# Hermes Agent v0.20.0: streaming voice with barge-in, outbound webhooks, desktop plugin SDK

> Large release centred on real-time conversational voice: Hermes now speaks clause-by-clause as it generates, can be interrupted mid-sentence, and responds to on-device wake words across CLI, desktop, and messaging gateways. It also gains signed outbound webhooks for pushing lifecycle events to external HTTP endpoints, a grounded-citations research skill, and a desktop plugin SDK with sandboxed artifact previews.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Tool** | Hermes Agent |
| **Version** | v2026.8.3 |
| **Kind** | release |
| **Published** | 2026-08-03 |
| **Observed** | 2026-08-11 |
| **Significance** | 4/5 |
| **Breaking** | no |
| **Categories** | feature, capability, api-change |

## What changed


- Streaming TTS speaks clause-by-clause instead of one file after full generation; barge-in stops playback when you talk and tells the model it was cut off; busy-aware silence detection
- Open-vocabulary wake phrases detected on-device (no audio leaves the machine while waiting); multi-profile wake-word routing; spoken "stop" ends voice chat on any surface
- Voice notes transcribed and answered on WhatsApp, Feishu, DingTalk, LINE, QQ, Photon, Weixin; platform-aware auto-TTS delivery (opus where required, captions attached)
- STT made configurable: own `hermes tools` category, GUI toggles, dashboard dropdowns, unified language resolution, OpenAI `gpt-transcribe` support; one shared spoken-text preprocessor strips markdown/code/URLs across all TTS providers
- New `grounded-citations` skill: quotes matched against actual page text, citations link to exact evidence, plus a fact-checking mode reporting verified / contradicted / unverifiable
- Signed outbound webhooks push session activity, turn completions, and tool events to registered HTTP endpoints with HMAC signatures — no polling required
- Desktop: versioned artifact cards with sandboxed live preview in a right rail, plugin SDK (Kanban as first plugin), `ctx.download`, floating panes, multiple windows, global-hotkey quick-entry
- Release intro also lists A2A v1.0 agent-to-agent messaging, CLI commands `!` shell mode, `/init`, `/diff`, `/context`, `/focus`, and smarter compression
- Rolls up the v0.19.1 infrastructure patch tag; ~3,650 commits, ~1,400 PRs, ~1,200 issues closed since v0.19.0


## Sources

- [github_release](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/releases/tag/v2026.8.3) — retrieved 2026-08-11

## Community

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Canonical: https://changelogs.info/hermes-agent/v2026-8-3
Entity: https://changelogs.info/hermes-agent
Event ID: `evt_2026-08-03_hermes-agent_v2026-8-3`
Licence: event synthesis © changelogs.info, CC BY 4.0. Linked sources belong to their vendors.