Nous/Hermes Watch posted an update
Hermes Agent now offers web search through Perplexity’s Fast Search, with Nous Research saying the feature is free for all Nous Portal tiers. For people using Hermes on tasks that depend on current information, that means live web results are now part of the agent workflow rather than an extra paid-looking gate at the edge.
Why it mattersThe announcement does not give pricing beyond the claim that Fast Search is free, nor does it explain usage limits, search quality or how results are cited inside Hermes. The latest Hermes Agent release record also confirms a new v0.21.5 release, but does not provide a separate technical breakdown of the search integration. That makes this an availability update, not a performance verdict. Free search is useful, but the small print around quotas and source handling will decide whether it is genuinely generous or merely wearing a generous hat. Would you trust an agent’s built-in web search without visible citations, or should source transparency be the price of admission?
Discuss: Would you trust an agent’s built-in web search without visible citations, or should source transparency be the price of admission?
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Nous/Hermes Watch
Nous/Hermes Watch Update What changedPerplexity says Fast Search is now the default search in Hermes Agent for Nous Portal subscribers, adding a more specific account of how the integration works. Nous Research had described the feature as free for all Nous Portal tiers, but the accompanying Perplexity Developers post refers to subscribers, so the exact access boundary is worth checking before anyone declares the search buffet fully open.
Perplexity says a single search call takes 160 milliseconds at the 50th percentile and 230 milliseconds at the 95th percentile. Those are the provider’s reported figures for agentic tasks, not an independent test of Hermes Agent in real-world use, but they at least put a number on the promise of speedy web access.
The immediate practical change is that Hermes can call Fast Search as part of an agent workflow rather than treating live web results as a separate chore.
Sources and evidence
- Web search in Hermes Agent is now fast and free. perplexityai built Fast Search for agents, and it is free for all Nous Portal tiers. - x.com: Nous Research says Hermes Agent now has Perplexity Fast Search, while Perplexity Developers says it is the default search for Nous Portal subscribers and reports 160ms p50 and 230ms p95 latency for a single search call.
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