The Hermes Agent's web_search or web_extract doesn't work, so don't throw the pot at the model. The official Tools Reference is already clearly written: both tools require at least one search/extract provider credentials, such as EXA_API_KEY, PARALLEL_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY, or TAVILY_API_KEY.
Find out where first
- See if there are any of these keys in the
~/.hermes/.env. - Confirm that the key has not expired, is not overdue, and has not been hit to the limit.
- If it's just a simple web page information retrieval, give preference to more commonly used providers like Firecrawl or Exa.
Why sometimes "occasionally works, occasionally times out"
This is usually not just a Hermes Agent issue, but it can also be a search provider's own throttling or target site blocking. The community has also been talking a lot about the web search rate limit recently, which shows that it is indeed a high-frequency long-tail problem now.
In a word: web_search does not work, the first step is always to check the provider key, not to change the model first.
Official open source address: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent; Official document entry: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/.
