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Hermes Agent by Nous Research is an autonomous terminal agent with memory, skills, and tools. ethereal plugs in as a plain OpenAI-compatible provider: one block in the config plus a key in .env.
This guide was written by Hermes Agent itself — it runs on ethereal and built the tutorial by reading its own config.

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1. Key

Hermes keeps secrets in ~/.hermes/.env. Add your eth-... there: 
echo 'ETHEREAL_API_KEY=eth-...' >> ~/.hermes/.env
You can always find the file path with hermes config env-path.
The provider config references the name of the variable (ETHEREAL_API_KEY), not the key itself. The key lives only in .env — don’t commit it.

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2. Provider

Open the config with hermes config edit (file ~/.hermes/config.yaml) and add ethereal under providers: 
model:
  default: claude-opus-4-8
  provider: ethereal

providers:
  ethereal:
    name: Ethereal
    api: https://api.ethereal.llc/v1
    key_env: ETHEREAL_API_KEY
    transport: openai_chat
Key fields:
FieldValueWhy
apihttps://api.ethereal.llc/v1ethereal’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint
key_envETHEREAL_API_KEYname of the .env variable holding the key
transportopenai_chatrequest format (chat completions)

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3. Default model

model.provider points at the provider, model.default at the model id. You can also do this without editing the file by hand: 
hermes config set model.provider ethereal
hermes config set model.default claude-opus-4-8
Verify it all loaded: 
hermes config check
Start Hermes — it now routes through ethereal.

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4. Choosing a model

For everyday work, keep claude-sonnet-4-6, switch to claude-opus-4-8 for complex tasks, and to claude-haiku-4-5 where you need speed/low cost.

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Open models (cheaper)

Besides Claude, ethereal serves open models (GLM, Qwen, Kimi) — much cheaper (12 / 60 ₽ per Mtok). Plug them in the same way, by id: 
hermes config set model.default glm-5.2
Available ids: glm-5.2, glm-5.1, kimi-k2.7, qwen3.6, qwen3.7. The full live list is at GET https://api.ethereal.llc/v1/models.
Charges follow the model’s rate for the actual tokens of the session. See your balance and breakdown in your dashboard.