AI Agents
Agent Apps
OpenClaw and Hermes Agent: AI agents that you install on your own server with AI Deploy, and how they differ from the DevOps AI Agent
AI Agents as Apps
An agent app is an AI agent that is itself the application. You install it on your own VPS with AI Deploy, like any other application, and then you talk to it directly. Two such apps have guides:
A personal AI assistant: one Gateway on your server that answers in a web interface and in chat apps
An autonomous AI agent from Nous Research, with a web dashboard and messaging integrations
Both run on a VPS with root access, SSH, the browser console, and the manage page. They are not the DevOps AI Agent: that agent belongs to RepoCloud and sets up another application on a server, while an agent app is the application you set up, and the DevOps AI Agent can install it for you.
How They Compare
| OpenClaw | Hermes Agent | DevOps AI Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A personal AI assistant with one Gateway | An autonomous AI agent with a web dashboard | The agent that installs and changes an application on your server |
| How it gets on the server | Installed by the DevOps AI Agent through AI Deploy | Installed by the DevOps AI Agent through AI Deploy | You start it from AI Deploy |
| What you give it | An API key from the AI provider you choose, when the agent asks for it | An API key from a model provider, when the agent asks for it | A GitHub repository, and optional custom instructions |
| How you talk to it | Its web interface and chat apps | The dashboard’s Chat tab, the terminal and messaging integrations | The chat that RepoCloud opens |
| Who pays for the AI model | You, through your own key | You, through your own key | Not billed on top of the server |
| Smallest tier | Tier 2 | Tier 2 | Tier 2 |
| What RepoCloud bills | The server, by the hour | The server, by the hour | The server, by the hour |
Which One Do I Need?
- An assistant that answers you in a browser or in chat apps: OpenClaw.
- An agent that works toward a goal with tools and shows its work in a dashboard or the terminal: Hermes Agent.
- An application installed and configured on a server for you: the DevOps AI Agent, started from AI Deploy.
- Your own AI tool that creates and manages servers: bring your own agent.
Using an Agent App Safely
An agent app with a terminal can change the server it runs on, just as the DevOps AI Agent can. The same habits apply: take a snapshot before you give it a big task, keep your keys least-privileged and revocable, and read what it did. Safety and Control covers them.
The model provider is the one you chose, and its terms and prices are its own. OpenClaw and Hermes Agent explain how to get a key and how the cost is billed.
Next Steps
Install and configure OpenClaw
Install and configure Hermes Agent
Compare every way to use an AI agent on RepoCloud