Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent can connect to remote MCP servers and expose their tools to the agent. Connect the Iteration Layer MCP server once and Hermes can call Document Extraction, Document to Markdown, Website Extraction, Image Transformation, Image Generation, Document Generation, and Sheet Generation from the same agent session.

Use this when you want Hermes to build or operate content workflows without custom glue code.

Requirements

• A Hermes Agent installation
• An Iteration Layer account
• Browser access for the first OAuth authorization

The Iteration Layer MCP endpoint uses OAuth 2.1. Do not put an API key in the Hermes MCP config.

MCP Server Endpoint

https://api.iterationlayer.com/mcp

Add Iteration Layer To Hermes

Hermes reads MCP server definitions from ~/.hermes/config.yaml under mcp_servers.

Add this entry:

mcp_servers:
  iterationlayer:
    url: "https://api.iterationlayer.com/mcp"
    auth: oauth
    enabled: true
    timeout: 180
    connect_timeout: 60

On first connection, Hermes opens a browser window for OAuth authorization. After you approve access, Hermes stores the token locally and refreshes it automatically.

Optional Tool Filtering

Hermes supports per-server tool filtering. Use this if you want a narrower toolset for a specific agent.

For a document-only agent:

mcp_servers:
  iterationlayer:
    url: "https://api.iterationlayer.com/mcp"
    auth: oauth
    tools:
      include:
        - convert_document_to_markdown
        - extract_document
        - generate_document
        - generate_sheet
      resources: false
      prompts: false

For an image workflow agent:

mcp_servers:
  iterationlayer:
    url: "https://api.iterationlayer.com/mcp"
    auth: oauth
    tools:
      include:
        - transform_image
        - generate_image
      resources: false
      prompts: false

Verify The Connection

Restart or reload Hermes after changing ~/.hermes/config.yaml, then ask Hermes:

Which Iteration Layer MCP tools can you use?

You should see tools such as:

• convert_document_to_markdown
• extract_document
• extract_website
• transform_image
• generate_image
• generate_document
• generate_sheet

First Workflow

Try a small document workflow before connecting Hermes to production data:

Convert this supplier invoice to markdown, extract vendor name, invoice number, due date, currency, subtotal, tax, and total, then generate a one-page approval report as a PDF.

Hermes can use convert_document_to_markdown for context, extract_document for typed fields with confidence scores, and generate_document for the final PDF.

Good Hermes Workflows

Hermes is useful when the agent needs to choose the next operation based on the content it just inspected.

Common workflows:

• Convert a long PDF to markdown, then decide which fields to extract
• Extract data from several documents, then generate a spreadsheet
• Extract product data, transform product images, then generate listing cards
• Process client materials and generate a branded report

Production Guidance

Use Hermes and MCP for exploration, review, and agent-operated workflows. For deterministic production jobs that run on a schedule, use the same Iteration Layer APIs through REST or an SDK.

The MCP and REST surfaces share the same underlying capabilities, so a workflow prototyped in Hermes can be moved into production code without changing vendors.

Troubleshooting

The tools do not appear

Check that the server is configured under mcp_servers, not another config key, and that the URL is exactly https://api.iterationlayer.com/mcp.

OAuth does not open

Confirm auth: oauth is set on the iterationlayer server entry. Iteration Layer MCP uses OAuth 2.1, not static bearer headers.

Tool calls time out

Increase timeout for large files or generation-heavy workflows. Document conversion, extraction, and generation can take longer than simple text tools.

Too many tools are available

Use Hermes tools.include to expose only the Iteration Layer tools the agent needs.