Use Voice Mode with Hermes
This guide is the practical companion to the Voice Mode feature reference. If the feature page explains what voice mode can do, this guide shows how to actually
This guide is the practical companion to the Voice Mode feature reference. If the feature page explains what voice mode can do, this guide shows how to actually use it well. Voice mode is especially useful when: There are really three different voice experiences in Hermes. A good path is: 1. get text working first 2. enable voice replies second 3. …
What this page covers
- What voice mode is good for
- Choose your voice mode setup
- Step 1: make sure normal Hermes works first
- Step 2: install the right extras
- CLI microphone + playback
- Messaging platforms
- Premium ElevenLabs TTS
- Local NeuTTS (optional)
- Everything
- Step 3: install system dependencies
- macOS
- Ubuntu / Debian
- Step 4: choose STT and TTS providers
- Easiest / cheapest setup
- Environment file example
- Provider recommendations
- If you use hermes setup
- Step 5: recommended config
- Use case 1: CLI voice mode
- Turn it on
- Recording flow
- Useful commands
- Good CLI workflows
- Tuning CLI behavior
- Silence threshold
- Silence duration
- Record key
- Use case 2: voice replies in Telegram or Discord
- Start the gateway
- Turn on voice replies
- Modes
- When to use which mode
- Good messaging workflows
- Use case 3: Discord voice channels
- Required Discord permissions
- Join and leave
- What happens when joined
- Best practices for Discord VC use
- Voice quality recommendations
- Best quality setup
- Best speed / convenience setup
- Best zero-cost setup
- Common failure modes
- "No audio device found"
- "Bot joins but hears nothing"
- "It transcribes but does not speak"
- "Whisper outputs garbage"
- "It works in DMs but not in server channels"
- Suggested first-week setup
- Where to read next
Section outline mirrored from the official Hermes Agent documentation. Follow any heading to read the complete text on the source site.
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