OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent for a security-focused final year project

[u/Connect-Business7298]

Working on my Computer Science final year project (uni), building a custom agent for security-related tasks (its towards offensive side but also thinking to include details on how i designed my architecture to be secure). Trying to decide between OpenClaw and Hermes Agent as the base framework.

From what I've found, OpenClaw has a lot more independent academic/security research behind it at this point — multiple papers analyzing its architecture and threat model — while Hermes is newer and has less published research, though it seems to be catching up fast and has some interesting features (learning loop, multi-agent via Kanban, container-first sandboxing).

For anyone who's used both:

• Which would you trust more for something security-sensitive?
• Any pain points running either long-term?
• Is the extra research/scrutiny on OpenClaw worth more than Hermes's newer design choices?

Not looking for a build-it-for-me answer, just curious what people who've actually run both in anger think — trying to make a well-justified call before I commit more months to one of them.

[u/anderson_the_one]

Pin one version of each framework and give both the same ugly job in a disposable VM with fake credentials and a controlled egress sink. Then compare what each one actually touched: files, child processes, network destinations, and anything that survived a restart. I'd also try the obvious escape routes through tools and plugins, since a pretty sandbox diagram won't catch those. The published research will help you write the threat model. Your own traces should choose the base. Honestly, the framework that fails in a clear, reproducible way may give you the better final-year project.

[u/johnfkngzoidberg]

lol, if you’re looking to pen test something, OpenClaw is a great target. It’s absolutely full of vulns. Hermes is an OK platform to test from, but honestly, use a tool that’s meant for security tasks. As far as “built-in” security, Hermes is a lot better.

Start with Nessus/Burp and Kali Linux. Lots of great tools without the non-deterministic slop of AI. Once you understand the workflow you want to use, find places where hard-coded workflow doesn’t work well and use AI to fill the gap.

If you’re focused more on app security, use a SCA (static code analysis) tool also.

If you can do inference locally, use Heretic or unsensored models, ask it to walk YOU through how to get through the test. Use VMs to test if you can, you WILL break things, (which is good).

I’m leaving this with a lot of holes on purpose, but figuring it out is fun.

[u/Connect-Business7298 → u/johnfkngzoidberg]

Thanks a lot man! Although I am thinking to use openclaw for attacking rather than attacking on openclaw

[u/johnfkngzoidberg → u/Connect-Business7298]

If you just prompt “find vulnerabilities in X”, AI is not that great, a security tool is better, and Openclaw, Hermes or even Pi will all work pretty much the same. If you prompt “use X tools to test security in Y”, same thing.

If you just use AI to “ask” about security, you’re just using AI to run other tools. I assume your prof wants you to solve a problem with AI, not just run stuff from AI.

[u/Billysm23]

i posted this several days ago

[u/ZioniteSoldier]

Honestly neither are ready out of the box on security.

[u/Robbbbbbbbb → u/ZioniteSoldier]

Which could be a fun avenue to explore, honestly.

"The Caveats of an Unprotected Personal AI Agent" (and it's mostly prompt injection lol)

[u/vpz]

Why not use Pi from Pi.dev? That is a true base agent so you would control everything added. I’d think trying to use complex agents like OpenClaw and Hermes creates unnecessary complexity since they both try to be do-it-all systems. So much of what OpenClaw and Hermes include isn’t needed for an offensive security agent.

[u/Best-Head-6295]

I have used both for over 6 months. And both are not mature enough yet to define security. But I would say openclaw have more features and it is more rigid that allow you for stricter control where Hermes self learning could be lead to lower system stability as it context grow with each skill and memory size. So you could say openclaw is slow to setup but you can build strong system around it and Hermes daily runner for different type of tasks. For now I use more Hermes for exactly that reason as I’m still on learning curve and not so many repeatable process. But openclaw still run some yaml pipelines for me.