What you need in Hermes
Hermes installs the finance skill straight from Candor's public repository and adds Candor's MCP server with OAuth. It identifies itself with a Client ID Metadata Document where a server supports one and falls back to dynamic registration, with nothing to configure. Hermes Desktop and the CLI share one configuration, and with a remote backend Desktop runs the sign-in callback on your own machine.
Check it worked
Start a new conversation with Hermes, turn Candor on if asked, and send the message below.
Ask Hermes to open Candor with its MCP tools, confirm the finance skill in a fresh session, and check the workspace's coverage before drawing conclusions.
What you should see: Hermes names the accounts in Candor and how recent they are. A missing account means limited coverage, not a failed setup.
Check whether the candor-finance skill and Candor access are ready. Tell me about anything missing. If access works, continue my financial task, or start a first check-in on my money if I have not named one. Be clear about gaps in the records.
Hermes's finance skills, and what they cover
Hermes's optional skills catalog has a finance category, off by default, with three-statement, DCF, comps, LBO, and merger models, stock quotes, and Polymarket data. None of them reads your bank accounts or keeps a household budget.
Nous also curates an MCP catalog in the hermes-agent repository, added to by pull request; its finance entries are developer tools for payment platforms. Candor is a personal finance server: your records, figures calculated from them, and the plan you keep with your agent.
What Candor adds to Hermes
Candor gives Hermes current accounts and somewhere durable to keep the plan: goals measured from your records, a budget that pays for them, and notes with the reasons for each decision.
Hermes's own memory is small, about 2,200 characters in MEMORY.md, and is read as a snapshot when a session starts. Keep budgets and decisions in Candor and let memory hold where to find them.
Schedule a check-in through the gateway
Hermes cron jobs run on natural-language or cron schedules and deliver results to the chat they came from, through the same gateway that runs Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and email.
A weekly job that opens Candor and sends you what is worth talking through is a good first routine. Have Hermes save what you decide back to Candor so the next run starts from it.
When Hermes setup stops
Sign-in times out after you change Hermes's settings mid-session
- What to do
- A reload inside a running session gives a browser sign-in too little time. Hermes's MCP guide, linked below, covers signing in.
Remote backend, and the browser cannot reach the callback
- What to do
- Hermes's MCP guide, linked below, covers sign-in with a remote backend. Candor's Connections page shows the moment Hermes connects.
An update skipped Candor's finance skill
- What to do
- Hermes keeps skills you edited locally. Its skills guide, linked below, covers updating them, or send Hermes the setup message again.
The tools work but the skill is missing
- What to do
- Ask Hermes in a new session to check its setup against the setup message; it reports what loaded and what is left.
What to try with Hermes and Candor
An annual check-in benefits from remembered questions. Have Hermes review what changed in your records, collect what it still needs from benefits or insurance documents, and keep the open questions as a note for a later session.
What Candor can and cannot do
Candor is read-only toward your money. It has no tool to move money, pay a bill, trade, or cancel a service, it does not train AI models on your financial information, and it records every agent read and change with its reason. You can revoke an agent, export your data, or delete it from your account.
Candor provides records and calculations, not financial advice; your agent advises and acts only through its own tools, with your okay.
Common questions
- How do I update the finance skill?
- With Hermes's own skill updater. Skill updates and MCP sign-in are separate, so an update needs no new server entry.
- What does Candor cost?
- Candor's Personal plan connects your US banks, cards, and brokerages, so every account and transaction comes in on its own and Candor always reviews current records. It costs from $8.25 a month on the annual plan ($99 a year), or $14.99 month to month, and its first 7 days are free. You can also try Candor free first. Bring your history over from Monarch, YNAB, Copilot, or your bank. Download your transactions there, and your agent adds your accounts from the file. Hermes's own plan and usage charges are separate.
Sources
- Hermes MCP Nous Research
- Hermes skills Nous Research
- Optional skills catalog Nous Research
- Scheduled tasks (cron) Nous Research
- Persistent memory Nous Research
Setup files for agents: Hermes connection materials