Hermes Automation Patterns

Production patterns for efficient, low-cost always-on Hermes agents tied to Tony's workflows.

Source: Tonbi Hermes Agent Masterclass (Cron & Automation, June 19 2026)

This directory captures techniques from the cyrilXBT / Tonbi Hermes Agent Masterclass series, specifically the Cron & Automation session published June 19, 2026. The session covers how to build persistent, cost-effective autonomous agents using Hermes' built-in scheduler, gates, and delivery controls.

Link: YouTube — Hermes Agent Masterclass (Cron & Automation)

Key Techniques

Technique	Description	Cost Impact
wakeAgent Gates	Condition-based triggers that only invoke the LLM when specific criteria are met (instead of running every tick). Prevents unnecessary API calls on irrelevant cycles.	High savings
no-agent Polling	`no_agent=True` flag on cron scripts — runs a shell script directly without any LLM context. Output is delivered verbatim only when there's change or data. Zero token cost per tick when nothing happens.	Max savings
context-from Chaining	Pipe output of one cron job as context into another via `context_from`. Enables multi-stage pipelines (e.g., collector → summarizer → delivery) where each stage only fires on upstream data.	Tiered cost
Silent Delivery	Cron jobs that produce empty stdout on no-change ticks deliver nothing. The user only sees messages when there's actionable output. Reduces noise and delivery friction.	Free (no token)

Goals

Email Triage — Automated inbox scanning, priority routing, and draft response generation with approval gates.
Skills Hub Monitoring — Track skill usage, freshness, and curator activity across all active skills.
Compliance Monitoring — Periodic scans of regulatory changes and gap detection against SOP/KB artifacts.
Opportunity Scanning — Scheduled market/tech landscape scans with mechanical filtering and artifact persistence.
Daily Briefs — High-signal daily summaries from multiple sources, delivered at configured times via Telegram or email.

Directory Layout

hermes-automation/
├── README.md           # This file — overview and masterclass summary
├── gates/              # wakeAgent-style gate designs (condition-based triggers)
│   ├── email-triage-wakegate.md  # Example: email triage poller gate
│   └── .gitkeep
├── scripts/            # Shell/Python scripts for no-agent polling jobs
│   └── .gitkeep
├── examples/           # Full worked examples combining gates + scripts + delivery
│   └── .gitkeep
└── notes/              # Implementation notes, gotchas, config snippets
    └── .gitkeep

Getting Started

Browse the gates/ directory for condition-based trigger patterns. When adapting a pattern:

Start with a no-agent script (cheapest) — just shell/Python collecting and filtering data
Add a wakeAgent gate when conditional LLM reasoning is needed
Chain via context-from to split complex pipelines into lean stages
Use silent delivery on every poller — never deliver "nothing changed" ticks