Nous Research's autonomous AI agent "Hermes Agent" has reportedly overtaken the leading open-source agent "OpenClaw" in new GitHub contributors over the past 30 days. A late-arriving rival is gaining ground on OpenClaw, which spread at record pace in the AI agent space.
June 2026 · Open-Source AI Agents
Hermes Overtakes OpenClaw in New Developer Momentum
Nous Research's self-improving agent Hermes has surpassed the incumbent OpenClaw in new GitHub contributors over the past 30 days — a leading signal of where the open-source "AI butler" race is heading.
190K+
Hermes GitHub stars, gained in a matter of months
100K+
OpenClaw stars within one week of release
245+
Hermes contributors in v0.17.0
GitHub Stars — built to scale
Each block ≈ 25K stars · taller column = more stars
OpenClaw
Gateway · multi-channel
Links WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, Signal
5,700+ shared skills via ClawHub
Persistent memory in Markdown · MIT license
Hermes
Self-improving learning loop
Auto-generates & refines skills from experience
Runs on a $5 VPS up to a GPU cluster
OpenRouter + local models · MIT license
Hermes self-improving loop
Experience
→
Generate skill
→
Refine & store
→
Improve
v0.17.0 (June 19, 2026): 1,475 commits · 800+ pull requests · 300+ closed issues. A built-in hermes claw migrate tool keeps the two interoperable.
Hermes — praised
"More autonomous" — finishes tasks in one shot
Practical self-improving loop
Strong even with smaller models · leads OpenRouter token usage
OpenClaw — concerns
Mature gateway & rich community plugins valued
"Unstable and prone to hanging" · skill-saving issues
Security concerns prompting some to migrate
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