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hermes recipes

working configs and scripts from my Hermes Agent walkthroughs. everything here ran on real hardware before it landed: a Mac Mini M4 that runs Hermes Agent 24/7, and an RTX 5090 Linux box for local inference.

Hermes Agent is Nous Research's open-source agent: autonomous skill creation, persistent memory with cross-session recall, cron jobs, MCP support, 20+ messaging gateways. docs.

the almanac

these recipes usually start as posts in the witcheer almanac, my weekly notes from running local AI on my own hardware. read the back issues or subscribe at buttondown.com/witcheer.

the bar

every command in a recipe ran on real hardware before publishing. no copy-paste from docs, no untested steps, no "should work". if a step has not been tested, it does not ship here.

recipes

  • 24/7 Hermes Agent on a Mac Mini M4: the launchd gotcha and watchdog, the [SILENT] cron pattern, a git-synced workspace, the human-in-the-loop approval rule
  • Hermes Agent on a cheap VPS: the secure-box hardening script, the install one-liner, driving it over tmux, the systemd setup that survives a reboot
  • lock down a self-hosted Hermes Agent: what the gateway, dashboard, and API server expose, secret hygiene, backup/restore, least-privilege scoping, an exposure-audit script
  • your own agent on one GPU: llama-server and the gateway as boot-persistent systemd units, the identity templates, the starter skill pack, the drain/restore pattern, zero inbound ports
  • your own agent on one GPU: llama-server and the gateway as boot-persistent systemd units, the SOUL/USER/MEMORY identity templates, a starter skill pack, the drain/restore pattern for borrowing the GPU back, zero inbound ports

Hermes Wingtips

the daily tip series, collected: Hermes Wingtips (70 tips, newest first). point an agent at llms.txt.

release explainers

what each Hermes Agent release actually does and how to use it, written after the real questions come in: release explainers (7 so far, newest first).

Hermes Autopilot

copy-pasteable prompts to hand your agent, each run on a real box before posting: Hermes Autopilot prompts (3 so far, newest first).

also here

  • threads & cards: Flightplan, heads-up cards, community pulse, builder spotlights
  • changelog: what shipped in Hermes Agent and how to use it, in my words

found a problem with a recipe? open an issue. I fix what I ship.