--- title: Is Hermes agent unusable without a model router? | daily.dev description: A developer shares their experience running the Hermes agent with Step 3.5 Flash, finding it too prone to hallucinations, but frontier models too expensive.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/is-hermes-agent-unusable-without-a-model-router--1gbc83pez twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Is Hermes agent unusable without a model router? | daily.dev og:description: A developer shares their experience running the Hermes agent with Step 3.5 Flash, finding it too prone to hallucinations, but frontier models too expensive.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/is-hermes-agent-unusable-without-a-model-router--1gbc83pez og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1GbC83PeZ.png og:image:alt: Is Hermes agent unusable without a model router? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Is Hermes agent unusable without a model router? **[Swapnoneel Saha](https://daily.dev/sources/ldi7vqbpkryv936wnukjd)** · [@swapnoneel](https://daily.dev/swapnoneel) · 1 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer shares their experience running the Hermes agent with Step 3.5 Flash, finding it too prone to hallucinations, but frontier models too expensive. They explore model routing as a solution — using a capable model like Kimi K3 for complex tasks and a cheaper model for simpler ones. After finding LiteLLM too slow, they switched to Bifrost for lower-latency routing. The post asks the community whether model routing is the standard approach for running agents like Hermes or OpenClaw. ## Content So, I recently started using the Hermes agent and hooked it up with Step 3.5 Flash. It's a cheap and fast model, so I thought it would be enough for my workflow. However, I soon found that it hallucinates during a lot of tasks, and the output quality isn't something to write home about. On the other hand, using an expensive or frontier-level model means I'll burn through cash fast. I went down the rabbit hole to find a solution and discovered I could solve this using a model router. Dedicating a capable model like Kimi K3 for complex tasks while Step handles the busywork. Initially, I tried LiteLLM, but I noticed a significant delay in the routing process. I thought that latency was just a sacrifice I had to make. Then, while browsing GitHub one day, I came across [Bifrost](https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost/) and decided to give it a shot. Honestly, it is super fast, and I haven't faced any of the delay issues that were prevalent in LiteLLM. So my question is: is using a model router the most practical choice when running Hermes or OpenClaw? What do you guys usually do? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why Your Best Model Is Two Models: Routing Between Kimi K3 and Claude](https://daily.dev/posts/why-your-best-model-is-two-models-routing-between-kimi-k3-and-claude-ejhl4kv4j) · DigitalOcean Community · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Hermes Unlocks Self-Improving AI Agents, Powered by NVIDIA RTX PCs and DGX Spark](https://daily.dev/posts/hermes-unlocks-self-improving-ai-agents-powered-by-nvidia-rtx-pcs-and-dgx-spark-qbql2tn5x) · NVIDIA · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#litellm](https://daily.dev/tags/litellm) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/is-hermes-agent-unusable-without-a-model-router--1gbc83pez) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/is-hermes-agent-unusable-without-a-model-router--1gbc83pez","headline":"Is Hermes agent unusable without a model router?","text":"A developer shares their experience running the Hermes agent with Step 3.5 Flash, finding it too prone to hallucinations, but frontier models too expensive. 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