Use Orion

The CLI and desktop app connect to the hosted Orion gateway at tryorion.io — no backend to run.

§Prerequisites

1Desktop app

Two ways to get it:

Prebuilt app (recommended)

Download the latest build for your OS from the GitHub Releases page — .dmg (macOS), .AppImage/.deb (Linux), or .msi (Windows). Install and open; it connects to https://tryorion.io by default.

Build it yourself (needs Rust)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
git clone https://github.com/nikfanaeian/hermes-clone.git
cd hermes-clone
pnpm install
pnpm --filter @orion/desktop tauri build   # produces a native installer in src-tauri/target/release/

Or run it in the browser (no Rust) with pnpm --filter @orion/desktop dev → http://localhost:1420. Change the endpoint in Settings if you self-host.

2CLI

Install globally (one command)

npm i -g @orion/cli
orion -M "search the web for the latest Mars mission"

Once the package is published to npm this is all you need. Until then, install from source:

git clone https://github.com/nikfanaeian/hermes-clone.git
cd hermes-clone
pnpm install && pnpm build
cd apps/cli && npm link        # puts 'orion' on your PATH

One-shot & REPL

orion -M "search the web for the latest Mars mission"   # one-shot
orion                                            # interactive REPL

§MCP servers & context presets

The CLI and app connect to any HTTP/SSE MCP server and stack pre-made context presets.

MCP

# one-off (repeatable): url or url:Header=value
orion --mcp "https://21st.dev/api/mcp:Authorization=Bearer YOUR_KEY" -M "list UI components"

Or persist them in ~/.orion-cli.json:

{
  "mcpServers": [{ "url": "https://21st.dev/api/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY" }, "name": "21st" }],
  "defaultContexts": ["caveman"]
}

Context presets

Stackable system-prompt modules: caveman, concise, expert, coder, socratic.

orion --context caveman -M "explain photosynthesis"   # ug. sun feed plant. plant make food.
orion --context expert --context concise -M "..."     # stack them

git clone https://github.com/<you>/hermes-clone.git
cd hermes-clone
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env          # OpenRouter keys now live in the admin OR Keys tab (D1), not here
pnpm dev:backend              # → http://127.0.0.1:8787