At a glance
- Where the pet comes from
- The bot’s own Hermes (
hermes pets), or Boba from the Petdex gallery - Activities
- Twelve, from Resting to Needs permission
- Surfaces
- The app, Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, StandBy, Apple Watch, CarPlay and Android
- Default
- On, with Minimal Lock Screen details
- Cost
- Display only. It doesn’t change prompts or use tokens.
What the pet acts out
| Activity | When you see it |
|---|---|
| Thinking | The bot is reasoning or writing |
| Coding, Searching, Reading, Running commands or Using tools | A tool of that kind is running |
| Needs permission | An approval, password, secret or MCP prompt is waiting |
| Waiting for you | The bot asked you a question |
| Done! | The turn finished cleanly |
| Something went wrong | The turn or a tool failed |
| Offline | Herald can’t reach that bot’s computer |
| Resting | Nothing is happening |
The pet and the chat header’s status line come from the same rules, so they never disagree.
Where it shows up
In Herald, the pet sits in the chat header. Tap it for a card with the activity, how long it has been running and one action, such as Open task or View result. On iPad, Mission Control shows the pets of working bots.
Outside the app, the pet appears in a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, in a Home Screen and StandBy widget, on Apple Watch beside each busy bot, on the CarPlay voice screen and in an ongoing notification on Android.
Places with room for only one pet show the task you are most likely waiting on: a bot that needs you first, then work you started, then other work, then a task that just finished.
Turn it on and choose a pet
- Open Settings › General › Hermes Pet
Hermes Pet and Show in Herald are on by default.
- Choose the Lock Screen surfaces
Lock Screen activity on iPhone, or Lock Screen notification on Android, plus Dynamic Island on iPhone.
- Pick a detail level
Lock Screen details: Minimal, Task name or Detailed. Minimal only says whether Hermes is working, waiting or done.
- Choose your banners
Notify when Hermes needs me and Notify when a task finishes control the matching alerts. On iPhone they carry the pet’s pose.
- Give a bot its own pet
On the computer, browse the gallery and install one. For a bot other than the default, start the command with
hermes -p <bot>instead ofhermes. Herald picks up the change.hermes pets list hermes pets install boba --select
Privacy
The pet artwork comes from your own Hermes, and Herald cuts the frames it needs on the phone. Nothing goes to a third party. On the Lock Screen the default level, Minimal, never shows tool names or prompt text; Detailed shows the same status line as the app, so choose it only if nobody else sees your phone.
Limits
- Lock Screen, widget and notification update only while Herald runs. Background Live Activity updates aren’t active yet.
- The floating companion in Settings is marked “Experimental. Not available yet.”
- Group rooms have no single pet, so CarPlay shows symbols for rooms.
- The watch animates the pet only while the watch app is open. Reduce Motion shows a still frame everywhere.
Questions
Why do all my bots show the same pet?
None of them has a pet installed in Hermes, so Herald uses Boba for each. A bot whose computer can’t be reached also falls back to Boba.
Does the pet use tokens?
No. Herald works out the activity from the chat it already receives. Hermes pets are display only too.
Can I turn it off?
Yes. Switch off Hermes Pet in Settings › General › Hermes Pet, or keep it in the app and switch off only the Lock Screen surfaces.
Is Hermes Pet part of Hermes Agent?
Hermes has its own pets, Petdex mascots, in the terminal and desktop app. Herald reads each bot’s pet from Hermes and draws it on phone surfaces; Hermes Pet is Herald’s name for that. Herald is an independent app.
