> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.herm.run/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Build with the Herm Agents API — create reusable agents, start user-scoped sessions, and stream agent events.

Herm gives you persistent, self-learning agents through a REST API. Bring your
system prompt, skills, tools, and MCP servers; Herm manages versioned agent
definitions, user-scoped sessions and memory, persistent workspaces,
credentials, and real-time event streams.

The API is available at:

```
https://api.herm.run
```

## How it works

1. **Create an agent** once with its model, system prompt, tools, MCP servers, and configured skills.
2. **Create sessions** from that agent. Pass a stable `subjectId` to isolate each person, organization, workspace, or team.
3. **Send messages and stream events** to render message deltas, tool calls, confirmations, status updates, and automatic session-title updates in your UI.

Infrastructure and deployment are managed for you. The API is centered on agents
and sessions.

## What you can do

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Agents" icon="bot" href="/api-reference/agents">
    Create, version, inspect, and archive reusable agent definitions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sessions" icon="messages-square" href="/api-reference/sessions">
    Start conversations with a stable `subjectId` identity scope.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Send Message" icon="send" href="/api-reference/send-message">
    Send a message to a session and start or steer agent work.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Stream Events" icon="zap" href="/api-reference/stream-events">
    Subscribe to deltas, tool calls, confirmations, status updates, and title changes.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Authentication

Send your workspace API key in the `x-api-key` header. All request bodies use
JSON. Herm is a Prism product, so examples name the local environment variable
`PRISM_API_KEY`.

```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
curl "https://api.herm.run/v1/agents" \
  -H "x-api-key: $PRISM_API_KEY"
```

[Open Herm](https://herm.run/app), create or select a workspace, then create a
key under [Settings → API keys](https://herm.run/app/settings/api-keys). Keys are
shown once; store them in your secret manager and never expose them in browser
code.

The machine-readable [OpenAPI 3.1 specification](/openapi.yaml) describes the
documented core REST surface. Product-specific integration endpoints may be
released separately.

Build your first agent with the [Quickstart](/quickstart).