Hermes Agent: The New OpenClaw?
Greg Isenberg · 2026-04-20
💡 Quick Take
1. Install Hermes Agent for a personalized AI coworker that learns your workflows and saves you time and money.
2. Hermes Agent overcomes OpenClaw's limitations by offering built-in memory, enhanced stability, and better token visibility.
3. Hermes Agent comes with over 40 pre-built tools and popular skills (like Apple Notes, iMessage) out-of-the-box, simplifying setup.
4. Prioritize security by having the agent audit your setup, or run Hermes in a Docker container or as a serverless service.
5. Installation on Mac, Linux, or Windows WSL is a simple one-line command, with a prompt to install Xcode developer tools if needed.
6. Hermes Agent seamlessly supports Anthropic API keys and offers access to new routers, providing flexibility in model selection.
7. Save significantly on token costs by using providers like OpenRouter (which offers free models) and by having the agent write code for recurring tasks.
8. Reduce token spending by over 90% by switching to Hermes Agent and OpenRouter, as demonstrated by a personal experience.
9. Connect Hermes Agent to Telegram for conversational interaction and even run it on an Android device for a portable, always-on agent.
10. Utilize the Termux API on Android to give Hermes Agent access to phone sensors, battery, camera, and more for advanced automation.
11. Explore money-making opportunities with Hermes Agent on Android, such as social media automation that posts directly from the device.
12. Automate tedious personal tasks like email triaging to save significant time daily.
13. Use Hermes Agent to audit your personal life and identify tasks that can be automated for increased efficiency.
14. Start by automating simple personal problems, like meal planning based on pantry inventory, to build habit and familiarity with agents.
15. While powerful, Hermes Agent is still beta software; daily updates are recommended, and secure access via Telegram or Tailscale is advised.
16. Consider a one or two-agent setup (work and personal) for optimal organization and to avoid mixing sensitive data.
17. Integrate Hermes Agent with Obsidian for a clean, automatically organized dashboard of your week, tasks, and important information.
18. Build the habit of using your agent consistently for a week or so to allow it to learn your patterns and create personalized setups like Obsidian dashboards.
19. Use meta-prompts like "What have I been procrastinating on?" or "What is the most important thing to work on today?" to guide the agent.
20. Ask the agent to build tools for you or set up cron jobs for repetitive tasks to automate your workflow.
21. Load niche personal development tools, like a chatbot therapist based on Joseph Weisenbaum's ELIZA, as skills within Hermes.
22. Focus on what you can *get done* with the agent rather than just customizing it; customization is not the ultimate skill.
23. Install the Obsidian skill and consider the Honcho dev memory skill to manage memory limits and keep context small.
24. Build your own skills for personal finance and fitness automation, rather than solely relying on pre-built ones.
25. Integrate GStack by Gary Tan as a skill to leverage Y Combinator-style startup methodologies and product development guidance.
26. Hermes Agent, like a 90s tuner car, allows for customization, but the real value comes from what you achieve with it.
27. The most useful aspect of Hermes Agent is its ability to handle background work, allowing for more productive conversations with founders and better deal flow.
📊 Detailed Explanation
1. Install Hermes Agent for a personalized AI coworker that learns your workflows and saves you time and money. This is the core proposition of Hermes Agent. Unlike generic AI tools, Hermes is designed to be your personal assistant, actively learning how you work. By understanding your routines and tasks, it can automate repetitive actions, suggest improvements, and ultimately free up your time and reduce operational costs. Think of it as having a dedicated team member who gets smarter the more you use it.
2. Hermes Agent overcomes OpenClaw's limitations by offering built-in memory, enhanced stability, and better token visibility. The transcript highlights significant pain points with OpenClaw: having to repeat instructions due to a lack of memory, frequent gateway restarts, and opaque token usage leading to unexpected costs. Hermes addresses these directly. Its built-in memory means it remembers past successful actions, reducing the need for constant re-explanation. It's also more stable, requiring fewer restarts. Crucially, it provides better visibility into token consumption, helping users manage costs effectively. This makes it a more reliable and cost-efficient alternative for personalized AI workflows.
3. Hermes Agent comes with over 40 pre-built tools and popular skills (like Apple Notes, iMessage) out-of-the-box, simplifying setup. This is a massive advantage for ease of use. Instead of spending hours searching for and installing individual tools and plugins, Hermes provides a comprehensive suite from the get-go. This includes common functionalities like web browsing, search, scheduling, and even image generation. For Mac users, the inclusion of skills for Apple Notes, Reminders, Find My, and iMessage means you can start interacting with your existing Apple ecosystem immediately, without extra effort.
4. Prioritize security by having the agent audit your setup, or run Hermes in a Docker container or as a serverless service. Security is a major concern with any AI agent that accesses your system. Hermes offers multiple layers of protection. You can ask the agent itself to perform a security audit, checking for exposed keys or misconfigured firewalls. For even greater isolation, you can run Hermes within a Docker container, keeping it separate from your main system files. Alternatively, it can be deployed as a serverless service on platforms like Modal, offering flexibility and potentially enhanced security depending on the deployment model.
5. Installation on Mac, Linux, or Windows WSL is a simple one-line command, with a prompt to install Xcode developer tools if needed. Getting started with Hermes is designed to be straightforward. The core installation process for most operating systems is a single command in your terminal. For Mac users, if you haven't installed them before, the system will prompt you to install the Xcode developer tools, which are necessary for many command-line operations. This low barrier to entry means you can be up and running with Hermes relatively quickly.
6. Hermes Agent seamlessly supports Anthropic API keys and offers access to new routers, providing flexibility in model selection. Cost and performance optimization often depend on the AI models you use. Hermes doesn't lock you into one provider. It allows you to use your Anthropic API keys, and it also integrates with services like OpenRouter. This means you have access to a wide range of models from different providers, allowing you to choose the best fit for your specific task and budget. The ability to switch models easily is crucial for fine-tuning performance and cost.
7. Save significantly on token costs by using providers like OpenRouter (which offers free models) and by having the agent write code for recurring tasks. Token costs can quickly add up, especially with complex AI tasks. Hermes helps mitigate this in two key ways. Firstly, by integrating with providers like OpenRouter, which sometimes offer free models (like Nvidia's Neotron mentioned in the transcript), you can reduce expenses. Secondly, and perhaps more impactful, you can have Hermes write code for tasks you perform repeatedly. Once the code is written, you can execute it directly, bypassing the need for the LLM to process the task each time, thus saving tokens indefinitely.
8. Reduce token spending by over 90% by switching to Hermes Agent and OpenRouter, as demonstrated by a personal experience. This is a concrete example of the cost savings achievable. The speaker shared a personal anecdote where their token spend dropped from approximately $130 every five days to just $10, representing a reduction of over 90%. This dramatic improvement was achieved by migrating to Hermes Agent and utilizing OpenRouter, highlighting the significant financial benefits of optimizing your AI agent setup.
9. Connect Hermes Agent to Telegram for conversational interaction and even run it on an Android device for a portable, always-on agent. Hermes isn't confined to your desktop. You can connect it to Telegram, allowing you to interact with your agents (named after Muppets in the example) through chat. Even more impressively, you can install and run Hermes Agent directly on an Android phone. This turns your phone into a powerful, portable AI device, accessible from anywhere, making it an always-on, low-power dedicated agent.
10. Utilize the Termux API on Android to give Hermes Agent access to phone sensors, battery, camera, and more for advanced automation. Running Hermes on Android unlocks a new level of functionality through the Termux API. This allows the agent to access and control various aspects of your phone, including sensor data, battery status, Wi-Fi settings, camera, vibration, and even screen interactions. This opens up possibilities for highly integrated automation that leverages the unique capabilities of your mobile device.
11. Explore money-making opportunities with Hermes Agent on Android, such as social media automation that posts directly from the device. The portability and sensor access of Hermes on Android create unique business opportunities. For instance, you could build social media automation tools that post content directly from the device. This bypasses API limitations that can sometimes reduce reach and makes the posts appear more organic, as if they originated directly from a user's phone. The potential for scaling this across multiple Android devices is also significant.
12. Automate tedious personal tasks like email triaging to save significant time daily. Beyond business applications, Hermes excels at streamlining personal life. An example given is an email triaging agent that automatically deletes junk mail, unsubscribes from unwanted lists, and provides a daily digest of important emails. This simple automation can save 30 minutes to an hour each day, freeing up mental energy and allowing you to focus on more important activities.
13. Use Hermes Agent to audit your personal life and identify tasks that can be automated for increased efficiency. The agent can act as a personal efficiency consultant. By asking it questions about where you spend your time or what tasks you perform repeatedly, you can prompt it to help you identify areas ripe for automation. This self-auditing capability helps you proactively improve your workflow and reclaim valuable time.
14. Start by automating simple personal problems, like meal planning based on pantry inventory, to build habit and familiarity with agents. The best way to get comfortable with AI agents is to start small. Automating a common personal challenge, like figuring out what to cook based on available ingredients, is a great entry point. By setting up an agent to process your pantry contents and suggest recipes, you reduce mental load and build confidence in the agent's capabilities, paving the way for more complex automations.
15. While powerful, Hermes Agent is still beta software; daily updates are recommended, and secure access via Telegram or Tailscale is advised. It's important to remember that Hermes Agent is still under active development. The speaker emphasizes the need for daily updates to stay current with the latest commits and fixes. For secure remote access, using Telegram or WhatsApp for interaction and setting up Tailscale to create a virtual private network for your devices are highly recommended practices.
16. Consider a one or two-agent setup (work and personal) for optimal organization and to avoid mixing sensitive data. While you can create multiple agents, the most efficient approach might be one or two. A common and practical setup is to have separate agents for work and personal life. This keeps your data organized, prevents sensitive work information from mingling with personal data, and makes it easier to manage your digital life.
17. Integrate Hermes Agent with Obsidian for a clean, automatically organized dashboard of your week, tasks, and important information. Obsidian, a popular note-taking app, can be powerfully integrated with Hermes. The agent can automatically organize your notes into an Obsidian vault, creating a daily or weekly dashboard that summarizes key tasks, upcoming events, and important information. This eliminates the manual effort of organizing your thoughts and ensures you always have a clear overview of your priorities.
18. Build the habit of using your agent consistently for a week or so to allow it to learn your patterns and create personalized setups like Obsidian dashboards. Personalized setups like Obsidian dashboards don't appear overnight. They are a result of consistent usage. By making it a habit to interact with your agent daily for about a week, it learns your preferences and workflows, enabling it to create highly tailored outputs and automations, such as a perfectly curated Obsidian vault.
19. Use meta-prompts like "What have I been procrastinating on?" or "What is the most important thing to work on today?" to guide the agent. Effective prompting is key to unlocking the agent's potential. Questions that encourage reflection and prioritization, such as asking about procrastination or the day's most critical task, leverage the agent's access to your data (like to-do lists) to provide actionable insights.
20. Ask the agent to build tools for you or set up cron jobs for repetitive tasks to automate your workflow. Empower the agent to actively improve your life. By asking it to "build a tool for me that would make my life easier tomorrow" or to set up cron jobs for recurring tasks, you delegate the development of automations, saving you time and effort in the long run.
21. Load niche personal development tools, like a chatbot therapist based on Joseph Weisenbaum's ELIZA, as skills within Hermes. The flexibility of Hermes extends to integrating specialized tools. You can load historical AI programs, like ELIZA (a simulated therapist), as skills. This allows you to experiment with unique applications for personal growth and development, turning complex legacy software into easily accessible agent capabilities.
22. Focus on what you can *get done* with the agent rather than just customizing it; customization is not the ultimate skill. A crucial piece of advice is to prioritize output and results over endless customization. While tweaking and personalizing your agent is part of the process, the true value lies in what you accomplish with it. Don't get lost in the rabbit hole of optimization; focus on how the agent adds tangible value to your life or business.
23. Install the Obsidian skill and consider the Honcho dev memory skill to manage memory limits and keep context small. Specific skills can enhance functionality. The Obsidian skill is highly recommended for organization. For managing the agent's memory and keeping its context window efficient, the Honcho dev memory skill is also worth considering, especially as Hermes is still beta and may have memory limitations.
24. Build your own skills for personal finance and fitness automation, rather than solely relying on pre-built ones. While pre-built skills are great, the real power comes from creating your own. Focus on automating areas that are critical to you, such as personal finance management or fitness tracking. These custom skills will be tailored to your specific needs and provide the most value.
25. Integrate GStack by Gary Tan as a skill to leverage Y Combinator-style startup methodologies and product development guidance. GStack, developed by Gary Tan (CEO of Y Combinator), is a powerful skill for entrepreneurs. It brings the Y Combinator methodology – focusing on iterative product development, asking the right questions, and implementing code – directly to your agent. This provides access to top-tier startup guidance, previously only available to YC participants.
26. Hermes Agent, like a 90s tuner car, allows for customization, but the real value comes from what you achieve with it. This analogy perfectly captures the essence of Hermes. It's a platform you can highly customize, much like a tuner car. However, the ultimate goal isn't just having a customized setup; it's about using that setup to perform better, achieve more, and drive results.
27. The most useful aspect of Hermes Agent is its ability to handle background work, allowing for more productive conversations with founders and better deal flow. For professionals, especially those in fields like venture capital, Hermes can be a game-changer. By automating background research and analysis, it frees up time for more meaningful interactions, such as engaging with more founders. This leads to better deal flow, improved decision-making, and ultimately, better outcomes for the fund and the founders they support.
🎯 Expert Opinion
The introduction of Hermes Agent marks a significant evolution in the personal AI assistant space, moving beyond simple task execution to true workflow learning and adaptation. The comparison to OpenClaw is apt; while OpenClaw pioneered some of these concepts, Hermes appears to have addressed the critical usability and stability issues that often plague early-stage AI tools. The emphasis on built-in memory and real-time log searching is particularly noteworthy. This isn't just about recalling facts; it's about the agent understanding context and past successes to inform future actions, which is the bedrock of genuine intelligence and efficiency.
The pre-built tools and skills are a smart move. In the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem, the friction of tool discovery and integration is a major bottleneck. By providing a robust, out-of-the-box experience, Hermes lowers the barrier to entry considerably. This democratizes access to advanced AI capabilities, allowing users without deep technical expertise to leverage powerful automations. The inclusion of OS-specific integrations like Apple Notes and iMessage further enhances its immediate utility for a broad user base.
Security and deployment flexibility are also critical differentiators. The ability to have the agent audit its own setup, coupled with options for Dockerization and serverless deployment, addresses legitimate concerns about data privacy and system integrity. This thoughtful approach to security builds trust and encourages wider adoption, especially in professional settings where sensitive data is involved. The raw installation command, while simple, hides a complex underlying architecture that is designed for both power and safety.
The cost-saving aspect, particularly through OpenRouter and code generation for recurring tasks, is a major economic driver. As LLM usage scales, token costs become a significant factor. Hermes' strategy of providing clear pricing visibility and enabling users to offload deterministic tasks to code is a brilliant way to manage expenses. The reported 90%+ reduction in costs is not just impressive; it's a testament to the potential for AI agents to become not just useful, but financially sustainable for individuals and small businesses.
The expansion to Android is a game-changer for the concept of a "personal agent." Turning a smartphone into a dedicated, always-on AI device with access to sensors and device functions opens up a universe of possibilities. Imagine an agent that can monitor your environment, respond to physical stimuli, or even automate tasks that require direct device interaction. This moves beyond cloud-based AI to a truly integrated, edge-computing paradigm for personal AI. The applications for social media automation, personalized notifications, and even complex IoT-like interactions are vast.
The integration with Obsidian is another strategic win. Obsidian's strength lies in its flexible, markdown-based knowledge management. By allowing Hermes to automatically organize and curate information within Obsidian, users gain a powerful, personalized dashboard that syntheshesizes their digital life. This is where the "learning" aspect of Hermes truly shines – it doesn't just store information; it structures it in a way that is meaningful and actionable for the user, based on learned priorities and patterns.
The advice to focus on "what you can get done" rather than just customization is paramount. This echoes the broader trend in AI adoption: the goal is not to become an AI engineer, but to leverage AI to achieve personal and professional objectives. Hermes, by providing both powerful customization options and clear pathways to tangible results (like improved deal flow or automated personal tasks), strikes a critical balance. The GStack integration further reinforces this, bringing structured startup methodologies into the agent framework, essentially making expert business advice accessible and actionable through AI.
Looking ahead, the evolution of Hermes Agent and similar platforms will likely focus on deeper contextual understanding, more proactive suggestions, and seamless integration across an even wider array of applications and devices. The trend is clearly towards AI agents becoming indispensable partners in both our professional and personal lives, not just tools, but extensions of our own capabilities. The "tuner car" analogy is perfect – the true innovation lies not in the parts, but in the performance and journey they enable.
Kanal: Greg Isenberg