The interesting Hermes Agent question is not "Can it make a report?" It can. The useful question is: can Hermes turn research, reminders, computer control, and repeated work into something that actually moves the business forward?
Andrew Warner's conversation with Eric Siu is useful because it has both excitement and friction. Andrew shows real Hermes examples. Eric keeps pushing the same practical test: a report is not enough if it does not become a workflow, a task, a draft, a handoff, or a reusable skill.
Hermes gets useful when the workflow ends somewhere operational: a Linear issue, a Notion task, a Slack thread, a saved skill, a draft for approval, or a cron that someone actually reads.
Source note
This post credits Andrew Warner's Hermes/OpenClaw use-case session with Eric Siu and the companion deck at hermes-openclaw-use-cases.reaction.codeshiftagent.com. I used the supplied transcript as source material and avoided embedding sponsor content.
I also checked the official Hermes Agent page from Nous Research, which describes Hermes as an open-source MIT-licensed desktop agent with persistent memory, scheduling, subagents, web/browser tooling, and local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, and Modal backends. I also checked OpenClaw, OpenClaw on GitHub, Linear's developer docs, and Tailscale SSH for the project-management and remote-device parts of the discussion.
The main point
The episode has a repeated pattern:
- A flashy demo appears.
- Andrew asks whether it is useful.
- Eric separates "cool once" from "useful every week."
- The practical version usually involves a loop, a task system, a memory layer, or a skill.
That is the right lens for Hermes. A personal AI agent is not valuable because it can create more artifacts. It is valuable when it reduces open loops.
7 use cases that actually work
Here is the JQ AI SYSTEMS ranking of the Hermes use cases from the video, ordered by how likely they are to become durable workflows for builders and operators.
1. Control the computer
The opening demo is Hermes controlling a computer, opening VS Code, and typing into Claude Code. That is exciting because it turns Hermes into a coordinator across other agent tools. It can tell Claude Code, Codex, or browser tools what to do while you are not sitting there.
The useful version is not "let Hermes do anything on your machine." The useful version is narrower:
- Give Hermes a bounded computer task.
- Use a dedicated workspace or secondary machine where possible.
- Limit credentials and destructive permissions.
- Ask it to report progress in a channel you watch.
- Require approval before publishing, sending, deleting, buying, or changing production data.
This is where desktop agents become interesting: not as a replacement for every app, but as a bridge between apps that do not yet have clean APIs.
2. Competitor research that becomes a task
The competitor-research demo asks Hermes to open a browser, inspect a competitor site, describe the stack, identify features, and save a markdown breakdown.
Eric's critique is the important part: by itself, that is homework. It becomes useful when the output moves into execution:
- Create a Notion or Linear task from the findings.
- Summarize only the features worth emulating.
- Attach screenshots, links, and implementation notes.
- Ask the coding agent to build a specific small piece.
- Repeat weekly or monthly as a competitor-watch routine.
A one-off report is content. A competitor-watch skill is leverage.
3. Personal wiki and agent memory
The video spends real time on memory: daily logs, personal wiki pages, Obsidian, QMD, GBrain, GStack, and the idea that Hermes needs better context to stop feeling forgetful.
This maps directly to a business problem. If an agent has to rediscover your projects every session, it is not an operating system. It is a chat window with nostalgia.
The practical memory stack can be simple:
- Daily logs: what happened, what changed, what decisions were made.
- Project pages: goals, constraints, owners, current status, open questions.
- Decision records: why a direction was chosen.
- Reusable skills: workflows that should not be rewritten every week.
- Review notes: what the human corrected last time.
Hermes is stronger when memory is not just chat history. It needs structured knowledge it can retrieve and act on.
4. Project handoff through Linear, Notion, or another task system
Eric uses Linear for project tracking because the API is clean and the workflow fits product-building teams. Andrew uses Notion as a task board and describes passing conclusions from Claude desktop into Hermes by creating a Notion task for Hermes to take action on.
The exact tool matters less than the rule: agent work needs a durable place to land.
A useful handoff looks like:
- Source: Claude, Hermes, Codex, YouTube research, Slack, or a meeting.
- Destination: Linear, Notion, Trello, GitHub issue, or a project doc.
- Fields: task title, why it matters, source links, acceptance criteria, owner, due date, risk level.
- Review: human approves before the task becomes active or public.
Without this handoff, agent output turns into a pile of half-useful documents.
5. Agent channels: Slack, Discord, Telegram, or iMessage
The episode compares Slack, Discord, Telegram, and the newer Hermes desktop experience. The cleanest takeaway:
- Solo builder: Discord can work well as a personal agent HQ with channels by project or workflow.
- Team: Slack is usually better because the team already works there.
- Quick private commands: Telegram or iMessage can be convenient.
- Serious session management: the Hermes desktop app helps because sessions, profiles, and skills are easier to see.
The deeper lesson is not "Slack versus Discord." It is: do not create an agent surface your team will ignore.
6. Content workflows: videos, comments, lead magnets, and research
The transcript covers Hermes making videos with Hyperframes, clipping workflows with Overlap, daily AI briefings, YouTube comment monitoring, and lead magnets triggered by comments.
These can be useful, but only when the workflow has a clear next step:
- YouTube research should draft titles, gaps, hooks, or outlines.
- Comment monitoring should surface the highest-value replies, not spam every viewer.
- Lead magnets should create a reviewable asset and route it through the distribution tool.
- Video generation should help with supporting assets, not replace editorial judgment.
- Daily briefings should be filtered enough that the human actually reads them.
The anti-pattern is a cron that posts a giant daily brief no one opens. A useful cron should be short, ranked, and connected to a decision.
7. Skillify repeated work
The final strong use case is saving a repeated workflow as a skill. In the transcript, the example is turning YouTube competitor research into a reusable competitor-watch skill.
Eric's nuance is useful: you will not always know what should become a skill while you are doing it. A better system watches what you repeat, scores the leverage, and asks whether to skillify the workflow later.
A good Hermes skill should answer:
- When should this skill be used?
- What inputs does it need?
- Which tools can it use?
- Where should the output go?
- What does good output look like?
- What should require human approval?
If you do something three times and it needs judgment, context, and tools, it is probably a skill candidate.
Featured videos from the companion deck
The companion deck includes several supporting Hermes and OpenClaw videos. I am embedding the useful ones here and intentionally leaving sponsor content out.
Builder checklist
Before you add Hermes to your work, write this down:
- Workflow: what repeated work should Hermes own?
- End state: does it end in a task, draft, ticket, saved file, or review queue?
- Memory: what does Hermes need to know about you, your business, and prior decisions?
- Tools: which systems does it need, and can it start read-only?
- Channel: where will it report progress so you actually see it?
- Approval: what actions require human review?
- Skill trigger: when should this become a reusable skill?
- Stop rule: when should Hermes stop, ask, or escalate?
Do not use Hermes to create more reports. Use it to close loops: research, decide, draft, route, review, and save the workflow as a skill when it repeats.
Sources
- Andrew Warner with Eric Siu: 7 Hermes uses you must try
- Hermes and OpenClaw companion deck
- Hermes Agent by Nous Research
- OpenClaw official site
- OpenClaw GitHub repository
- Linear developer docs
- Tailscale SSH docs
- 12 INSANE Hermes Use Cases For Work
- 6 Hermes Agent use cases I promise will change your life
- 7 Hermes Desktop Hacks That Will Change Your Life
- Hermes Agent: Zero to Personal AI Assistant
- Hermes vs. Claude Cowork? Wrong Question.
- How I Run a Marketing Agency With 6 AI Agents
- Hermes controls computer
The short version: Hermes is most useful when you stop asking it for isolated demos and start giving it repeatable operating loops. The goal is not more AI output. The goal is fewer dropped threads.