{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"7MS #726: Baby\u2019s First Hermes","description":"Hello friends! I\u2019ve been on a bit of an AI agent journey lately, and today I\u2019m sharing my experience ditching OpenClaw and going all-in on Hermes \u2014 a self-hosted AI agent built by Nous Research. A Network Chuck video sold me on it, I wiped my Mac Mini (again), and baby\u2019s first Hermes adventure began! Here\u2019s what we get into today: Why I left OpenClaw \u2014 After getting the Mac Mini set up, OpenClaw left me feeling pretty meh: burning through API requests, random mid-conversation shutdowns, and a marketplace where the top listings were flagged as \u201cpotentially malicious.\u201d Hard pass. Network Chuck\u2019s five reasons Hermes rocks \u2014 His video summarized why Hermes stands out: (1) Nous Research has serious open source model cred predating OpenClaw, (2) more flexible persistent memory via markdown files + optional Honcho integration for building a profile of you over time, (3) a mission around humanistic and democratic AI, (4) a self-improvement loop where it writes its own skills after figuring things out, and (5) it just doesn\u2019t break \u2014 it feels like a product, not a project. The install \u2014 I used Claude to build a Mac Mini install guide from the Network Chuck transcript, and had Hermes up and running in about 15 minutes (one small Ollama hiccup aside). The install wizard lets you choose cloud models like Claude or ChatGPT, or go fully local with something like Gemma \u2014 I\u2019m planning a hybrid setup with two Telegram bots. First real-world use: sitting in a truck running errands \u2014 With Hermes running on the Mac Mini and connected via Telegram, I asked it what it could do. It suggested Uptime Kuma for LAN monitoring \u2014 weirdly well-timed since I\u2019d just been thinking about flaky IoT devices. I said \u201cgo install it,\u201d and it did \u2014 narrating its own troubleshooting out loud the whole time like a little robot intern. Remote access and Home Assistant \u2014 Had it install Home Assistant for smarthome control too, with plans to wire up TwinGate for remote access (it had a TailScale skill ready to fire in about two seconds, but I\u2019m trying to keep VPN services consolidated). Daily digest via email \u2014 Hooked Hermes into a dedicated Gmail account and set up a 6 a.m. cron job that sends me a personalized morning digest: weather for my watched locations, recent breach\/CVE news from select sites, and a summary of my favorite pentesting-focused Mastodon accounts. Needs tuning, but the first digest landed this morning and it\u2019s really good! The privacy angle \u2014 The real long-term win I see here is a hybrid model: feed raw, unsanitized pentest data to a local private model, let it analyze and sanitize, then hand off the clean version to a cloud model for deeper insight. Best of both worlds without the data exposure anxiety. Check out the Network Chuck video that started it all, and as always, if you\u2019re doing cool AI + security stuff, I\u2019d love to hear about it. Find our pentesting services and training at 7MinSec.com, pentesting tips and scripts at 7MinSec.wiki, and if you want to support the show, head over to 7MinSec.club. ","author_name":"7 Minute Security","author_url":"https:\/\/7MinSec.com","html":"