⌁ Guides

Hermes Agent

Add Gondola as a named provider in Nous Research's Hermes Agent, via the plugin or two blocks of config.yaml, and run any Venice model paid per request in USDC on Base.

Create an API key

Sign in with your Base wallet at /keys and mint a Gondola API key. Keys start with gnd_. It authenticates every request and each call is charged in USDC against your Gondola balance.

Top up USDC on Base once at /wallet. The same balance powers the browser chat and every tool you connect.

Install the Gondola provider plugin

The plugin registers Gondola as a first-class provider: a named entry in the hermes model picker, a live model catalog, and a row in hermes doctor. Clone it straight into the directory Hermes scans for provider plugins:

macOS / Linux / WSL

mkdir -p "$HOME/.hermes/plugins/model-providers"
git clone https://github.com/Gondola-Market/hermes-gondola-provider \
  "$HOME/.hermes/plugins/model-providers/gondola-provider"

Windows (PowerShell)

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\plugins\model-providers" | Out-Null
git clone https://github.com/Gondola-Market/hermes-gondola-provider `
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\plugins\model-providers\gondola-provider"

Then store your key where Hermes reads it, and pick Gondola:

~/.hermes/.env

# ~/.hermes/.env
GONDOLA_API_KEY=gnd_xxxx

Why the clone path matters

hermes plugins install places model-provider plugins in a folder the provider registry does not scan, so they never show up. Cloning into plugins/model-providers/ is the path Hermes actually reads. If you used the installer anyway, follow its on-screen note to move the folder.

Or configure it by hand

No plugin needed if you prefer plain config. Hermes supports named custom providers in ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

~/.hermes/config.yaml

# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
providers:
  gondola:
    name: Gondola
    base_url: https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1
    key_env: GONDOLA_API_KEY

model:
  provider: gondola
  default: claude-sonnet-5

Set base_url, and only base_url

Hermes accepts api, url and base_url as synonyms for the endpoint, but different code paths disagree on which wins when several are set. One field, no ambiguity.

Price limit

Set a price limit: send the request header x-gondola-max-factor with the highest multiple of list price you accept, for example 0.6. A request priced above it is refused and the reply names the cheapest price available. Prices usually fall after the daily reset, so retry about 12 hours later. If your client cannot send custom request headers, set the key's Max price on the Keys page instead: requests without the header use it. A spend cap there bounds total spend, not the price per request.

Notes and troubleshooting

What hermes doctor can and cannot tell you

With the plugin installed, doctor shows a Gondola connectivity row. It probes the public model catalog, so it proves the endpoint is reachable, not that your key is valid: a wrong key still surfaces on the first paid request. Hand-configured providers get no probe at all.

Doctor warnings that are safe to ignore

If your key lives only in config.yaml, doctor may warn "No API key found" because it greps ~/.hermes/.env for names it knows. Cosmetic. Doctor does fail hard when that .env file is missing entirely, so create it even if empty.

If requests come back 401, Hermes found no key and sent its no-key-required placeholder instead: check the env var name matches key_env. Browse the full catalog, with prices and context windows, any time:

shell

curl https://api.gondola-ai.com/v1/models

Good defaults: claude-sonnet-5 for general agent work, qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct-turbo for a coding specialist. If a request returns insufficient balance, top up at /wallet.

Prompt privacy

Gondola never stores prompts or completions: requests are metered, forwarded, and gone when the response finishes (the one exception, a video source clip over 18 MiB, is held privately for the length of its job; see /privacy), and Venice runs a no-logging model underneath. For zero retention on Venice-controlled infrastructure too, pick a model whose privacy field reads private on GET /v1/models. Details on /privacy.

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New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\plugins\model-providers" | Out-Null git clone https://github.com/Gondola-Market/hermes-gondola-provider ` "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\plugins\model-providers\gondola-provider"