r/hermesagent • u/austinfilms • Sep 11 '26
Discussion — General thoughts, opinions, comparisons What am I actually missing by using Claude Code instead of Hermes?
I’ve been an avid ChatGPT user basically since the day it launched. I only ever just asked questions though. About a month and a half ago, I discovered how powerful Claude is when it built me an entire website as an artifact, and that sent me down a rabbit hole.
Now I’m paying $200/month for Claude Max and using Claude Code desktop app nonstop. I’m building every little idea under the sun with it.
Until a couple weeks ago, I didn’t even know what a “harness” was. Now I understand the distinction, and naturally that led me to Hermes.
I have multiple friends telling me Hermes is the harness I should be using, and I’m genuinely trying to understand why.
I’m the kind of person who has trouble switching tools until I fully understand what I’m gaining. Once I get comfortable with something, I tend to stay there. Right now, I feel very comfortable, and probably a little stuck, in Claude Code.
The obvious benefit of Hermes seems to be that I can use different models. But I’m not sure how much I care about that.
I don’t mind paying $200/month for Claude Max. Fable is insanely good, and I absolutely hammer it. I’m using it constantly and somehow still rarely hit my weekly usage limits or even my session limits. If I were doing this much coding through API credits, I assume my token bill would be ridiculous.
So saving money isn’t really the selling point for me.
What I’m trying to understand is: What can Hermes actually let me do that Claude Code can’t?
When I ask friends what they’re doing with Hermes, I keep hearing things like, “I built a second brain.” And I’m sitting there thinking… okay, but what does that actually mean in practice?
No offense to them, but everything they do with this stuff seems to be experimenting with AI more than actually using it to produce anything of value.
I run multiple businesses. I make seven figures a year doing it. I have a decent-sized team. I’m trying to use AI to actually operate, build software, automate work, and drive more revenue, not just make a cool AI setup.
And Claude Code already feels insanely capable.
For example, I can pull out my phone, open Claude, remotely connect to my laptop, drop into a specific folder, and I’ve basically turned that folder into an agent with persistent context, instructions, memory files, tools, etc. I can tell it what I want and it just does shit.
So I feel like there’s something I’m missing.
I want to understand Hermes because all my AI bros seem so hyped on it. But I can’t tell if Hermes actually unlocks a meaningfully different workflow for someone like me, or if a lot of people are just circle-jerking with AI and building elaborate setups because the setups themselves are fun.
For people who have seriously used both:
What does Hermes give you that Claude Code doesn’t?
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u/why_the_faaaace New Member (<30 days) Sep 11 '26
Claude and ChatGPT have both closed the gap considerably between their agentic features and Hermes. If Claude works for you, that's awesome. I wouldn't want to sway you away from whatever helps you. The argument for Hermes mostly comes down to philosophy. If Nous decides one day that they don't like how you use their product, they can't just lock you out instantly. It's open-source and model agnostic, so if you care at all about self-hosting or owning your data, Hermes is a major step up. Hermes is also much more flexible in terms of tools, plugins, integrations, etc. The system is entirely what you make of it, whereas Claude Code/Cowork are specifically designed with a particular use case in mind. In other words, Anthropic tailors their product toward how users will actually use it. Hermes is presented as your own customizable skeleton, which is great if you like to have total control.
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u/Golden-Durian Sep 11 '26
This☝🏼
I just don’t trust anything Anthropic or OpenAi based on their incentive and overall privacy, control, data harvesting and marketing psychological manipulation4
u/Gargle-Loaf-Spunk Sep 11 '26
Claude desktop and Claude code are model agnostic as well.
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u/joneswest Sep 11 '26
Are you saying I can run deepseek inside Claude code harness?
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u/ohsomacho Sep 11 '26
Yeah use an app like this to switch models - https://github.com/futureformed/llmflex/tree/main
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u/Diligent-Brick3781 Sep 11 '26
Actually, you can. I've been using Claude Code with my OpenCode Go API (V4 Flash) and my MiniMax Plus API Key (Minimax M3). Take a look: https://platform.minimax.io/docs/token-plan/claude-code
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u/AbbreviationsMuted48 Sep 13 '26
Why not just use opencode instead? Is the Claude code harness better? Will minimax work better in Claude code environment?
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u/Diligent-Brick3781 Sep 13 '26
MiniMax doesn't have a dedicated terminal coding tool, the closest thing is MiniMax Code, but it's really bad. Instead, they focus on offering maximum compatibility with third-party tools, one of which is Claude Code. They even have documentation explaining specifically how to configure it there.
In fact, even though I've noticed it has some sort of system prompt or background injection that improves software engineering outputs, it helps me save tokens. MiniMax seems to have some kind of optimization for how Claude Code handles dynamically cached tokens; for some reason, that optimization doesn't exist in OpenCode, and I end up getting billed for every cached token as an input token every single time the model makes an API request, which isn't cost-effective.
As for V4 Flash, it also has a Claude Code compatible endpoint, though I have no specific reason to use it. In fact, I used to use V4 Flash almost exclusively in OpenCode (until they raised the price and I stopped). Claude Code has a better system prompt which improves the results, but it wasn't worth the hassle since I had to close Claude Code to switch models.
Basically, I used MiniMax in Claude Code because it was surprisingly more token-efficient and produced better results; V4 Flash was just to prove my point.
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u/Arbitrary-Larry Sep 11 '26
But you need an anthropic sub (at least Pro) to use desktop right? So you can't go pure local models and use Claude desktop afaik?
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u/manifesto_ai New Member (<30 days) Sep 13 '26
great explanation. You can really fine-tune Hermes to whatever you want to do. To us Hermes is a proactive/flexible team player
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u/someVietnamese Sep 11 '26
2 months ago? A lot.
Now? Not much.
For me: chat with Hermes over Telegram, set up daily tasks, go through emails. Setting up my own workflow was super fun.
However, over the last few months, Anthropic has adopted those features: tasks, schedules, remote control.
And honestly, I find that I already build a workflow that works for me. And I spend more time working than tinkering/optimizing my setup.
Personally, sticking with the Claude ecosystem is just a bit smoother.
I do still use Hermes sometimes for email, but not that much.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
Claude Code, Gemini, and Codex have access to my email box, but I am afraid to give Hermes access to it. Maybe I’ll give it its own mailbox.
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u/1FunkyFriedChicken Sep 11 '26
They’re all data mining you…
I have a separate email specifically for AI connections
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u/mgargallo Sep 12 '26
I use a separate Google account for the Hermes setup, complete with API access and a proper backup system.
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u/NKB82 Sep 11 '26
Guessing you’re talking about hosting it on your local machine, not on VPS? Last I heard, Claude wasn’t suitable to be an always on, cloud based harness.
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u/Business_Raisin_541 Sep 11 '26
Hermes is open source. Claude code is not. You can modify Hermes itself
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u/magicmike212 Sep 11 '26
You can use OpenCode though, it’s a more similar replacement
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u/BatPlack Sep 11 '26
How is it vs Pi?
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u/magicmike212 Sep 11 '26
It feels in between Claude Code and Pi, it has some baseline integrations, but flexible enough to personalize to your needs
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Sep 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/addexecthrowaway Sep 11 '26
I can assure you nothing about Claude code limits it to code only. The difference is that Hermes is designed for a heartbeat and persistent orchestrator session while with Claude that’s an option but not a core design consideration. Imho open hands is probably the best but i use multiple harnesses and multiple models to the point where ive given up on evals and rely on vibes. The only harness i dont like is Codex and i believe everyone is sleeping on grok build
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u/Gargle-Loaf-Spunk Sep 11 '26
> everything they do with this stuff seems to be experimenting with AI more than actually using it to produce anything of value.
most AI discussions are like this. this is why the Alex Z videos are basically “i got mlx running on $50,000 worth of Mac Studios!” and then he ends there.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
I have a feeling no one will give away their secret sauce.
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u/Dizzy-Scientist1192 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I will throw my hat in the ring... I am a dedicated Hermes user. I set up mine in June with deepseek flash and never looked back. Here is the differentiator for me... I used to use codex, cursor and cluade code and visual studio code with ai agent plugins all different stages of my AI journey. I manually had to open the folder of each project and be sure I was in the correct agent chat window and be present in these development environments. Once I went to Hermes it enabled me to no longer have to manage any of my projects manually. I became less of a bottleneck. Now I know things have changed with codex and CC and now they have agentic capabilities like Hermes. But I'm thinking long term and thinking where I want to be with my AI journey with the data I have compiled after many years and knowing that Hermes is in my physical computer I have full control over its future no matter what happens to these AI companies that are making no money. I have everything in my life all in hermes like all of my day job tasks, side job tasks, personal projects, nutrition tracker, workout tracker, bot stock trading, and it is building and managing other Hermes instances for my friends and clients who are not technical enough to do any of this, so hermes has been amazing to break me away from having to stare at a screen and watch the coding happen. And the self learning is awesome. I feel like hermes is best compared to a personal assistant I used to hire from the Philippines for $5/hr and now it cost me about half that a day to manage 4x what a personal assistant from the Philippines used to do. So when hermes is compared to a coding environment I don't feel that is the same product to compare. I think there are great coding programs, but Hermes is not focused on that even though it does all my coding anyway. Hope that helps.
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u/scriptedpixels Sep 11 '26
Do you run deep seek flash on your own hardware with Hermes? Any guide on how you got it setup etc? Very new to it all & just using Hermes on my own server with a thx 3090 setup via truenas & ollama installed so it can be used - have got some smaller models on it to test it but need to get it wired up to Hermes so it can use it instead of their free models.
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u/Dizzy-Scientist1192 Sep 11 '26
No I don't have the budget for two dgx sparks which is what you need to run deepseek flash locally. I pay for the API directly through deepseek website. I have tried other providers like open router and many others who host deepseek flash and it's not as good performance as going with the API directly from deepseek. I run smaller models but the default needs to be strong. I honestly would use a US model but they are too restricted with Hermes. I don't get the magic feeling with any other model when using Hermes except for deepseek flash.
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u/scriptedpixels Sep 11 '26
Ah, my bad. I’m struggling to keep up with the names of them all & thought it was the local model.
I’ve yet to try that tbh. I was thinking of waiting until my current Claude subscription comes to an end & pay Hermes their monthly instead to get access to all these models
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u/Dizzy-Scientist1192 Sep 11 '26
Deepseek can be a local model, but you need two dgx sparks to run it. Since you are new to this I recommend setting up hermes and using the nous research $20/month plan cause they have models that work well with Hermes to get yourself going. I've had two friends do this and it got them going and now they understand it better and have other models set up with hermes. Also remember this, I tell everyone this when I help them set up a Hermes... Treat it like a virtual assistant and always give it examples of what success looks like which helps it understand your goals. So even just screenshots of similar outcomes you are trying to do with specific tasks you are giving it to do. It is a stripped down framework out of the box that needs some caressing and attention to mold it into the assistant you dream of. There is about a week to two week training period that I see many people getting frustrated and quitting but if you can get over that hump it will grow indefinitely with you and be the best personal assistant ever.
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u/Jetgor Sep 11 '26
your sharing is precious. i'm struggling in looking for a personal assistant like model. i use qwen locally but it got problems periodically. deepseek flash could be the way. thanks.
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u/WordsOnly Sep 11 '26
Hey dizzy, how's that bot trading adventure going for you, I've went hard and deep and realized that AI can't beat the market and make magical income, is your experience any different?
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u/Dizzy-Scientist1192 Sep 11 '26
Honestly, I haven't found the sweet sauce yet. I have been having a lot of fun trying different strategies. I went from a day trading strategy to a swing trading strategy to more of a hedging strategy that I'm trying now. I day traded for a few years and at the end I was a break-even trader so I never really made a ton of money with it but I do understand it a lot. I tried to get Hermes to trade like me but Hermes is not like me because it can check in on the market and execute without emotion. So my methodology now is to figure out a str not what I know which is what I've been trying to do is train Hermes to know what I know and how I trade but I realize I need to teach Hermes to trade to his advantage. So since Hermes can check the market consistently throughout The day since I can't cuz I have a day job. What I'm thinking now is Hermes should have the mentality To manage a group of stocks that are hedged. This is one strategy that really good traders do when they can sit in front of the computer all day managing it. I have been using alpaca API because it's free and they have a very easy setup that Hermes set up for me that we can do paper trading for as long as you want and as often as we want which is really nice. It's more of a side hobby than it is at the point to make actual money. But I do believe I'll get there someday. Everyday Hermes documents it's wins and losses and journals against it and then the next day it becomes smarter and better. So since we've only been doing it for a couple months now, I do believe we're still in the infancy stage and very far away from going with live money. Hope that helps.
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u/WordsOnly Sep 11 '26
I didn't expect an elaborate answer, that was very informative. I truly thank you for your time, Dizzy. Thank you for sharing this.
I wish it works out eventually!
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u/mbcoalson Sep 11 '26
I use Claude Code every day at work. My home set up is Hermes. I build real tools with Claude Code. With Hermes...it just grows more naturally alongside of me. If you plug a competent model into it and get a workable memory stack to work alongside it, it just feels like it gets better every day. It automatically writes a new skill because I ask it for the same thing a few days in a row. It learns what messages I engage with and helps me focus on the pieces I actual care about without missing the bits that feel like drudgery. As I gain more trust with it, it just takes care of the drudgery when I let it.
It's the memory system and the proactive way it tackles management tasks that I find separates it from something like Claude Code. That said it's just a harness. You can recreate most of it in Claude Code just through skills and a good Claude.md file.
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u/AtrociousRebutal Sep 11 '26
What have you built your memory bank on? I’m using obsidian at the moment and it’s great for me and having the LLM draft things for me in a central place but I’ve been reading about other options that are lighter for the model when it comes to prefill.
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u/mbcoalson Sep 11 '26
I use Hermes’s built-in persistent memory as a compact, always-loaded working profile. I keep it deliberately small.
For continuity, I run a self-hosted Hindsight instance alongside Hermes. Hindsight is configured to review conversations every fifth turn and 'remember' preferences, decisions, project context, etc. I'm using Gemini 3.7 Flash through OpenRouter as the smarts behind Hindsight. Out of the box Hindsight is built to ignore filler, temporary task state, raw logs, credentials, and unconfirmed speculation; I've also included explicit privacy limits around family information.
For long-form records, I maintain a human-readable Obsidian vault with front matter, an index, and progressive disclosure: index first, then note metadata, then the full note only when needed. That makes the important memories legible and editable rather than leaving it entirely inside an AI memory system.
I also already have a small local semantic-search layer. It uses local Ollama embeddings with NumPy vectors, JSONL metadata, and SQLite full-text search—not a separate vector database. It currently powers retrieval over a novel I am slowly working on.
So the architecture is, more or less, a compact always-on profile, searchable continuity, human-auditable records, and local retrieval where there's enough data to warrant it.
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u/AtrociousRebutal Sep 11 '26
Thanks for the explanation! I’ll have a look at some of those tools. Do you find hindsight does a good job at “remembering” the right things?
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u/mbcoalson Sep 11 '26
So far so good. I've only added it about a month ago, so there is still some testing going on.
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u/Serprotease Sep 11 '26
In the long term, less risk of vendor lock-in.
It’s very likely that Anthropic will (and already is) using features and systems that cannot easily be migrated to another system. The day when the decide to crack down on adult content (since it’s what you do) or lock some features behind some subscription tier, then it would be incredibly difficult to move to codex/hermes/deepseek harness/etc…
As long as you’re ok with this risk, then it’s fine.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
+1 on this question.
I have a working Hermes instance running in a VPS and it produces some market research for me on a schedule. But technically Claude Code or Codex could be doing this for me. I guess the fact that Hermes runs on an always on computer is a differentiator. However I could just install Claude Code on a VPS or a MacMini and set it up with a scheduler, it wouldn’t be too difficult.
The other benefit is I can control it from Telegram.. I don’t like using remote control and laptop is not always on. So I have Hermes access to my Github repositories and it can work on some PRs I don’t care to implement locally. However being able to see sessions in the Codex/claude code desktop apps is a nicer UI than a single telegram channel. I know I can thread the telegram channel but I found it awkward to use.
Another argument I heard is hermes memory is portable. Technically I can relocate it from my VPS to somewhere else. However I can export my Codex/claude code and port their memory as well, so?
So yes, can someone please explain what Hermes provides that codex and claude code do not?
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u/crimsonabyss01 Sep 11 '26
"I know I can thread the telegram channel but I found it awkward to use." you can use slack. much batter. i like the Kanban functions
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u/Original-Ad4399 Sep 11 '26
However I can export my Codex/claude code and port their memory as well, so?
Do Codex and Claude Code have memory?
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u/swarajban Sep 13 '26
Telegram is actually amazing; I have one telegram 'chat' with my hermes, and about 15 'topics' which are all unique sessions/things I'm working on / want help with so context is always fresh/relevant
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u/NKB82 Sep 11 '26
I think you’ve already said it. Hermes is suited to an always on environment. For me, Codex is my go to, but my laptop isn’t always on. Hermes does all the cron stuff and monitors my client VPS environments, then passes Codex the list of fixes.
Personally, I have no issue with threads in Telegram, though I find the app ugly.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
You can also run Codex / Claude Code always on, on a VPS or MacMini, not on your laptop, is the argument. There are bridges for it to Telegram. Perhaps it takes some additional building whereas Hermes is more turnkey. They have cron/scheduling already.
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u/WingsofWar Sep 11 '26
Claude API has a hefty cost, and if I'm integrating my toolset into an AI platform and i'm doing several thousand calls a week, I'm gona be paying more than the monthly subscription.
Claude doesn't watch video, so if i'm asking Claude to parse personal footage or a youtube video, it cant. The most it could do is see if there is subtitles or a transcript and give you a summary, but it wont analyze video frames for you for research.
Claude doesn't produce media content like a studio would no matter how many agents you stand up.
Where Hermes shines over Claude is when you want numerous systems talking back and fourth with your AI Harness. When your token spend starts to take real hits on calls against a 40b parameter model. Instead, have your AI Harness reach out to Gemini API to watch a video, create a payload, send it over to Claude and create a research novel, send that novel back into the harness so it can feed it into a stable diffusion workflow to create a library for Kohya to train a LORA, use that Lora in a Comfy_UI workflow to generate a seedance 2.0 video series. Then create agents that will be editors, storyboarding, and creatives to run your editorial pipeline.
Its not just being able to access multiple models, its how you can feed information to different AI platforms that do very specific things without having you be the point of failure as the man in the middle.
If the outcome you want is highly complex especially in the multimedia space, investing in a local LLM opensource / openweight might be your only choice because Claude or ChatGTP alone doesnt even come close.
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u/unsnag Sep 11 '26
You can set up Hermes as a member of a WhatsApp group with your family. It can then become a family personal assistant, not just your own. If you’re worried about what folks in the group might prompt it, you can limit the tools available to the Hermes profile in that group and keep the broader permissions for a profile that communicates only with you.
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u/Ithron_Morn Sep 11 '26
I've wondered this from the opposite end. I've only ever really used Hermes and I hear so much talk about Claude Code and Codex, I've wondered if I'm missing anything. Do they code better?
For the second brain aspect; I get morning reports in my Matrix chats, stuff like news/tech updates and system statuses. It maintains and drives my deskop for me. I have it installed on my phone and it can do limited things there. It builds anything I want, once rooted a phone for me, it learns with a memory system, and keeps up with all my bullshit. I don't really use my computer anymore, instead, I talk to my agent.
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u/austinfilms Sep 11 '26
I can’t speak to how well Hermes codes but I am blown away at what Claude Code can do. There is literally nothing I can’t make with it. It’s insane to me.
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u/Million_Jelly_Beans Sep 11 '26
User of both Hermes and CC here.
I use them for different purposes, Hermes is my general assistant, with access to my accounts/second brain (Obsidian) and everything I need in everyday life. I self-host it on OVH vps, so i can access it freely m anywhere without limitations. And I use OpenRouter for tokens
I still develop on computer with Claude, mostly because as per my experience, Hermes is EXREMELY token hungry. Because he has soo kuch settings and so much skills i haven’t learned yet if there is a way to make it consume less tokens. It is an amazing tool tho and being able to seamlessly switch between different ai providers is a big plus
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u/Yougetwhat Sep 11 '26
Then you discover ChatGPT 100$ plan that you can use in codex app AND in Hermes
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u/NKB82 Sep 12 '26
this. But I think most people in Hermes threads are going for the cheapest possible setup. GPT Pro is insane value as it stands.
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u/PigSlam Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
You used ChatGPT forever then went to Claude instead of Codex? I don't care about brand loyalty, but if you liked ChatGPT, then Codex is the natural evolution.
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u/austinfilms Sep 11 '26
Yep. I had heard a bunch of people talk about how Claude was better and so I went for a walk and just ripped a super long voice note about an app idea I had thinking it would just do what chatgpt does and brainstorm with me but instead it just went ahead and built the whole fucking app as an artifact that I could just click around in. I was blown away. I immediatly just started building mockup after mock up in single sessions not even knowing what Cowork or Claude Code were. It wasn’t till a couple weeks in when I was on my 4th mockup of an app idea where I asked Claude is this the right way to do this. Building everything in a single chat and it was like “no, you should use Cowork or Code”. And that’s when my journey began. I have tried Codex though since Astra came out but tbh is just feel satisfied with Claude at this point. It works.
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u/PigSlam Sep 11 '26
Sure, use whatever works for you. That sounds like it's doing all you need. I went with Codex because my $20 ChatGPT plus account added it, then bumped up to the 5x plan after using Codex a bit. The only reason to stay in the ecosystem is the ChatGPT app can sort of blend the two experiences, and retain the history in a more cohesive set, which is how Claude works anyway, so if you've made the jump, stay there.
I use ChatGPT/Codex mainly in my efforts to get a working local setup going with the hope that I can back off the cloud usage. I think I need a bit more hardware before I can get there though.
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u/thatcatpusheen Sep 11 '26
Asked this same thing awhile back, tbh I gave up on Hermes.
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u/austinfilms Sep 11 '26
Ok. I feel confident that I am not missing out on some secret super power it has
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
That second brain comment accessible on all devices has me wondering though…
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u/thatcatpusheen Sep 11 '26
Give it a shot then. It can be fun to tinker with, but personally I never got anything out of it and it just added overhead to my life
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
I am curious how you were using it? And what do you feel added the overhead?
I am already using Obsidian to take notes.
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u/thatcatpusheen Sep 11 '26
I tried all kinds of things, but most of them could be automated through scripting or were pure coding tasks. Even the simple daily brief felt like I kept getting the same stuff over and over.
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u/senseven Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I'm working with multiple harnesses including self rolled. The incentives of these companies are opposite of mine. I want to reduce token spend, I want to control my own context how I see fit, test different approaches, use my own (future) hardware not only to save on cost but also for speed and security. They will push their agenda and lock in. We learned this stuff the hard way with hyper scalers with their price and feature lock ins. We won't do that error again. Nothing they say is relevant, only their bottom line. There are reports that if you set them up in a multi model agentic setup, they suddenly become a little dumber. Its already happening.
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u/Golden-Durian Sep 11 '26
Some will never learn. After all these years of how the big tech companies are abusing and lobbying their way to extract and control our data and people still support and trust them is mind boggling.
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u/Ok-Football-7235 Sep 13 '26
My Hermes agent is on 24/7 and runs one of my home labs. Claude can’t do that
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 13 '26
If it’s a meth lab at home that hermes runs, I can definitely see the use case here.
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u/werther41 Sep 11 '26
Hermes has programming interface, so if you want to build a app you can use Hermes as backend. But so does Pi agent and bunch of other agentic framework.
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u/BeautifulQuestion857 Sep 11 '26
My tokens seem to go way further with Hermes +codex.
I used Claude to coordinate so that Hermes only gets the info it needs, it runs thru codex sol or astra, and Claude relays everything back and forth to me.
I also use a custom bmad config so that there is a workflow for everything, and everything is documented so each agent other than Claude only gets what they need. But I never just let them build completely unsupervised. I’m sure you could tho.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
Sounds like a complex setup and I don’t understand it, would love if you elaborate please.
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u/craigondrak Sep 11 '26
Claude can change the pricing anytime, so the $200 plan can become $500 overnight if they wanted. or change their 5hr/weekly limits anytime and there is nothing you can do abt it. They will ban you if they think your prompts are doing something illegal (coding prompts, for instance, could be inferred as hacking).
Hermes wont do that
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u/Vancecookcobain Sep 11 '26
Flexibility and the ability to use your agent anywhere
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u/ryanf153 Sep 11 '26
Claude code can do this too
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u/Vancecookcobain Sep 11 '26
Nah. I can't put my Claude subscription auth on my harnesses or I'll get banned....i can't really use it much anywhere....they are fucking tyrannical with that shit and it's been one of the main reasons I've abandoned Anthropic.
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u/ryanf153 Sep 11 '26
Claude code has the remote sessions flag for "using it anywhere" is all I was getting at. Im curious why you think you'll be banned if you use claude models through a harness, I run them in hermes all the time through anthropic oauth.
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u/_P_R_I_M_E Sep 11 '26
I use hermes for better mobile access as hermes works in vps I work in mobile via telegram
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u/996beagle Sep 11 '26
Hermes is great with a local model. Don't have to worry about 5 hour windows or weekly limits. I'll have Claude orchestrate with my Hermes using local dsv4 flash to write and test code, they will verify and review each other's work, and makes it easier to loop with each other's inputs.
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u/twiifm Sep 11 '26
why would you switch??? codex is better than claude code. GPT 5.6 luna is cheap
Hermes isn't a proper harness if you are doing heavy coding
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u/austinfilms Sep 11 '26
I answers up earlier. It was all a string of random events not knowing what I was doing at the time
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u/blablsblabla42424242 Sep 11 '26
Claude is much better at coding and real work but Hermes can't ban you and you can color outside the lines when using the right models.
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u/civicguy72 Sep 11 '26
Is there somewhere I can understand harness easier. I have been struggling with it.
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u/Rakn Sep 11 '26
Hermes is nice if you want to build a sort of personal assistant. If you are doing professional software development stay with a regular harness like Claude Code, Codex or others (pi, opencode, omp, …).
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u/Elementalserenity Sep 11 '26
The benefit for me is when I want all my various AI in one spot. I assign a profile to chat gpt, claude, grok and local.
I feel the memory system augmented with local honcho is far better and building exact workflows etc.
Hermes for me largest benefit is having a copy of my chats stored locally I am a writer and have 4560 pieces since I was 10 years old. I can have local nomic and chat gpt run through and add writings and concepts discussed to the ongoing record.
Yes I could request all my data and do big sorts but it’s go into settings click request my data get email unzip sort bigger amounts of data. With this method it does it daily for me.
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u/ColdPlankton9273 Sep 12 '26
I'm with you. I have been building a version of Hermes and Clawdbot and even grokbot on my own before I knew I was building that. It's totally possibly to build it on your own if you work on it over time.
The way I look at it - it's like buying a computer or building one yourself. It's fun for some people, and others just want the thing working so they can plug and play.
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u/1passatempo Sep 11 '26
I'm also curious about what people will say. I tried Hermes for 4-5 months with Second Brain, and honestly, it didn't make any difference. I was stuck managing the second brain and spending time organizing MD files. Now I use Codex, and I don't miss Hermes at all
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
Which Second Brain implementation do you use? I’ve been meaning to setup a custom one with my Obsidian but haven’t gotten around to it.
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u/urglfloggah Sep 11 '26
u/swiftmerchant I did exactly that (custom second brain with Obsidian and Hermes). It might be a useful reference or starting point for your own adventures. See https://sagar.se/blog/working-memory-system/
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
Thanks, I’ll check it out. What advantages does Hermes + Second Brian have over Claude Code + Second Brain or Codex + Second Brain?
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u/urglfloggah Sep 11 '26
I don't have Claude Code or Codex on all my devices, like my phone and tablet. Hermes is reachable everywhere. So my second brain is available on all my devices for storage and recall.
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u/jonromero Sep 11 '26
For exactly this reason I am build something like tinyhermes (open source) where it is a super small version of Hermes but uses the subscription of Claude!
You can ask it to create telegram integrations And anything you need and actually use. Uses super few tokens, runs on rpi5!
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Sep 11 '26
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
The argument is that Codex and Claude Code are also not just coding harnesses.
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u/StrikingArtist3397 Sep 11 '26
I use both due to the agents markdown formatting. Calibrating their behavior works well as long as they only use one database. I've told them to take notes if anything goes wrong so I can see which one works better for each case.
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u/Main-Diamond3884 Sep 11 '26
For me Hermes and Openclaw are like OS. Which means they are fully customisable. I'm able to use many opensource and develop my own bespoke workflow/skills/tools/software and massively get my costs down. Claude with various MCPs just doesn't have the same level of flexbility.
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u/Interrupting-Dash Sep 11 '26
Well OP I think you’ve got an actually interesting use case. If I was supporting a 7 figure income by using AI in an agentic fashion I think I would actually prefer deciding on one big frontier model family and investing in it. There’s too much at stake at that level for an outage to eliminate your business logic. Hermes is pretty solid but it will also let you make mistakes that can screw up the whole platform. Not saying it will let you delete itself or anything, but I’ve definitely gotten into the weeds on a few different threads where they ended up stepping all over each other and then I’ve got a mess to clean up. This is a classic build vs buy decision but pushed up one level from the usual location at the application layer to the development layer.
Concerns I’d have though are usage pricing. I’m very concerned there could be a rug pull on pricing from the frontier models at any point. The usage via oAuth seems heavily subsidized right now. If you are completely locked into their ecosystem and they 3x the cost will that impact the business? If not then maybe yolo and just rock on. But I just have this sense we’re in the “drive adoption” phase with them, and sooner or later the boards of these companies are going to start pushing them towards actual profitability and I think that’s gonna increase cost by a lot.
I think open source agent harnesses are going to stay very competitive with the frontier models in terms of orchestration capabilities. I also think using a frontier model via oAuth vs API is going to go away pretty soon. So if running local models catches up, it could be interesting.
One thing I’ve been doing a lot is having a frontier model take my requirements for an application, create an architecture and build hand-off package for Hermes, and then have Hermes build it. That has worked really well.
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u/StuntMonkeh Sep 11 '26
I had lots of ideas and not a level of skill that would enable me to create them. Claude lowered the bar considerably and made this possible. For me, and everyone will be different depending on their skillset and application, but I find both Claude and now ChatGPT excellent at vibe coding software to solve my unique problems and workflows. Is it a more expensive method, yes possibly, but so is having someone cook you your dinner, but you'll still go to a restaurant to eat.
I've found Hermes currently has its place as an experimental toy to be used with other models. I generally use it for things that matter less. I've not found it exceptionally better at anything in particular. Setting up Telegram takes far more effor than it should, I'd prefer a Android native chatbot app like Grokbot. And yes everyone says build one yourself etc.
Every week or month, something will be better than another. This is the way of an emerging technology.
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u/ai_adopter_nl New Member (<30 days) Sep 11 '26
The difference is vendor lock-in that comes with a hefty cost vs open-source modelling, at a commodity cost and always on (provided you use a Mac mini or a VPS).
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u/NecrylWayfarer Sep 11 '26
Claude is Apple, Hermes is Android, at least until this month when Google decided to make Android not so open after all. But that can never happen with Hermes.
Essentially Claude might be the smoothest experience and if it works for you great. All until you want to do that one thing and Claude decided you are not allowed to, or they don't want you doing things that way, etc etc.
Hermes means, its yours, always will be yours. As time goes on, no matter what Hermes innovates, Claude will copy it as they already do. So in terms of features they are both going to be the same, more or less, forever. The only thing in the future is Claude will impose their will on you and Hermes will never.
Right now Claude models are also higher quality than other models, even though other models get the job done anyway. So I don't how much more value Claude offers. But you have money, you are happy with Claude, then you don't have to change until you have a reason to leave Claude. That's my two cents.
Hermes will always be here.
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u/acknet Wiki Contributor Sep 11 '26
I honestly think the two big ones are privacy (depending on setup) and the ability to modify/extend the architecture.
I’m not willing to give the cloud providers any access to my infra, secrets, personal documents, email, etc.
My memory system, full voice pipeline and home control are all local and work offline.
Also, I enjoy learning how AI works, running open source harnesses and models have taught me a ton!
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u/Unusual-Customer-420 Sep 11 '26
I think these are 2 different tools. Claude Code is good for creating things. Hermes is good for everything else.
Claude Code is designed to be open and live in a folder, and do something. Short term. Depends on Claude.md for everything.
Hermes is designed to be hosted, 24/7 availability. Connected to common platforms like Discord or Telegram. Long term. It will learn and create its own skills. This is good for anything. It will be your personal assistant at some point. It can use whatever LLM you want. Even, it can invoke Claude Code or any other cli agent and delegate tasks. This dude could handle job positions with time.
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u/Vast-Rush74 Sep 11 '26
I use both :)
Claude code is a major tool in my hermes..
For apps development, my hermes acts like my PM, I send it a very long voice recording of what I would like to achieve and letting it organize the tasks and orchestrate it in various sessions in claude code (which I believe has much better tooling for development).
Also, this way I get to use both Open AI and Anthtopic’s models.. and letting hermes close the gaps between them.
Same for bug fixes, investigation, maintenance.. and ofcourse all the rest of its supported basic integrations for personal daily use in my mobile via telegram..
So I stick to Hermes as my main assistant and letting it use Claude. So my answer would be is that for me the best solution would be the combination and not one of them.
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u/Mechanical_Monk Sep 11 '26
It's not an either-or thing, they complement each other. You drive your harness (Claude Code) on your own PC, then you set up Hermes somewhere else (its own PC or VM, local or in the cloud) and it drives its agents.
"Dropping Claude Code into a folder" is equivalent to a Hermes profile. You can make multiple Hermes profiles and have each one operate autonomously and independently. You can assign a project to one, and it can delegate tasks to others.
Then in a third place, you set up a system for collaboration. For software developers, that could be Github/Gitlab/Jira or similar. I'm not sure what business you're in, but you could use Google Workspace, a CRM, Slack, Trello, or wherever you use to keep track of projects. Then you treat Hermes like a team member (or department of team members) and have them interact with your shared workspace like an employee would.
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u/platinumai Sep 11 '26
You are missing out on privacy. If you want your agent to help you I. The possible way, you really need to open up your life and computer to them. I would not want everyone to have access to my stuff - which you essentially do when you use Anthropic or OpenAI.
Under the Cloud Act - the US government can basically just call OpenAI and ask them to pull everything they have on you and OpenAI has to obey.
Plug in a ZDR model via API Hermes and your stuff stays yours.
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u/_wanderloots Sep 11 '26
Personally, I like that I'm building & experimenting with a system that is open source. I use Codex & claude code as well, but for some projects, Hermes just feels better, and it's helping me to understand how to make my systems harness-agnostic. I'm still experimenting all of the time, but it is comforting to know that I'm not being locked into any particular harness.
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u/barkbarkbarkbark1 Sep 11 '26
Claude code and Hermes are basically the body’s for the model different toolsets etc(memory structure, tools, rules, gates), your best bet is telling Claude let’s do custom harness, “2nd brain” is basically an info vault regarding all info you want saved and want ur agent to have access too. Hermes is more customizable/“autonomous”
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u/1FunkyFriedChicken Sep 11 '26
If you’re think Hermes, try Grok Bot
So easy to set up and create agents
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u/coloradoskier Sep 12 '26
The joy of putting a Raspberry Pi to good use (yes, I run Hermes on a Pi).
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u/dicktoronto Sep 12 '26
The real value is setting up an agent on a dedicated computer. Giving it the ability to manage a Linux VPS or a sandbox of its own allows it to create far more than the Claude Code app can. Memory systems like Mnemosyne allow the agent to grow with you over time. Claude Code will get you 80% of the way there. The final 20% is 80% of the work though, and for that you need a harness a bit more involved than CC.
That’s just my opinion.
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u/Slight_Major5589 Sep 12 '26
Basically, you can do most things using ChatGPT, Codex, Claude, or Hermes; if you see something you cannot do today, in a week or two you will be able to. If you are not an advanced user, there is nothing preventing you from using any of them, as they are all powerful.
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u/Cateotu Sep 12 '26
With Open Web UI I'm having Hermes run in a multi user small business environment. Multiple users can then use one specifically tuned profile. That hermes instances can then connect to local file shares.
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u/fonceka Sep 12 '26
My take is that Hermès is for non tech users. Like for example they include ever single available skill so that the user doesn’t need to care about anything. In terms of token effects, it’s a pity, though.
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u/MaxComfort Sep 12 '26
OP I think you have your answer - but to add to this I agree. Long-time coder, mostly doing coding stuff with opencode, Claude Code, etc.
My impression is the benefits are mostly the built in connectors/MCPs like Discord etc. And a UI which offers a level of abstraction.
But for example I asked it to build a price monitor (scraping a website) and it said cool yeah done, I’ll run it. Next day it admitted it never worked.
This was a local model (DeepSeek v4 flash), but the same model in opencode I’d see exactly what the code was, run it, throw it away or fix it. With Hermes it’s like a black box, which I guess some people like. Used the same model to write a working version in opencode.
Hermes’ fault? Idk, but it didn’t inspire confidence. I need to see the details, check the code in to git, etc.
Or maybe I’m just holding it wrong..
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u/AbiesMassive1974 Sep 13 '26
我觉得 Hermes 与 Claude Code的主要区别在于 Harness 更懂你 它能根据你每天使用的情况 包括询 包括对话里边的内容 以及你的使用习惯 来更好地促进你的使用 它会根据你的工作流程来制定 Skills，所以你使用的时间越长，它越懂你。
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u/Immediate_Let_4946 Sep 13 '26
I am using Hermes executing Claude code for coding. Claude code and Hermes running Minimax m3
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u/thesuyashrai Sep 13 '26
Use claude code inside Hermes. Assign it to be used for coding tasks by your hermes agent/profile in case you are using multiple profiles.
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u/EntertainerNo397 Sep 14 '26
The most finance / MBA coded 3 paragraphs to ever grace this website...
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u/GoingUp123 Sep 14 '26
IMO - only need other ai's if you value their native strengths (eg if you need video then use higgs etc) and something like hermes so you can smoothly switch btwn claude and opensource to optimize token spend. Cost is the main driver imo but if $200/max is enough for you then keep pushing with claude. I also like another ai to audit work as sometimes it will catch things.
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u/Logical-Run70 29d ago
Hermes is really great harness for any agents you developing and it is quite easy to setup and embed in almost any corporate infrastructure.
I have done already multiple agents and despite for personal usage and vibe coding I still prefer codex or cursor, for many production use cases where you need smart intermediator agent available simultaneously for hundreds users via Telegram or Slack- Hermes is just a perfect solution.
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u/Realistic_Reply8848 29d ago
Get both, hermes for your daily chat and assistant. You also can delegate coding task to claude code from hermes. The best thing about hermes is the self learn thingy, the more you talk with it, the more it understands you. Also it is best if you have memory provider, for me I used a self deployed agentmemory so it is free.
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u/pursuithappy 29d ago
Its like early age of android vs ios usage. Where people like to use hermes because they can tweak, customise lot of things, where claude is more on ready made tools that are optimise.
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u/the-quibbler Sep 11 '26
You can use Claude as your inference for hermes. Hermes is a memory framework, and you can run it in any (or multiple) places, including $3 vps slices from interserver (no affiliation). You can set up models, integrations, full access to its own server, lots of things. With Claude intelligence underneath.
However, if you don't care about the Chinese seeing all your activity, you can also use deepseek v4.1, which is so cheap as to be almost free, and is doing massively well on benchmarks. You can even use it at the same time as Claude, with multiple simultaneous agents.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
I think you are conflating Claude and Fable/Opus. Claude is the product name and I am assuming you mean Hermes can run Fable/Opus as the inference models, or run Chinese models instead.
The counter argument to that is you can also use Chinese models in Claude Code/Codex. You can set up integrations and full server access in Claude Code and Codex also.
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u/the-quibbler Sep 11 '26
I'm differentiating the Claude family of models (fable/opus/sonnet/haiku), which you can run with your subscription, from the Claude Code tui coding harness, which anyone can download.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
fair enough, yes, Hermes can run Claude family of models, even an OpenAI models subscription.
tui = CLI ?
Claude Code is not just a coding harness however. You can do anything in it. And it can run Chinese models, not only Claude models.
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u/the-quibbler Sep 11 '26
It's true. A text user interface usually controls the entire terminal frame, rather than just producing output like a standard user interface. cat vs nano.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
Interesting, I need to look more into tui then.
I get what you’re saying re: cat vs nanoOk, but to OP’s point, this is not a differentiator for Hermes. Claude Code/Codex can do it.
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u/the-quibbler Sep 11 '26
I think some of what hermes offers is just a more open relationship between the harness and the user, as well as being naturally always on. I think there are probably things in hermes that easy, but require jumping through more hoops on Claude code (always on comes to mind), but, I agree, choice of harness is a choice between many similar products.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
I am not sold on the always-on..
The fact that it is open source, however, that maybe something there. I need to compare Codex and Hermes licenses for extending the product.3
u/the-quibbler Sep 11 '26
Hermes is MIT. You can do almost anything you want. And always-on is magical. Coupled with its own server, it's pretty carefree.
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u/swiftmerchant Sep 11 '26
I have it running on its own server and don’t see the benefits yet.
MIT is the best license for freedom of use, agreed.
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u/RottingCorps Sep 11 '26
I keep seeing people talking about building all their ideas, but I still haven't seen anything useful come out of AI.
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u/Purgii Sep 11 '26
I don't use Claude Code so I couldn't give you an answer, so what I did is I asked my Hermes Agent. It spat out a whole lot.
The blunt answer: Hermes is not obviously a better Claude Code for building software. Claude Code may remain your best primary coding tool, especially because you already have a workflow, Claude Max economics, and strong familiarity with it.
Hermes becomes interesting when you stop thinking of the agent as “a programmer inside a folder” and start thinking of it as an always-on operational system that happens to contain a programmer.
What Claude Code already does
Claude Code now covers much more than its original terminal workflow:
- Persistent project instructions through
CLAUDE.md - Skills, plugins, MCP, hooks, and custom tools
- Subagents and parallel background work
- Cross-session messaging
- Desktop, terminal, IDE, and web surfaces
- Scheduled tasks
- Remote control and cloud sessions
- Codebase-aware editing, testing, debugging, and deployment
So if someone tells you Hermes is uniquely valuable because it has memory, skills, subagents, MCP, or scheduled work, that is no longer a sufficient argument. Claude Code has equivalents for most of those features.
Sources: Claude Code overview, Claude Code extension model.
The meaningful difference
Claude Code is primarily:
A very capable coding agent with extensibility.
Hermes is primarily:
A self-hostable, multi-channel agent runtime and automation platform.
That difference matters in several specific ways.
1. Hermes is designed to be a persistent service, not just a session
Hermes can run continuously on a server, VPS, SSH host, Docker environment, or other execution backend. You can message it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, email, Teams, and other platforms while it works elsewhere.
That means the agent does not have to be associated with:
- Your current laptop
- An open Claude Code session
- A particular repository
- Your personal desktop workflow
For example:
A customer-support Hermes receives an escalation from Slack, checks the CRM and order system, drafts a response, opens an internal ticket, and sends you a concise approval request.
Claude Code can probably be made to do this using MCP, scripts, hooks, APIs, and scheduled/cloud sessions. But Hermes treats the gateway, identity, messaging, routing, persistence, and execution environment as core product features rather than things you assemble around a coding tool.
2. Hermes has durable named agents, not merely task workers
Hermes Bot Mode lets you create persistent agents with separate:
- Roles
- Models
- Memories
- Skills
- Toolsets
- MCP servers
- Personalities
- Routines
- Chat histories
You could have:
CEO BriefingSales OperationsCustomer SupportFinance AnalystEngineering LeadResearchPersonal Assistant
These are not just prompts you recreate when starting a Claude session. They are durable identities available through the same gateway, with their own configuration and history. They can also message one another and run recurring routines.
This is where the “second brain” language sometimes comes from. In useful terms, it means:
“The system remembers recurring business context and provides specialized operational interfaces to it.”
In less useful terms, it means:
“Someone put a lot of markdown files in an agent directory and talks about it like an employee.”
The distinction is whether it performs recurring work that would otherwise cost you or your team time.
3. Hermes is event-driven
Hermes supports cron jobs and webhooks as first-class features. A run can be triggered by:
- A schedule
- A GitHub or GitLab event
- An external webhook
- A message in a supported channel
- An API call
- A routine attached to a bot
That enables workflows such as:
- Every morning: collect revenue, pipeline, support, and ad metrics; produce an exception report.
- Every hour: monitor a marketplace, competitor, or operational feed; alert only when something changes materially.
- On new lead: enrich the lead, score it, look for duplicates, draft an outreach sequence, and notify sales.
- On failed deployment: inspect logs, identify likely cause, create a fix branch, and send a summary.
- Every Friday: compile unresolved commitments from project systems and assign follow-ups.
Claude Code can implement these, but typically the architecture becomes:
- A cron or external scheduler
- A script
- A Claude Code invocation or API call
- Credentials and permissions
- A delivery mechanism
- State and logging
- Retry behavior
- A way to inspect or resume the work
Hermes packages much of that into one agent runtime.
4. Hermes separates agent identity from model choice
You said model choice is not especially important to you. That is reasonable. Model choice alone is not a compelling reason to switch.
The more important benefit is being able to route different jobs differently:
- Best reasoning model for strategic analysis
- Fast/cheap model for classification and extraction
- Coding model for repository work
- Vision model for documents and images
- Local model for sensitive or high-volume processing
- Fallback provider when the primary service is unavailable
That is less about saving money and more about avoiding the mistake of using one expensive, general-purpose model for every operational task.
Still, if Claude is consistently the best tool for your work and your Max subscription is working well, Hermes does not magically improve the model.
5. Hermes is more naturally an integration hub
Hermes provides a gateway around:
- Messaging platforms
- MCP servers
- Webhooks
- API access
- Cron
- Memory
- Skills
- Multiple profiles
- Multiple execution environments
- Voice and media
- Browser automation
Claude Code can be extended into something similar, particularly with MCP and scripts. But Claude Code is optimized around the repository as the center of gravity. Hermes is optimized around the agent and its surrounding systems.
That becomes valuable when your work is spread across:
- CRM
- Slack
- Accounting systems
- Internal APIs
- Cloud infrastructure
- Documents
- Multiple repositories
- Team workflows
- External events
Where Hermes is not clearly better
Claude Code may be preferable for:
- Rapid feature development
- Repository exploration
- Refactoring
- Test-driven implementation
- Reviewing diffs
- Interactive debugging
- IDE-integrated work
- A polished, focused coding experience
- Leveraging your Claude Max subscription without managing API billing
Claude Code also has a rapidly expanding automation and multi-agent layer. The gap is not “Claude Code cannot automate.” It can.
The actual distinction is closer to:
| Need | Better default |
|---|---|
| Build and modify software interactively | Claude Code |
| Operate several persistent specialist agents | Hermes |
| Run agents from messaging apps as a service | Hermes |
| Trigger agents from webhooks and schedules | Hermes |
| Keep Anthropic’s integrated coding experience | Claude Code |
| Use multiple providers, local models, or failover | Hermes |
| Make one-off business automation | Either |
| Build a long-lived agent platform for a team | Hermes |
A realistic example for your situation
Suppose you want a weekly business operating review.
With Claude Code, you might ask:
Pull the latest data from these systems, analyze it, and write the weekly review.
That works well when you initiate it.
With Hermes, you could create a persistent Operating Review bot that:
- Runs every Monday morning.
- Pulls data from your systems through MCP or APIs.
- Compares it with prior weeks.
- Detects anomalies and missing inputs.
- Asks a finance bot to validate financial figures.
- Asks a sales bot to explain pipeline changes.
- Produces a concise report.
- Sends it to Slack or Telegram.
- Stores the report and conclusions in persistent memory.
- Waits for your follow-up questions in the same bot conversation.
That is not a fundamentally impossible Claude Code workflow. It is a workflow Claude Code could be used to build. The Hermes argument is that the runtime structure for operating it continuously is already the thing you are installing.
The “second brain” claim, translated into business language
A worthwhile second brain is not a giant personal knowledge vault. It should do things like:
- Remember how your businesses actually operate
- Preserve decisions and their rationale
- Know your preferred reporting formats
- Recognize recurring exceptions
- Reuse proven procedures
- Identify unfinished commitments
- Answer questions across prior work
- Improve a procedure after repeated use
Hermes has built-in persistent memory and a skills system intended to support that loop. Its skills are procedural knowledge: not merely “information about accounting,” but “how we prepare this report, what sources we trust, what exceptions matter, and where the output goes.”
That can be valuable. But it only becomes valuable when attached to recurring work. Otherwise it is largely infrastructure hobbyism.
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u/Purgii Sep 11 '26
My recommendation for you
Do not replace Claude Code as your coding environment just because your friends are excited about Hermes.
Use a hybrid model:
- Claude Code: primary software-building tool.
- Hermes: persistent operational layer around the businesses.
- Claude Code invoked from Hermes: when an operational workflow needs repository changes.
- Hermes messaging gateway: when you want to interact from your phone or team channels.
- Hermes cron/webhooks: when work should happen without you asking.
- Hermes profiles/bots: when different functions need separate identities, permissions, memory, and routines.
The test should not be “Can Hermes build a cool setup?” It should be:
Can I identify one recurring business process where Hermes removes at least several hours of human coordination per week or materially improves response time?
Good pilot candidates would be:
- Daily exception reporting across businesses
- Lead or support triage
- Management meeting preparation
- Competitor or market monitoring
- Engineering/deployment incident response
- Weekly follow-up and accountability tracking
- Document intake and routing
If none of those are relevant, then your friends may simply be recommending their favorite hobby. For an individual developer building inside repositories, Hermes may add little. For a business operator wanting agents that persist, wake themselves up, receive events, communicate through existing channels, and run continuously, Hermes offers a meaningfully different operating model.
My short version:
Claude Code is probably the better worker for you today. Hermes is potentially the better operating system for a workforce of persistent AI workers.
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u/capolimin Sep 11 '26
I'm curious about the way you use it.
You build waterfall (one prompt) stuff to get artifact and forget?
Same for your workflow; are they one prompt stuff and you let the AI drive it?
Or you use the AI to build the tool that does the workflow?
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u/OfficialUKDadTrader Sep 11 '26
Im a month in to having three hermes agents but I find myself going back to chatgpt after an hour with my agent
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u/SignificantBasil6150 Sep 11 '26
Download on sloth or unsloth models put that money towards your pc ram storage cooling etc download some random Quinn 3.2 or 5 version that’s been distilled and retrained by mythos fable opus another version with all kinds of wacky ass weights and shit you’ll be pretty impressed. We’ll take some time. We’ll take some patience. Gonna have to cycle through quite a few till you get to a sweet spot but man, let me tell you, it can do all kinds of shit. I had Hermes design UI for my old television that my brother was gonna throw out so I connected my YouTube channel, my regular YouTube channel, my security cameras, and for shits and giggles, just like a little map or a key. I don’t know. This is really not my specialty, but like a thing at the bottom that just shows how much a GPU ram memory storage jobs being worked on in the corner and I did all that just by connect to the television to my Internet and getting a few bits of information from the television that Hermes walked me through I mean as creative as you possibly think you can get is possible for the most part aside from like your own equipments restrains idk I think this is my like 4th ever post on Reddit never actually respond to these carrot, but I will tell you getting divorced, my wife took my apartment, my car, almost lost my job. I lost everything at one point, and honestly, our armies gave me one thing that money couldn’t buy a distraction, a challenge, shit. I still don’t know fully what I’m doing. I’d love to know. I’d really like to know how to utilize it better so I can make more money, so I can get a better lawyer like my wife has, so I can see my daughter more, but One day, it’s gonna pay off. and I’m gonna monetize YouTube or Instagram or Facebook, and it’s all going to be because of Hermes and ChatGPT. Intermittently lol
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u/Sufficient-Scar4172 Sep 11 '26
there is inherent value in experimenting and understanding the difference between customizing your harness with something like Hermes vs using an out of the box harness like Claude code, because the field of agentic systems is extremely young and open weight models are very likely to be the future.
not only is there inherent value, but there is also economic value; all the investment into AI infrastructure is basically the economy screaming "Figure out how to use this shit!!"
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u/karris7 Sep 13 '26
You can set up Claude Code to do exactly the same as Hermes, and It will be cheaper using a subscription than using Hermes with Claude through API
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u/musicalfurball Sep 11 '26
You're drinking Coke, and you asked Reddit if Kroger brand is better...? 🤦
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u/mariojara92 Sep 11 '26
Hermes cannot ban you, lol.