# Connecting Hermes MCP to CLI Agents

Hermes exposes a Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint at:

```text
https://hermes.squaremcp.com/mcp
```

Legacy SSE is also available at:

```text
https://hermes.squaremcp.com/sse
```

Use your own credential value anywhere you see:

```text
YOUR_MCP_API_KEY
```

Never commit a live API key into repo config files.

---

## Claude Code

Some Claude Code builds support MCP add/list commands and some require manual config.

### If your Claude CLI supports `mcp add`

```bash
claude mcp add hermes \
  --transport http \
  https://hermes.squaremcp.com/mcp \
  --header "x-api-key: YOUR_MCP_API_KEY"
```

### Manual config

If your version does not support the CLI flow, add Hermes to:

```text
~/.claude/mcp.json
```

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hermes": {
      "url": "https://hermes.squaremcp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Verify

```bash
claude mcp list
```

---

## Claude Desktop

Add Hermes to the Claude Desktop config:

### macOS

```text
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
```

### Linux

```text
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
```

### Windows

```text
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
```

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hermes": {
      "url": "https://hermes.squaremcp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Restart Claude Desktop after saving the file.

---

## Generic MCP-capable CLI agents

Many agent CLIs and editor plugins accept a JSON config file with an `mcpServers` block.

Example portable config:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hermes": {
      "url": "https://hermes.squaremcp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Typical usage pattern:

```bash
some-agent-cli --mcp-config-file ~/.mcp.json
```

Possible target clients include:

1. custom MCP wrappers
2. editor plugins that expose MCP server config
3. internal agent CLIs that consume a shared JSON config

---

## SSE fallback

If a client only supports SSE:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hermes": {
      "url": "https://hermes.squaremcp.com/sse",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

---

## Related docs

1. [Codex CLI setup](./CODEX_SETUP.md)
2. [opencode setup](./OPENCODE.md)
3. [ChatGPT setup](./CHATGPT_SETUP.md)