At a glance
- Hermes feature
- Bot Screen: an Xfce desktop per bot on a headless Linux gateway host
- Hosts
- A Linux server, a cloud VM, Hermes Cloud or the official Docker image
- Not on
- macOS or Windows hosts, which have a real display
- Needs on the host
- TigerVNC and Xfce packages, and Computer Use enabled for the bot
- In Herald
- A live view with Take over and Hand back
Where to find it
The Bot Screen card sits under the pet. On iPhone, tap the pet in the chat header; on iPad, look in the inspector rail. While the bot drives its screen, the card shows a thumbnail that refreshes every few seconds and says who is in control: Bot in control, You have control or Someone else has control.
Tap the card for the live view. It fills the screen, and dragging across the desktop won’t close it by accident.
Take over and hand back
- Watch first
The view streams the bot’s desktop. Fit to view shows all of it; Actual size shows it pixel for pixel, and a one-finger drag pans.
- Tap Take over
Your taps and typing now drive the screen, and the bot waits until you hand back. Sign in, enter the code or solve the CAPTCHA.
- Type what you need
The Keyboard button opens the keyboard. Esc and Tab are in the toolbar, and a hardware keyboard works too.
- Tap Hand back
The bot gets its screen back. Tell it in the chat that it can carry on.
If you see a different message
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Screen is off | Tap Start screen |
| Screen not installed | Run the command Herald shows, once, on the host. Herald never runs sudo for you. |
| Someone else took over. You are watching. | Another device holds control. Take over again or wait. |
| Someone else has control, from a session you left | Tap Hand back anyway to clear the old takeover |
| The screen stopped streaming. | Tap Reconnect |
Good to know
Leaving Herald keeps control, so you can switch apps to fetch a 2FA code and come back to the same session. Closing the live view hands control back.
Hermes stops a screen nobody uses after 30 minutes by default and starts it again on next use, and it checks for free memory before starting one. The Hermes docs suggest planning about 1.1 to 1.5 GB per open screen with a browser.
Limits and security
- Linux hosts only.
- Herald doesn’t install packages. On the official Docker image, an operator runs the install line once as root in the container.
- A screen is a work surface, not a security boundary: bots on one host share its user account, files and network.
- While you hold control, the bot’s computer-use and browser tools are refused, but that is a fence in the tools, not the operating system. Don’t type secrets into a bot you wouldn’t trust with them.
Questions
Why don’t I see a Bot Screen card?
Either the host runs macOS or Windows, or its Hermes doesn’t have Bot Screen yet. In both cases Herald hides the card rather than show an error.
Does the bot keep working when I close Herald?
Yes. The screen lives on the host, not on your phone, so the bot carries on.
Can two people watch the same screen?
Yes. The most recent Take over wins, and the previous controller drops back to watching.
Do I need Hermes Cloud?
No. Any headless Linux host works, including your own VPS or the official Docker image.
