01What Is Hermes Comfy UI and How It Works

Hermes Comfy UI is a new skill for the Hermes AI Agent that lets you generate images, video, and audio for free, right from your own computer. No subscriptions, no API costs, and no complicated setup. Hermes handles everything for you.

Comfy UI is a powerful visual AI engine. It lets you design stable diffusion pipelines using graphs, nodes, and flow charts. It is an open-source project that can run on Apple Mac Silicon and other setups.

Hermes automates the installation and running of Comfy UI, so you don't need to touch the technical details.

You can run Comfy UI locally on your machine, or you can link it to Comfy Cloud and use hosted models. Either way, you trigger generation by asking Hermes in plain language.

02Main Features of the Hermes Comfy UI Skill

The skill gives you a free local AI creative studio. Here are the key features shown in the episode:

  • Generate photorealistic images, text-to-video, image-to-video, and even reference video.
  • Edit images – swap objects inside an image, remove backgrounds, upscale, and segment images.
  • Create audio, including text-to-speech, and you can even combine text-to-speech with UGC video using Eleven Labs.
  • Run everything locally on your computer, or host it in the cloud with Comfy Cloud.
  • Control everything from your phone while the computer does the heavy work.
  • Use a library of templates and workflows to get started fast.

Comfy UI also has a utility section with frames, image segmentation, upscaling, and background removal. There are nodes for image, video, audio, text, and 3D. The model library lets you see example workflows and run them directly.

03How to Set Up Hermes Comfy UI (Step-by-Step)

Setting up is simple because Hermes does most of the work. Here are the steps shown in the episode:

  1. Open a new terminal tab on your computer (press Command + T).
  2. Run hermes update inside the terminal to update Hermes to the latest version.
  3. Reload Hermes and load up the Comfy UI skill – you can paste the skill MD file and ask Hermes to use it.
  4. When prompted, choose local install or cloud install (for cloud, you need a Comfy Cloud API key).
  5. Let Hermes install Comfy UI and download the model you pick (e.g., Flux).
  6. Wait for the download and installation to finish – then start using it.

Be careful: after an update, Hermes might switch to a different model that doesn't work well. In the episode, Julian had to switch back his model because the update changed it to Gemma 4. Just check and switch back if needed.

04How to Use Hermes Comfy UI – Practical Examples

Once everything is set up, you use Hermes to ask for whatever you want to create. For example, you can ask it to generate a photorealistic image, create a video, or swap an object in a photo.

In the episode, Julian showed how to browse through templates inside Comfy UI. You can filter by model, like Flux, and pick from options such as image editing, photorealistic generation, or object swaps. You can also go to the popular section to see commonly used workflows.

For video, you have text-to-video, image-to-video, and reference video. For audio, you can set up text-to-speech with Eleven Labs. The utility section gives you upscaling, background removal, and more.

You can also ask Hermes for help. If you have issues or things run slow, just ask Hermes how to fix it. Hermes looks at your current setup and recommends whether to use local or cloud models.

05Results and Comparisons: Local vs Cloud

In the episode, Julian tested the local installation and found it easy. Hermes installed Comfy UI and set up Flux automatically. The result was a working local AI studio with templates and models ready.

He pointed out that Flux is one of the best local image models, and it's only about 12 GB. That's not a big download for most computers. Running it locally gives you free, unlimited generation without API costs.

The other option is Comfy Cloud. That hosts all models in the cloud, so you get access immediately. But you need an API key, which means you pay for usage.

The choice depends on your hardware and whether you want to pay.

Julian also noted that you can run Flux locally and still control it from your phone with Hermes. The image or video gets generated on your computer and sent back to your phone.

06Tips, Limits, and Mistakes to Avoid

Here are important tips and warnings from the episode:

  • After updating Hermes, check which model it switched to; it might pick one that doesn't work well.
  • If you don't want to run heavy models locally, use Comfy Cloud with an API key.
  • Ask Hermes for help if setup is slow or you hit problems – it can guide you.
  • Don't go too deep into customizations – 99% of people only need the basic models.
  • Use the template section to see what you can do with a specific model, like Eleven Labs for text-to-speech.

The main limit is your computer's hardware. If your machine is weak, local generation can be slow. In that case, cloud is a better option, even though it costs money.

Also, the 12 GB Flux download might be large for some connections.

07Who Should Use Hermes Comfy UI and Why It Matters

This is for anyone who wants to create AI images, video, or audio without paying monthly fees. It's especially useful for creators, marketers, or hobbyists who want a free, private AI studio on their own computer.

Because it runs locally, you keep your data on your machine, and you can even work from your phone while the computer handles the generation. That makes it very flexible.

Julian also mentioned his AI Profitable community for further training on Hermes and other AI agents. But the key point is that with this skill, Hermes becomes 10 times more powerful, and anyone can unlock it with a simple update.