Overview

The by-concept track teaches Hermes Agent through a sequence of focused narrative sections. Each section explains one concept completely — what it is, how it works, when to use it, and what the trade-offs are — before showing annotated configuration or code. The three levels build on each other, so concepts introduced early are assumed known in later sections.

Learning Path

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%% All colors are color-blind friendly and meet WCAG AA contrast standards
 
flowchart TD
    START(["Start here"]):::teal
 
    BEG["Beginner<br/>Sections 1–16"]:::blue
    INT["Intermediate<br/>Sections 17–29"]:::orange
    ADV["Advanced<br/>Sections 30–40"]:::purple
 
    B1["What is Hermes Agent?"]:::blue
    B2["The Learning Loop"]:::blue
    B3["Installation"]:::blue
    B4["CLI Basics"]:::blue
    B5["YAML Configuration"]:::blue
    B6["Your First Session"]:::blue
    B7["Tools Overview"]:::blue
    B8["Memory Basics"]:::blue
    B9["Skills Basics"]:::blue
    B10["LLM Provider Configuration"]:::blue
    B11["Smart Model Routing"]:::blue
    B12["Context Compression"]:::blue
    B13["Security Basics"]:::blue
    B14["Token and Cost Tracking"]:::blue
    B15["Messaging Gateway Basics"]:::blue
    B16["Hermes vs. OpenClaw"]:::blue
 
    I1["Skills System Deep Dive"]:::orange
    I2["Session Search FTS5"]:::orange
    I3["Subagent Delegation"]:::orange
    I4["Messaging Platform Integration"]:::orange
    I5["Terminal Backends"]:::orange
    I6["Browser Automation Tools"]:::orange
    I7["Code Execution Toolset"]:::orange
    I8["Cron Scheduling"]:::orange
    I9["Honcho Dialectic Integration"]:::orange
    I10["Mixture of Agents"]:::orange
    I11["MCP Client Integration"]:::orange
    I12["MCP Server Mode"]:::orange
    I13["Skills Hub"]:::orange
 
    A1["Security Deep Dive"]:::purple
    A2["Voice Mode"]:::purple
    A3["Docker Terminal Backend"]:::purple
    A4["Advanced Subagent Patterns"]:::purple
    A5["Custom Tool Development"]:::purple
    A6["Production Deployment"]:::purple
    A7["Reinforcement Learning Toolset"]:::purple
    A8["Advanced Memory Architecture"]:::purple
    A9["Custom LLM Provider"]:::purple
    A10["Migrating from OpenClaw Deep Dive"]:::purple
    A11["Contributing to Hermes Agent"]:::purple
 
    START --> BEG
    BEG --> B1 --> B2 --> B3 --> B4 --> B5
    B5 --> B6 --> B7 --> B8 --> B9 --> B10
    B10 --> B11 --> B12 --> B13 --> B14 --> B15 --> B16
    B16 --> INT
    INT --> I1 --> I2 --> I3 --> I4 --> I5 --> I6 --> I7
    I7 --> I8 --> I9 --> I10 --> I11 --> I12 --> I13
    I13 --> ADV
    ADV --> A1 --> A2 --> A3 --> A4 --> A5 --> A6
    A6 --> A7 --> A8 --> A9 --> A10 --> A11
 
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    classDef purple fill:#CC78BC,stroke:#000000,color:#FFFFFF,stroke-width:2px

Coverage Map

Each level builds on the previous. Concepts are not repeated once introduced.

Level	Coverage	Focus
Beginner	0–40%	Hermes as a tool — install, configure, use built-in features, understand memory
Intermediate	40–75%	Hermes as a platform — skills, delegation, messaging, terminal backends
Advanced	75–95%	Hermes at scale — security, voice, Docker, production, contributing

Full Section Table of Contents

Beginner (Sections 1–16)

#	Section	What You Will Learn
1	What is Hermes Agent?	Self-improving agent vs. standard chatbot, the closed learning loop concept
2	The Learning Loop	How Hermes creates skills from experience, improvement cycle, 5+ tool call trigger
3	Installation	One-line curl install, `hermes setup` wizard walkthrough, prerequisites (Git only)
4	CLI Basics	`hermes` command, TUI layout, multiline input, streaming output, slash-command autocomplete
5	YAML Configuration	`config.yml` structure, where it lives, basic LLM and tool configuration
6	Your First Session	Starting hermes, giving a task, reading tool output, ending the session
7	Tools Overview	19 toolsets, enabling/disabling toolsets, how to list available tools
8	Memory Basics	What `MEMORY.md` contains, what `USER.md` contains, when Hermes writes to them
9	Skills Basics	What a skill is, 3-level progressive disclosure, viewing skills list
10	LLM Provider Configuration	Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama setup; OpenRouter for 200+ models
11	Smart Model Routing	Primary vs. cheap model, complexity detection algorithm, cost tradeoffs
12	Context Compression	What happens at token limit, lossy summarization, what gets kept/dropped
13	Security Basics	Command approval mode, secret redaction, why Hermes asks for confirmation
14	Token and Cost Tracking	Reading cost display in streaming output, monitoring daily spend
15	Messaging Gateway Basics	CLI vs. gateway mode, connecting Telegram for first time
16	Hermes vs. OpenClaw	Comparison table, migration overview (`hermes claw migrate`)

Intermediate (Sections 17–29)

#	Section	What You Will Learn
17	Skills System Deep Dive	Skill creation algorithm, improvement loop, 3-level disclosure format, YAML schema
18	Session Search (FTS5)	Querying past conversations, FTS5 full-text search syntax, SQLite backend
19	Subagent Delegation	Spawning child agents, restricted toolsets, parallel workstreams, `delegate` tool
20	Messaging Platform Integration	Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp — platform-specific config and webhooks
21	Terminal Backends	local vs. Docker vs. SSH vs. Daytona vs. Singularity vs. Modal — when to use each
22	Browser Automation Tools	Web extract, browser automation, vision tools, practical web scraping workflow
23	Code Execution Toolset	Running code, container isolation, language support, security sandbox
24	Cron Scheduling	Automated tasks, cron syntax in Hermes config, recurring job patterns
25	Honcho Dialectic Integration	What Honcho is, how `USER.md` builds up, preference modeling, resetting profiles
26	Mixture of Agents	Multi-model parallel reference + aggregator pattern, configuration, cost vs. quality
27	MCP Client Integration	Connecting external MCP servers, configuration, using community MCP servers
28	MCP Server Mode	Exposing Hermes tools to other clients, serving Hermes as MCP endpoint
29	Skills Hub	Sharing skills across teams, importing community skills, version pinning

Advanced (Sections 30–40)

#	Section	What You Will Learn
30	Security Deep Dive	OWASP LLM Top 10 threat model, prompt injection defense, MCP vetting, egress isolation
31	Voice Mode	10 TTS providers + 5 STT providers, push-to-talk workflow, provider-specific config
32	Docker Terminal Backend	Container isolation, image selection, resource limits, persistent volumes
33	Advanced Subagent Patterns	Orchestrator + specialist pattern, result aggregation, failure handling
34	Custom Tool Development	Writing new tools/toolsets, YAML definition format, testing tools locally
35	Production Deployment	systemd/launchd service, health monitoring, cost budgets, alerting
36	Reinforcement Learning Toolset	RL training integration, agent self-improvement via reward signals
37	Advanced Memory Architecture	FTS5 internals, SQLite schema, memory pruning strategies, backup/restore
38	Custom LLM Provider	Adding providers beyond OpenRouter, custom endpoints, auth patterns
39	Migrating from OpenClaw Deep Dive	`hermes claw migrate` internals, directory mapping, configuration format conversion
40	Contributing to Hermes Agent	Codebase structure (Python), adding tools, skill contribution, PR workflow

Choosing Your Entry Point

Read the beginner level if you cannot answer "what is the learning loop trigger condition?" without looking it up. Read the intermediate level if you have installed Hermes and run a session, but have not configured the messaging gateway or written a custom skill. Go directly to advanced if you have Hermes running in production and want to understand Docker isolation, security threat modeling, or RL-based self-improvement.

If you are evaluating Hermes against OpenClaw for your team, the comparison table in Beginner Section 16 and the security deep dive in Advanced Section 30 are the two sections most relevant to an adoption decision.