Connect Hermes Agent to Slack, WhatsApp & Signal

Beyond Telegram and Discord

While Telegram and Discord are the most popular platforms for Hermes, many teams and individuals rely on other messaging apps. Hermes Agent supports connecting to Slack, WhatsApp, and Signal through its extensible messaging framework.

Each platform has unique strengths:

| Platform | Best For | Bot Support | Key Feature |

|----------|---------|:-----------:|-------------|

| Slack | Workplace teams | ✅ Native | Workflows, channels, integrations |

| WhatsApp | Personal/business | ⚠️ Via API | End-to-end encryption, global reach |

| Signal | Privacy-focused | ⚠️ Via bridge | Military-grade encryption |

Slack Integration

Why Slack + Hermes?

Slack is the communication backbone of many engineering teams. Adding Hermes brings AI superpowers to your daily workflow:

• Answer technical questions in #dev-help
• Code review in #pull-requests
• Summarize long threads
• Generate reports on demand

Step 1: Create a Slack App

Visit api.slack.com/apps

Click Create New App → From scratch

Name it "Hermes AI" and select your workspace

Go to OAuth & Permissions and add these Bot Token Scopes:

- chat:write — Send messages

- channels:history — Read channel messages

- channels:read — View channel info

- app_mentions:read — Detect @mentions

- files:read — Read shared files

- users:read — View user info

Click Install to Workspace and copy the Bot User OAuth Token

Step 2: Enable Event Subscriptions

Go to Event Subscriptions → Enable

Set the Request URL to: https://your-server.com/api/slack/events

Subscribe to bot events:

- app_mention — When someone @mentions Hermes

- message.channels — Messages in channels

- message.im — Direct messages

Step 3: Configure Hermes

hermes config set slack.bot_token "xoxb-your-bot-token"
hermes config set slack.signing_secret "your-signing-secret"
hermes config set slack.enabled true

Full configuration:

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
slack:
  enabled: true
  bot_token: "xoxb-your-bot-token"
  signing_secret: "your-signing-secret"
  app_token: "xapp-your-app-token"  # For Socket Mode

  # Behavior
  respond_to_mentions: true
  respond_to_dms: true
  use_threads: true              # Reply in threads
  reaction_acknowledgment: true  # React with 🤔 while processing

  # Access control
  allowed_channels: ["C01234ABCDE"]
  blocked_users: []

  # Socket Mode (simpler than webhooks, no public URL needed)
  socket_mode: true

Step 4: Start the Slack Bot

hermes slack start

🤖 Slack bot connected!
  Workspace: My Company
  Channels: 3 (watching)
  Mode: Socket Mode

Listening for messages...

Using Hermes in Slack

@Mention in a channel:

@Hermes AI How do I handle CORS in a Go API?

Slash command:

/hermes generate a bash script to backup PostgreSQL daily

Thread reply:

Hermes automatically responds in threads to keep channels clean. Continue the conversation naturally in the thread.

WhatsApp Integration

How It Works

WhatsApp doesn't have a traditional bot API like Telegram or Discord. Instead, Hermes connects through the WhatsApp Business API or community bridges.

Option A: WhatsApp Business API (Official)

Best for businesses with a Meta Business account.

Apply for WhatsApp Business API access

Set up a Meta Business account and verify your business

Get your WhatsApp Business API token

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
whatsapp:
  enabled: true
  provider: "business-api"
  phone_number_id: "123456789"
  access_token: "EAAG..."
  verify_token: "your-verify-token"
  webhook_url: "https://your-server.com/api/whatsapp"

  allowed_numbers: ["+1234567890"]
  max_message_length: 4096

Option B: WhatsApp Web Bridge (Personal Use)

For personal use, use the whatsapp-web.js bridge:

# Install the WhatsApp bridge skill
hermes skill install whatsapp-bridge

whatsapp:
  enabled: true
  provider: "web-bridge"
  allowed_numbers: ["+1234567890"]
  session_dir: "~/.hermes/whatsapp-session"

On first start, scan the QR code with your phone to link the session.

Important: WhatsApp Web bridge is for personal use only. For business use, always use the official Business API.

Using Hermes on WhatsApp

Send messages naturally — Hermes responds just like on Telegram:

You: Explain Docker volumes in simple terms

Hermes: Think of Docker volumes like external hard drives
for your containers 💾

Without volumes:
Container data lives inside the container
Data disappears when the container is removed 💨

With volumes:
Data is stored outside the container
It persists even after container deletion ✅
Multiple containers can share the same volume

Quick example:
docker run -v mydata:/app/data my-image

This mounts a volume called "mydata" to /app/data
inside the container.

Signal Integration

Privacy-First AI

Signal is the most secure messaging option. Hermes connects through the Signal CLI or the signal-cli-rest-api bridge.

Setup Signal Bridge

# Install signal-cli
wget https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases/latest/download/signal-cli.tar.gz
tar xf signal-cli.tar.gz
sudo mv signal-cli /opt/signal-cli

# Register a phone number (requires SMS verification)
/opt/signal-cli/bin/signal-cli -a +1234567890 register
/opt/signal-cli/bin/signal-cli -a +1234567890 verify 123456

# Install the Hermes Signal skill
hermes skill install signal-bridge

Configure Hermes

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
signal:
  enabled: true
  phone_number: "+1234567890"
  signal_cli_path: "/opt/signal-cli/bin/signal-cli"

  allowed_numbers: ["+0987654321"]
  config_dir: "~/.local/share/signal-cli"

Start the Signal Bot

hermes signal start

Signal messages are end-to-end encrypted. Hermes only sees the decrypted content locally on your server.

Running Multiple Platforms Simultaneously

You can run all messaging integrations at once:

# Start all enabled platforms
hermes messaging start --all

Or use PM2 to manage each separately:

pm2 start "hermes telegram start" --name hermes-telegram
pm2 start "hermes discord start" --name hermes-discord
pm2 start "hermes slack start" --name hermes-slack
pm2 save

Unified Session Management

All platforms share the same session and memory system:

Telegram message → Session: "mobile-chat" → Hermes AI → Response
Discord message  → Session: "discord-dev" → Hermes AI → Response
Slack message    → Session: "work-slack"  → Hermes AI → Response

Each platform gets its own session by default, but you can configure shared sessions:

messaging:
  shared_session: true          # All platforms use one session
  session_name: "unified"       # Or pick per-platform names

Platform Comparison

| Feature | Telegram | Discord | Slack | WhatsApp | Signal |

|---------|:--------:|:-------:|:-----:|:--------:|:------:|

| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium | Medium | Hard | Hard |

| File sharing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

| Voice messages | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |

| Group support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

| Threads | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |

| Encryption | Optional | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ E2E | ✅ E2E |

| Cost | Free | Free | Free* | Paid API | Free |

| Best for | Personal | Community | Work | Business | Privacy |

Next Steps

• Multi-platform gateway — Advanced unified architecture
• Telegram setup — Detailed Telegram guide
• Cron scheduling — Automated messages across platforms

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Last updated: April 16, 2026 · Hermes Agent v0.8