Own it forever
Keep it alive: back up, update, and level up — without redoing lesson 1.
00of 08 sections behind you
What to back up
- Hermes home / profile directory (SOUL, memory, config, skills you keep)
- Obsidian vault and
AGENTS.md/ project context you rely on .envholds secrets — back up encrypted; never publish
Stay current
Official docs change often. Run hermes update (or reinstall Desktop) on a cadence you can keep. After updates: doctor or health check, one chat smoke test, gateway still allowlisted. If a flag renames, Installation / Updating docs ↗ win over this page.
Course completion checklist
What must you back up first?
Pick one — the answer is revealed straight away.
Keep going
Official docs ↗ are the living manual. Optional labs deepen operations. Open Design is the next live mastery track on Forge.
When one agent is not enough
Sub-agents ↗: spawn helpers for independent work. Brief them as strangers (failure, paths, definition of done). Least tools. Prefer cheaper children and a strong parent for synthesis. Avoid delegating tightly sequential interactive work.
Profiles: a second Hermes home (own model, memory, gateway, persona) when roles must stay isolated permanently — not a temporary helper.
Kanban / boards: when work must cross agents and survive restarts. Use the official multi-agent docs ↗ when serial pain is real.
Bot Mode: the Desktop roster for those same profiles — named Bots, @mentions, group chats. Same primitive, a team you talk to. On by default in current Desktop.
Growth map — seven patterns
You already practice tools and approvals. Add the rest when a concrete constraint appears.
- 1 Tools — day one (done)
- 2 MCP servers — when work spans external services and APIs
- 3 Sequential pipeline — multi-step jobs via profiles and wake gates
- 4 Parallel — research fan-out / batch delegation
- 5 Routers — assign by type to specialist profiles or board
- 6 Human in the loop — keep for high-impact actions
- 7 Dynamic sub-agents — orchestrator spawns help mid-task
Desktop Kanban (growth)
The first official Hermes Desktop plugin is Kanban: a board in the app for multi-step work across profiles. Enable it only after one profile, tools, and approvals are solid. It is not Part I homework.
- Plugin can add a page, sidebar entry, hotkeys, and backend endpoints.
- Multi-profile boards need SOUL + tools working per profile first.
- Write your own plugin or import via the Desktop plugin SDK ↗ when you outgrow defaults.
Desktop Bot Mode (growth)
Bot Mode is the Desktop roster for the same profiles you already created. Each Bot keeps its own role, model, memory, skills, and face. Bots can @mention each other and sit in a group chat. It ships on by default in current Desktop — not a second install.
- A Bot is a profile under
~/.hermes/profiles/<name>/— the Bots tab is a UI over that primitive. - Give each specialist a harness: soul, model pin, skills, tools, memory. Least tools per Bot.
- One job per Bot, then a handoff. A roster is not a company; you stay the operator.