What is hermesgw-desktop-setup?

This project is a setup script that automates connecting the Hermes Desktop app to a Hermes backend server running on a remote Linux machine. Normally this kind of setup would mean editing configuration files by hand and setting up a background service yourself. Here, running one shell command does the whole job instead. When you run the script on the remote machine, it detects your local network and Tailscale addresses, checks that the Hermes command line tool and its serve feature are installed, and generates a username, password, and a stable secret key that will keep working across restarts. It then starts the Hermes backend on a port you choose, sets up a systemd service so the backend restarts automatically if it crashes, and enables the service to start on boot even before anyone logs in. At the end it prints out the exact URL and credentials you need to finish connecting from the Desktop app. The script supports several modes: running with no arguments uses sensible defaults, you can pass a specific username, password, and port, you can run it interactively so it asks questions with a ten second timeout on each, and a clean flag lets you force a fresh reconfiguration that overwrites any existing setup. Once complete, connecting the Desktop app is a matter of opening its gateway settings, entering the server address, and signing in with the generated credentials. The README includes a clear security note: the basic username and password authentication this sets up is meant for trusted networks like a home LAN or Tailscale, not for exposing the server directly to the public internet, where the author recommends using OAuth through the Nous Portal instead. Credentials are stored in a file with restricted permissions so only the owner can read them. The tool requires a Linux machine with systemd, the Hermes CLI at version 0.18.0 or newer, and openssl for generating the secret.