Hermes Cua: Give Hermes Agent Its Own Throwaway Computer

Hermes Cua is the new free plugin that gives Hermes Agent its own computer. Built by Cua, hermes-cua-spaces sends every terminal command, file write and code run into a Cua Space. A Space is an isolated Linux, macOS or Windows machine on your laptop, another machine you own or the cloud, and by default it’s deleted when the job is done. Your laptop never gets touched. In the video below I walk through how Cua Spaces work, the 3-step setup and how to watch Hermes work live. Here’s the full breakdown.

What Hermes Cua does

Normally, when you give Hermes a job, it works on your computer — your files, your folders, your apps. Most days that’s fine. But every so often an agent runs a command it shouldn’t: it deletes the wrong folder, fills your drive or installs something you never asked for. So Hermes asks before anything risky, and you end up clicking “yes” over and over. That means you can’t walk away.

The hermes-cua-spaces plugin removes that trade-off. Hermes still runs where it always has, but when it needs to run a command, write a file or execute code, that work happens in the Space instead of on your machine. Because the Space is the sandbox, Hermes skips its risky-command prompts for Spaces the plugin creates. The agent gets more freedom, and you get more safety.

How to set up Hermes Cua in 3 steps

• Install Cua and sign in: curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/install.sh | sh then cua auth login. Sign-in is only needed for Spaces on your cua.ai account; a local Space needs none.
• Install the plugin: hermes plugins install https://github.com/trycua/hermes-cua-spaces. Say yes to the one Python package (cua) and to enabling the plugin.
• Point Hermes at it: hermes config set terminal.backend cua.

Start Hermes as usual. The first Space takes a few minutes while Cua downloads the machine image; after that it’s quick. The plugin waits up to 600 seconds for a new Space by default. To check it worked, ask Hermes to run hostname — you’ll see the Space’s name, not your computer’s.

Throwaway computers: every job starts clean

By default the plugin makes a fresh Space for each Hermes run, named hermes-<task>-<random>. It does the job there and deletes the Space when Hermes finishes. There’s no leftover junk from yesterday and no weird settings an old job changed.

It also means two Hermes runs at once get two separate Spaces and never touch each other’s files, so you can run as many as your machine can hold. Picture an SEO agent checking a client site in one Space while a video agent works in another — neither gets in the other’s way.

Watch Hermes live and take over

Open the Cua Spaces app and click the Space to see its screen live while Hermes works. In a terminal, cua spaces ls lists your Spaces and cua viewer opens a browser viewer for all of them. You can click in the viewer to take over the mouse, and Hermes keeps working next to you.

Most agents give you a result with no idea what happened in the middle. With a Space you can actually watch: did it take the right steps, or get stuck and guess? It’s like sitting next to a new hire and grabbing the mouse for a second to show them where the button is.

Put Spaces on any computer you want

A Space can live on your own laptop, another machine you own or your Cua cloud account. The plugin’s own example is a spare Mac mini: hermes config set plugins.entries.cua-spaces.settings.on "spare mac mini". That old computer in your drawer can become the place your agent works, while your main laptop stays free.

For Windows Spaces, set image to windows or point the plugin at a Windows Space you created. Cua notes that a Windows Space on an Apple Silicon Mac runs by emulation and is slow, so use an x86 machine or the cloud for real work. Cua also says its setup runs at up to 97% of native speed on Apple Silicon.

Is Hermes Cua safe and private?

• With a local Space, nothing leaves your machine.
• Remote Spaces go through Cua’s encrypted relay or your own network.
• The plugin never stores a token or key and doesn’t copy your Hermes skills, cache or credentials into the Space.
• It adds no telemetry. The cua package has its own anonymous telemetry, which you can turn off with cua telemetry off.

Two other ways to use Cua with Hermes

You don’t even need the plugin for these. You can give Hermes the Cua tools as an MCP server (cua mcp) so it can create, drive and delete Spaces itself. Or you can run Hermes itself inside a Space with cua agent create, so the agent, its keys and its tools all stay in the box. For the bigger picture, see my Hermes Agent sandbox guide.

My verdict on Hermes Cua

For years the question with agents was “how much do I trust it on my computer?” Hermes Cua lets you skip that question: the agent gets its own computer, you can watch or help, and the computer disappears when the job is done. If you want Hermes doing real work without babysitting it, Hermes Cua is the setup to try.

About Julian Goldie

I’m Julian Goldie — founder of Goldie Agency and the AI Profit Boardroom. I test new AI agents almost every day for 432K+ YouTube subscribers and run Hermes, OpenClaw, OpenCode, Claude and Codex side by side in my own Agent OS. Claim your free strategy session or join the AI Profit Boardroom.

FAQ: hermes cua

What is Hermes Cua?

A free, MIT-licensed plugin from Cua (hermes-cua-spaces) that runs Hermes Agent’s terminal, file and code tools inside an isolated Cua Space instead of on your computer.

How do I install Hermes Cua?

Install Cua, run hermes plugins install https://github.com/trycua/hermes-cua-spaces, then hermes config set terminal.backend cua.

Does Hermes still ask for approval inside a Cua Space?

Not for Spaces the plugin creates, because they’re disposable. On a Space you named yourself, Hermes keeps asking before risky commands.

Can I watch Hermes work in a Cua Space?

Yes — open the Cua Spaces app or run cua viewer, and you can take over the mouse at any time.

Is Hermes Cua free?

The plugin is free and open source. Local Spaces are free to run; cloud Spaces use your Cua account.

Related reading

• Hermes Agent Sandbox
• Hermes Computer Use
• Hermes Bot Screen

Last updated October 2026. This page is a living guide to hermes cua — the facts here move fast and it is updated as they do.