ModelsArchitectures & capability
Nous Research Releases MissingNo, a Free Stealth Coding Model for Hermes Agent
Nous Research has released MissingNo, a coding and agentic-reasoning model from an undisclosed builder. It is free on Nous Portal for a limited time. A promotional walkthrough suggests rotating free models in Hermes Agent, but the agent's built-in fallback chain already handles switching automatically.
From the r/AISEOInsider (via last30days) article of October 13, 2026 and cited sources: Nous announced MissingNo on 10 October 2026 as a free, limited-time coding and agentic-reasoning model on Nous Portal. [4] [6]
SOURCES[4] Nous Research on X: MISSINGNO announcement x.com[6] Stealth, Revealed & Upcoming AI Models stealthmodels.com
AT Pulse research deskPublished · Updated · 4 min read · AI-assisted analysisAI-assisted, not human-edited. Methodology Corrections Who owns this site
- What happened
- Nous announced MissingNo on 10 October 2026 as a free, limited-time coding and agentic-reasoning model on Nous Portal. [4] [6]
- Original source
- r/AISEOInsider (via last30days) article, independent perspective
- Brief by
- AT Pulse research desk AI-assisted; publisher and contact on the desk page
- When
- October 13, 2026 article published
- Covered
- Oct 14 edition
- Evidence
- 10 sources across 8 sites
- 1How I Run Hermes Free Models So My Agents Keep Workingreddit.com
- 2MissingNo: New FREE Hermes Agent Stealth Modelreddit.com
- 3Linked video: How I Run Hermes Free Models So My Agents…youtube.com
- 4Nous Research on X: MISSINGNO announcementx.com
- 5Hermes Agent docs: Run Nemotron 3 Ultra freehermes-agent.nousresearch.com
- 6Stealth, Revealed & Upcoming AI Modelsstealthmodels.com
RisingHow it’s measured
YouTube video · 10.2K views · 68 likes
Reach blends public engagement (views, likes, comments, shares, stars) from the platforms where the story or its original source lives: YouTube, Hacker News, GitHub, Substack and similar. A video and the article written from its transcript share one score, taken from the video. Platforms with no data are left out rather than counted as zero, and the age of a story never lowers its score.
Nous announced MissingNo on 10 October 2026 as a free, limited-time coding and agentic-reasoning model on Nous Portal. It has not said who built it. A stealth-model tracker lists 262K context, tool calling and always-on reasoning. Nous calls the model highly token-efficient but has published no metrics to support that. [4] [6]
Free tiers on Nous Portal tend to be temporary. Nemotron 3 Ultra's free window lasted two weeks. The presenter keeps a separate profile for each model and switches by hand. Hermes Agent's documented fallback_providers chain does this automatically, but each switch lasts only one turn and loses the prompt cache, so input costs go up. [3] [5] [8]
Free Nous Portal tiers have repeatedly been time-limited, and MissingNo's builder, data terms and licence are undisclosed.
Read the full assessment
Teams could try it for low-risk agent chores, but should set up fallbacks and run their own tests before sending it proprietary code.
Executive brief
The model in this story has no named builder. On 10 October 2026, Nous Research released MissingNo, a "stealth" coding and agentic-reasoning model, free for a limited time on Nous Portal. It has not said who built the model. The Reddit post and its video come from the same commercial promoter. They recommend running MissingNo and other free models as interchangeable Hermes Agent profiles so agents keep working when a model is withdrawn, starts charging, or runs out of tokens. The only performance evidence is one person's informal demo: fast at tool calls and creating skills, mediocre at coding. No independent benchmarks have been found.
What changed and event timeline
Free tiers shown to be time-limited
Hermes Agent docs said the free tier of
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra:freewould run only from June 4 to June 18. They called it a limited-time partnership offer, not a permanent service.Nous announces MissingNo
Nous described it as a token-efficient coding and agentic-reasoning model, free for a limited time on Nous Portal, for use in Hermes Agent.
Tracker lists specs
A stealth-model tracker lists MissingNo with 262K context, tool calling, always-on reasoning and a temporary free preview. It marks the model as still in stealth.
Promotional walkthrough published
A Reddit post and video show MissingNo running next to Step 5 in a custom "agent OS".
More detail
Capabilities and access
- No version number or parameter count has been published. Listed with 262K context, tool calling and always-on reasoning (stealthmodels).
- Access: Free on Nous Portal for a limited time, with no end date given (Nous; Goldie).
- Setup shown: Hermes Cloud → deploy → create agent → open dashboard → search "missing" in model settings → reload (video 04:16).
Read the full section
- Model: "MISSINGNO." No version number or parameter count has been published. Listed with 262K context, tool calling and always-on reasoning (stealthmodels).
- Access: Free on Nous Portal for a limited time, with no end date given (Nous; Goldie).
- Setup shown: Hermes Cloud → deploy → create agent → open dashboard → search "missing" in model settings → reload (video 04:16).
- Other free options in the dashboard: Step 3.7 Flash, Step 5 Preview, Ling 3.0, LongCat, Laguna XS 2.1, Solar Mini (video 05:06). The automatic captions misspell some of these names.
Technical analysis for researchers and developers
- MissingNo's architecture, training data and origin are undisclosed.
- The video's "profile per model" approach means switching by hand.
- It switches to the fallback on 429/5xx errors after retries run out, and immediately on 401/403/404 or malformed responses.
Read the full section
- MissingNo's architecture, training data and origin are undisclosed.
- The video's "profile per model" approach means switching by hand. Hermes Agent already has a built-in
fallback_providerschain, managed withhermes fallback add/list/remove(docs): - It switches to the fallback on 429/5xx errors after retries run out, and immediately on 401/403/404 or malformed responses.
- Fallback lasts only for the current turn. The primary model is retried on the next message.
- When fallback fires, the prompt cache is lost, so the full conversation history is re-billed at full input price.
- Use the
:freemodel variant. Picking a different variant removes the zero-cost status (Nemotron guide).
Claims and evidence
Read the full section
- "Highly token efficient": Nous's own claim, with no published metrics (Nous).
- Fast
/learnskill creation and tool calls: Shown once in the presenter's demo. His explanation that this comes from token efficiency is his own guess (02:48). - Coding "not frontier level": A ping-pong game took about 5 minutes and worked (03:00; 03:39). That is one anecdote, not a benchmark.
- Possibly built by Nous: The presenter calls this a guess (00:58).
- Corroboration: The site articles (juliangoldie.com, aiprofitboardroom.com) come from the same promoter as the Reddit post. No independent evaluation has been found.
Context and prior work
- Nous Portal has offered free models before, both time-limited and rate-limited.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra had a two-week free window (docs).
- Free access to StepFun's Step 3.7 Flash was extended by 15 days (Tony Reviews Things).
Read the full section
- Nous Portal has offered free models before, both time-limited and rate-limited.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra had a two-week free window (docs).
- Free access to StepFun's Step 3.7 Flash was extended by 15 days (Tony Reviews Things).
- Releasing anonymous "stealth" models for public testing is common enough that a tracker exists for them (stealthmodels).
Limitations, safety and contested findings
- The model's provenance, data-handling terms and licence are not disclosed. That matters before sending proprietary code to it.
- The video says there are "eight other" free models (02:39), but the dashboard it shows lists about six, and the presenter's article names seven (Goldie).
- The source content promotes a paid "AI Profit Boardroom" community (05:36).
Read the full section
- Unknown builder. The model's provenance, data-handling terms and licence are not disclosed. That matters before sending proprietary code to it.
- Conflicting model counts. The video says there are "eight other" free models (02:39), but the dashboard it shows lists about six, and the presenter's article names seven (Goldie).
- Commercial bias. The source content promotes a paid "AI Profit Boardroom" community (05:36).
- Hidden cost of fallback. Switching models mid-session loses the prompt cache, which raises input-token costs (docs).
Business and practitioner implications
- Treat free models as temporary. Configure the documented
fallback_providerschain rather than relying on switching profiles by hand. - Free stealth models suit low-risk agent chores like tool calls and research.
- Test before relying on them. Run your own task evaluations before routing production workflows to an unnamed model.
Read the full section
- Treat free models as temporary. Configure the documented
fallback_providerschain rather than relying on switching profiles by hand. - Match the model to the job. Free stealth models suit low-risk agent chores like tool calls and research. Keep proprietary or serious coding work on models with known provenance and terms.
- Test before relying on them. Run your own task evaluations before routing production workflows to an unnamed model. The only evidence so far is anecdotal and promotional.
The source trail.
Sources (10)
How I Run Hermes Free Models So My Agents Keep Working
Feed excerpt only. A transcript of the video linked from this page is supplied (linked video auto captions; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWlW-TXBLsk); automatic text may contain errors.
reddit.comMissingNo: New FREE Hermes Agent Stealth Model
Related coverage; assess separately
reddit.comLinked video: How I Run Hermes Free Models So My Agents Keep Working
linked video auto captions
www.youtube.com