Hermes
Hermes is an open-source AI agent framework that learns from its own work. Every 15 tool calls it pauses, evaluates what happened, and writes a skill document from whatever worked. Over time it gets better at your specific workflows, not a generic user's.
Nothing is wired yet. This page documents what I'm planning to build and why.
The planned setup
The goal is a small set of agents running on a DigitalOcean droplet, scoped to RBC — the marketing consulting side of what I do. Not a grand automation stack. Just the repeatable work that currently eats time without adding thinking.
Research agent — pull signals from across the web (Reddit, X, YouTube, forums), synthesize what's relevant to whatever I'm working on, surface it without me having to go looking. My current workflow for this is manual and slow.
Content + drafting agent — pick up raw inputs (voice notes, research dumps, swipe file additions) and turn them into structured first drafts. Not for publishing — for cutting the distance between a raw idea and something editable.
Project support — a handful of things I'm building on the side that benefit from an agent that knows the context and can move work forward without a full handoff every time.
One job per agent. No grand unification.
The planning documents
Before touching any infrastructure, I did the research. Three artifacts from that process:
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Setup Architecture — The planned technical design: what runs where, model selection, cost breakdown, security approach, and phased rollout. Built from actual community research and the Hermes codebase, not marketing summaries.
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Ecom Use Cases — Research Report — A synthesis of how operators are using Hermes with Shopify stores. Shopify launched a native Hermes skill in May 2026. This maps what's proven, what's theoretical, and where the real leverage is for ecom brands.
Where things stand
Still in planning. The rule I'm following: map the workflows before touching the infrastructure. The failure mode is building before knowing what problem you're solving.
Will update this as things get wired.
Curious about Hermes for your own setup? jesse@redbeardconversions.com