Messaging Gateway — Connect All Chat Platforms

Imagine having one personal assistant who can hear you whether you call, text, or shout from another room — that’s what the Hermes Messaging Gateway does for your AI agent. It’s a single background worker that connects your bot to every chat app you already use, so you don’t need to open a special dashboard to talk to it.

What Is the Gateway?

The gateway is one process that runs quietly on your computer or server. It listens on all the platforms you configure — Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Slack, email, and many more — and handles every conversation from one place. You don’t need to set up a separate bot for each app. You just tell the gateway which platforms to connect, and it takes care of the rest.

It also manages background tasks like scheduled cron jobs and voice message delivery. So if you ask your agent to remind you tomorrow at 9 AM, the gateway makes sure that happens even if you’re not actively chatting.

Which Platforms Are Supported?

Hermes supports an impressive list — over 25 platforms. Here are some of the most common ones:

Telegram, Discord, Slack — full-featured with voice, images, files, threads, reactions, typing indicators, and streaming
WhatsApp (both personal and Cloud API) — great for everyday messaging
Email — handy for longer, more formal requests
Signal, Matrix, Mattermost — good for privacy-focused users
Home Assistant — lets your agent control smart home devices
Browser chat — if you just want to test quickly without installing anything

Each platform has different capabilities. For example, Telegram and Discord support voice replies, while SMS and email are text-only. The table in the docs shows exactly what works where, so you can pick the right platform for your needs.

How to Set It Up

Setting up the gateway is straightforward. You install Hermes, then run the gateway command:

hermes gateway start

Then you add your platform tokens (like a Telegram bot token or a Slack app token) in the config file. Once saved, restart the gateway, and your agent is live on all those platforms.

For example, to add Telegram:

hermes config set telegram.bot_token "123456:ABC-DEF..."

Then restart:

hermes gateway restart

That’s it. Your agent now responds in Telegram, and you can repeat the same for any other platform.

Why Use One Gateway Instead of Many Bots?

Single setup — configure once, use everywhere
Consistent memory — conversations are stored together, so your agent remembers context across platforms
Less maintenance — one process to update and monitor
Voice everywhere — if a platform supports voice, the gateway handles TTS replies and voice transcription automatically

A Practical Tip

Start with just one platform you use daily (like Telegram or Discord). Get comfortable with the gateway, then add more. You can always check what’s connected by running:

hermes gateway status

This shows you which platforms are active and if any have errors.

Summary

The Messaging Gateway is your agent’s universal remote — it connects your AI to every chat app you love, with minimal setup and maximum flexibility. Whether you’re chatting from your phone, desktop, or smart home hub, your Hermes agent is always just one message away. Try it with one platform today, and you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.