Hermes Agent For Business: Set Up One Job First (2026)

Hermes Agent for business works best when you set it up around one small job first, then add channels, skills and extra agents only after that job runs clean.

This is the build order I'd follow for a salon, an accountant, an agency or a shop.

Every command and config key below comes from the official Hermes Agent docs.

If you'd rather have my team map out where an agent fits in your business, book a free SEO strategy session.

Start With One Job, Not Ten Integrations

The fastest way to break a new agent is to connect every app on day one.

Pick one repeatable job instead: a Monday report, or one inbox that gets a reply.

Get that job running unattended, then turn the method into a skill.

Only then add team chat, a task board and named Bots.

Each step below builds on the one before it, so you can stop at any point and still have something that works.

Which First Job Fits Which Business

Every example in this guide starts from the same rule: one job that repeats, with an output a person can check in a minute.

Accountant: a Monday list of client files still missing documents.
Salon: an agent inbox the owner and manager can email questions to.
Shop: a Slack thread where staff ask about stock and suppliers.
Agency: a research card on the Kanban board that feeds a writing card.

If you can't describe the job's output in one sentence, it isn't ready to hand over yet.

Write that sentence down first, because it becomes the cron prompt, the skill description or the card title later.

Step 1: Install Hermes And Pick A Model In One Pass

On Linux, macOS or WSL2, the docs give a one-line installer.

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
hermes setup --portal

The --portal setup runs one Nous Portal sign-in that covers a model plus web search, image generation, text-to-speech and browser tools.

The cron docs also call it the lowest-friction choice for unattended runs, because the OAuth refresh happens on its own.

Windows users get an install.ps1 script or the Desktop installer instead, per the installation page.

Hermes is MIT-licensed, and the newest release on GitHub is v0.22.7 from 3 November 2026.

Step 2: Lock The Gateway Before Anyone Can Message It

The messaging gateway is one background process that connects your chat apps, keeps sessions and fires cron jobs.

Before you start it, decide who's allowed to talk to it.

# ~/.hermes/.env
SLACK_ALLOWED_USERS=U01ABC2DEF3
TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789
GATEWAY_ALLOWED_USERS=123456789

The security page says that with no allowlist and no GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS, every user is denied.

That default is what you want on a work install.

For staff whose IDs you don't have yet, leave DM pairing on: an unknown person gets an 8-character code, and you approve it from the terminal.

hermes pairing list
hermes pairing approve telegram ABC12DEF
hermes pairing revoke telegram 123456789

Codes expire after one hour, and each platform holds at most three pending codes.

When someone leaves the business, run the revoke line the same day.

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Step 3: An Accountant's Monday Report On Cron

Here's the first job I'd hand over at a small accounting practice.

Every Monday at 8am, the agent opens the client folder, checks which year-end files are still missing documents, and sends a list.

hermes cron create "0 8 * * 1" \
  "Open each client folder here. List every client whose year-end file is missing a bank statement or a signed engagement letter. One line per client." \
  --workdir /srv/practice/clients \
  --name "Monday missing-docs list" \
  --deliver email

Without --workdir, a cron job runs detached from any folder, so the path matters.

The email target sends to EMAIL_HOME_ADDRESS, which the email page lists as the default cron delivery address.

Prefer chat? Swap in --deliver slack to post to your Slack home channel.

Tell the job to answer [SILENT] when nothing is missing, and the cron guide says no message goes out at all.

The full cron walkthrough, including pausing, stopping and missed runs, lives in our Hermes Agent cron job setup guide.

Step 4: A Salon's Inbox On The Email Gateway

A salon owner wants to email the agent a supplier invoice and get the key lines back in the same thread.

The email gateway page sets three rules first: a dedicated account, IMAP switched on, and an app password if the provider uses two-factor sign-in.

On Gmail, that means turning on 2FA, then creating a 16-character App Password and using it in place of the normal one.

# ~/.hermes/.env
EMAIL_ADDRESS=frontdesk.agent@gmail.com
EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-16-character-app-password
EMAIL_IMAP_HOST=imap.gmail.com
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_ALLOWED_USERS=owner@yoursalon.com,manager@yoursalon.com
EMAIL_AUTHSERV_ID=mx.google.com
EMAIL_HOME_ADDRESS=owner@yoursalon.com

Or run hermes gateway setup, pick Email, and answer the prompts.

Then hermes gateway install keeps it running as a user service.

The agent checks the inbox every 15 seconds by default and replies in-thread with proper threading headers.

PDF attachments are cached so the agent can open them.

Senders outside the allowlist are ignored without a reply, so clients emailing that address get nothing back until you choose otherwise.

Two gotchas: EMAIL_AUTHSERV_ID is required while sender checks are on, and the password sits in ~/.hermes/.env, so chmod 600 that file.

Step 5: Put The Shop's Team Chat On Slack

A shop with three staff can ask the agent questions in Slack instead of opening another app.

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-bot-token-here
SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-your-app-token-here
SLACK_ALLOWED_USERS=U01ABC2DEF3,U04XYZ7GHI8
SLACK_HOME_CHANNEL=C01234567890

Hermes connects to Slack through Socket Mode, per the Slack setup page.

In DMs it answers everything.

In channels it only answers when someone @mentions it, then keeps replying inside that thread without another mention.

The same gateway also covers Microsoft Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Signal, Google Chat, SMS and more, all listed on the messaging gateway page.

Want a different model or persona in one channel? Add a channel_overrides entry under that platform in config.yaml.

Step 6: Let It Read The Paperwork

Most small-business files are Word documents, spreadsheets and PDFs.

The document extraction page says read_file converts .docx, .xlsx, .ipynb and SQLite files with built-in code.

PDFs, older Office formats, OpenDocument files, .rtf and .epub go through the firecrawl-anydoc converter, which installs on first use where lazy installs are allowed.

Scanned PDFs are the trap: conversion reads only the text layer, so image-only pages come back empty.

When over 20% of pages, or 10 or more pages, have no text, Hermes adds a coverage warning naming the empty page ranges.

For a handful of pages the agent can render them and use vision; for a big stack, the ocr-and-documents skill handles bulk OCR.

Files over 50 MB are refused.

Step 7: Turn The Report Into A Skill

Once the accountant's Monday list comes out right, save the method so every future run follows it.

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/skills/practice/missing-docs-check
# then write SKILL.md with: name, description, When to Use, Procedure, Pitfalls, Verification

The skills guide says a skill is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter, and dropping it in ~/.hermes/skills/ makes it live with no registration.

Every installed skill becomes a slash command, so /missing-docs-check runs it in chat.

Attach it to the cron job with --skill missing-docs-check and the prompt can shrink to one line.

Hermes can also write skills itself: after a hard task it may offer to save the approach, and you say yes.

If you'd rather start from the bundled library, run hermes skills list or /skills in chat.

The skills catalog includes pdf, microsoft-office, google-workspace, meeting-action-items and email-inbox-triage, all of which suit office work.

Step 8: An Agency's Kanban Board And Delegation

A three-person agency has research, writing and review to pass between agents.

That's what the Kanban board is for: a durable SQLite board in ~/.hermes/kanban.db, shared across Hermes profiles.

hermes kanban init
hermes gateway start
hermes kanban create "research three competitor newsletters" --assignee researcher --tenant client-bakery
hermes kanban create "draft the April newsletter" --assignee writer --tenant client-bakery
hermes kanban watch

Each worker runs as its own OS process under its own profile, and the dispatcher inside the gateway picks up ready tasks every 60 seconds by default.

The --tenant flag keeps each client's cards apart on one board; the docs call tenants a soft filter, and separate boards the hard boundary.

Pick the workspace on purpose, too.

A scratch workspace is a fresh temporary folder, dir:<path> points at an existing shared folder, and worktree is for git work.

For a client's drafts folder, --workspace dir:/srv/agency/clients/bakery keeps the files after the card closes.

You can comment on, block or unblock any card, and the same verbs work as /kanban from Slack or Telegram.

For a quick side question inside one task, the agent uses delegate_task instead, which spawns isolated subagents and returns only their summaries.

The docs' rule of thumb: delegation is a function call, Kanban is a work queue that survives restarts.

Step 9: Give Each Role A Bot In Bot Mode

Once you have two or three regular jobs, give each one a named Bot.

Bot Mode ships in the Desktop app and is on by default, as a Bots tab beside Sessions.

Hit New Agent, fill in Name, Title and Description, and the Bot exists.

Under Advanced you can pin its model, write its SOUL.md, and tick only the skills, toolsets and MCP servers it needs.

Every Bot is a Hermes profile under ~/.hermes/profiles/<name>/, so hermes -p bookkeeper chat opens the same agent from the terminal.

Its Routines are ordinary cron jobs named [bot:<name>], and they show up in hermes cron list.

Sort Bots into sections such as Clients or Team so the roster stays readable.

Step 10: Logins Go In The Vault, Not The Chat

When a job needs a supplier portal or a booking system, never paste the password into a message.

The Passwords & Logins page says the agent asks for the login in a masked prompt the first time, encrypts it on that machine and fills it into the page.

The model never sees it.

Use hermes vault list, hermes vault add and hermes vault rm to manage what's saved.

Card fills always ask a person first, and cron jobs can't confirm one, so they're refused.

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The Approvals Block For Unattended Runs

Scheduled jobs run with nobody watching, so check how they handle risky shell commands.

approvals:
  mode: smart
  cron_mode: deny
  single_query_mode: deny
  unattended_mode: deny
  deny:
    - 'sudo *'
    - 'git push --force*'

Those three deny values are already the defaults, per the security page.

With cron_mode: deny, a cron job that hits a dangerous command has it blocked, and the agent must find another way.

unattended_mode does the same for webhook and API server sessions.

Underneath sits a hardline blocklist, covering things like wiping the filesystem root or a fork bomb, that no flag or yolo mode can override.

The approvals.deny list adds your own glob patterns on top, blocked before yolo is even checked.

Gotchas I'd Check On Day One

Run only one gateway instance, or the email page warns you'll get duplicate replies (hermes gateway status tells you).
A cron job can't create more cron jobs; Hermes switches that tool off inside cron runs.
Bots made in Bot Mode copy static API keys, but not OAuth logins; sign each one in with hermes -p <name> auth add <provider>.
Kanban scratch workspaces are deleted when a task completes, so use dir:/absolute/path for shared client folders.
Email ignores unknown senders by default; set platforms.email.unauthorized_dm_behavior: pair only if you want them to get a pairing code.

Members of the AI Profit Boardroom get these same setups as video walkthroughs, so you can copy each step on screen.

Also On Our Network

FAQ: Hermes Agent For Business

What should a small business automate first with Hermes?

One recurring report or one inbox. Get it running unattended, save the method as a skill, then add chat channels and the Kanban board.

Do I need an app password for the Hermes email gateway?

Yes if your provider uses two-factor sign-in. On Gmail you turn on 2FA, create a 16-character App Password and use it in EMAIL_PASSWORD.

Can staff message the agent without me adding their IDs first?

Yes. With DM pairing on, an unknown user gets an 8-character code and you approve it with hermes pairing approve. Codes expire after an hour.

Where do Bot Mode routines show up on the command line?

They are normal cron jobs named [bot:<name>], so hermes cron list shows them next to your other scheduled jobs.

Can a scheduled job run a destructive command while I am away?

Not by default. cron_mode is deny, so a dangerous command is blocked, and the hardline blocklist stops the worst commands in every mode.

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About Julian

I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.

I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.

I've built a 7-figure SEO and link building agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of 70+ SEO experts.
I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
I wrote "Link Building Mastery".
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