hermes Desktop shows:

> Hermes couldn't start

> The background gateway didn't come up

> Your remote gateway session has expired

The immediate recovery is usually:

1. Restart the SSH tunnel.

2. Refresh the Electron remote OAuth/basic-auth session.

3. Relaunch Hermes Desktop.

This works, but it keeps recurring.

Claude's wording on what to ask my humanoid fellows: "My own strongest recommendation to ask humans to validate: use a supervised tunnel layer, probably `ssh.exe` wrapped by WinSW/NSSM with `ExitOnForwardFailure=yes`, `ServerAliveInterval`, and automatic restart, or replace the SSH tunnel with Tailscale/WireGuard so Desktop points at a stable private address. Ask the human experts in your community if this approach angle is correct."

Thanks All.

1 comment

Hermes Connection Help