0:00 Hermes agent continues to impress the
0:01 world and people are
0:02 migrating from OpenClaw, the
0:04 stars are adding up on GitHub, and Hermes
0:07 recently released computer use.
0:09 So now Hermes can control your computer.
0:12 But which models are you
0:12 using to control it and why?
0:14 In this video we are going to do a fresh
0:16 install of Hermes agent
0:18 using a private model with
0:19 the Venice API that does not store any of
0:22 your data so you can
0:23 use Hermes agent with
0:24 the privacy intact.
0:25 We will set up Hermes agent to manage our
0:27 Mac OS computer,
0:28 organize a desktop, create
0:29 reminders, even create a little chat
0:31 widget to interact with from the desktop.
0:33 Now remember this is all brand new stuff
0:35 so it might be a little
0:36 finicky on your machine
0:37 but this is a great skill to practice
0:40 learning to train your
0:41 AI to run your computer.
0:42 So in a few months when all this stuff is
0:44 normal you will be ahead of the curve.
0:45 Let's get started.
0:48 So to get started we just copy this
0:50 command here, click copy,
0:53 and then you're going to
0:53 open up a terminal on your machine.
0:56 Just search for the
0:56 terminal and you can find it.
0:58 I'm going to paste that there.
0:59 And this installer script
1:01 is going to do the rest.
1:02 You'll see all this computer looking
1:04 stuff show up on your
1:05 screen and that is installing
1:07 all the dependencies
1:08 that Hermes agent needs.
1:10 Such as Python, Git, Node, Node.js, etc.
1:15 So let that run for a bit and then it's
1:17 going to automatically run this
1:19 configuration command
1:20 the Hermes setup.
1:21 We don't have to run that.
1:22 It's going to do it on its own.
1:24 And here we are.
1:25 We'll just run with
1:26 the quick setup for now.
1:27 And we're going to add
1:29 Venice as a provider.
1:30 Now by the time you watch this you'll
1:32 probably be able to find
1:33 Venice here on the list.
1:35 But as of right now we
1:36 have to add a custom endpoint.
1:39 And that is hcpsapi. Venice.ai forward
1:43 slash API forward slash v1.
1:46 If you want to copy and paste that just
1:48 head over to
1:49 docs.Venice.ai and click the API
1:53 And you'll see just right here for setup
1:56 that URL that you can copy.
1:58 So we'll submit that.
1:59 And now we're going to need an API key.
2:01 You can get an API key right here on the
2:04 API section of the Venice user interface.
2:10 Just click generate new API key.
2:12 I'll call it Hermes agent,
2:14 generate key and copy that.
2:17 and then paste it into the terminal.
2:20 If you're new to Venice,
2:20 I recommend checking out the Diem token.
2:23 Once you stake this token,
2:24 you will get recurring $1 credit
2:27 in API access to Venice every single day.
2:30 This can be very
2:31 economically helpful with AI agents.
2:34 Next, we get the model list
2:36 and we see all the
2:36 available models from Venice.
2:38 Now, we can also see this
2:40 model list here on the docs.
2:42 If we just click Models and Text,
2:45 we can see all of these same models
2:47 and we can see if they're private,
2:49 if they are anonymized,
2:51 if they are intent encrypted, et cetera.
2:53 You can also see the context, length,
2:56 and the tools that this model can do.
2:58 So for example, Clodopus
2:59 4.7 can do function calling,
3:01 reasoning, vision,
3:03 and it's code optimized.
3:04 Gemma 4 Uncensored, however, is
3:06 uncensored and it's private
3:08 and it's much cheaper than Clodopus 4.7,
3:12 but you only can do
3:12 function calling and vision.
3:14 So ideally you find a model
3:15 that's pretty good at
3:16 all of these things.
3:17 Kimi Cape 2.6 currently
3:19 is a strong competitor
3:21 at 85 cents per million tokens input
3:23 and $4.66 per million tokens output.
3:27 It does all of the things,
3:29 function calling, reasoning,
3:30 vision, and code optimized,
3:32 and you get a 256,000
3:33 token context limit.
3:35 If you compare that price
3:36 to GPT 5.5, for example,
3:39 you are saving quite a bit.
3:41 This is $6.25 and $37.50.
3:44 So you're saving
3:45 quite a bit of money here
3:46 and you're going to have
3:47 similar results, believe it or not,
3:49 but don't take my word for it.
3:50 Try them out, mess
3:51 around with different models.
3:53 Kimi Cape 2.6 is a popular
3:55 one, DeepSeek version four,
3:57 as well as Qwen 3.6, as we
3:59 see this offers all of these
4:00 as well and it's even cheaper than Kimi.
4:02 So let's use that one, Qwen 3.6 27B.
4:06 If we see this here on the list,
4:08 we have that right
4:09 there and the number is 13.
4:11 So I'll type in 13.
4:13 We'll let it auto
4:14 detect the token length.
4:15 We'll call it Venice.
4:17 And now we have our provider set up.
4:19 So next we're
4:20 selecting the terminal backend.
4:22 Now what's neat about Hermes
4:24 agent is that you can select
4:26 where it will use the terminal
4:28 when it needs to run at certain commands.
4:30 So you can have it run
4:31 locally on our machine,
4:32 which is what we're going to choose,
4:33 or you can have it open up
4:35 an isolated Docker container
4:36 to use a terminal.
4:37 It can run on a cloud,
4:38 it can run on Vercel,
4:40 it can even run on a remote machine,
4:42 like a VPS or a Raspberry
4:44 Pi you have in your house.
4:45 So this is a cool options
4:47 for more advanced usage.
4:48 I'm going to skip the messaging platform
4:51 because the purpose of what I
4:52 want to use Hermes for right
4:53 now is to use it locally on my computer
4:56 as privately as possible.
4:57 When I use Telegram,
4:58 Discord, what's up, for example,
5:00 these messages are all stored somewhere.
5:03 They're not
5:03 necessarily intended encrypted
5:05 when I chat with it.
5:06 So you're adding a
5:07 middleman into the situation.
5:09 I want to use Hermes just
5:10 straight on my computer,
5:12 just with the AI
5:13 powered that connects directly
5:15 through Venice to the
5:16 model with zero data retention,
5:18 and that's it.
5:18 So we'll skip messaging.
5:20 And now it gives us a
5:21 summary of what we configured.
5:24 And we also see that if
5:25 we add some more API keys,
5:27 we can get more tools available.
5:29 This can be fixed because for example,
5:31 with the Venice API key,
5:32 we can do image generation,
5:34 and that's more configuration you can do.
5:36 What is cool about Hermes,
5:38 if we launch it now, is
5:40 that it is very capable
5:42 of working on itself.
5:44 So here we go.
5:46 It's opened up.
5:46 We see its tools.
5:47 We see its skills.
5:48 Now there's quite a
5:49 few tools and skills here
5:50 I'm not gonna need.
5:51 So a good way to get
5:52 started with Hermes Agent
5:53 is say, help me clean up the tools,
5:55 skills we won't use.
5:59 And now we can see it auto detected
6:01 the 256,000 token context length.
6:04 And we've already used 16,000 tokens
6:07 just in that first chat.
6:08 And that's because it's
6:09 loading all those skills and tools.
6:11 So that's why we wanna
6:11 optimize this right now.
6:13 The default Hermes Agent is very capable,
6:15 but it's not
6:16 necessarily super token efficient,
6:18 which is why we're gonna
6:18 start by cleaning that up.
6:20 So we get better performance.
6:21 You can see here, we
6:23 have the Hermes message
6:24 and its own little yellow box.
6:26 And then we see that it's
6:27 looking at the skill file.
6:29 It's using a terminal, and
6:30 then we get a message back.
6:33 And even our model here knows
6:35 these are all built in skills.
6:36 They blow your context
6:37 window and system prompt,
6:38 even if you don't use them.
6:39 So it wants to know what do we wanna do?
6:41 So I'm gonna say, I want
6:43 you to be my computer manager.
6:46 You're not doing my work for me,
6:48 but you're helping me stay organized.
6:51 My files, my desktop, et cetera.
6:55 Think of me as your
6:56 personal digital janitor
6:57 and organizational assistant.
6:59 Okay, so it's suggesting
7:01 now which tool sets to keep
7:02 and which to disable.
7:04 Now I do agree with most of these.
7:06 I do want skills though,
7:08 and I do want code execution.
7:10 Now you'll see here, computer use.
7:13 This, as of the time of your recording,
7:15 is new with Hermes.
7:16 And that's what we're gonna
7:17 play with in a little bit here.
7:18 I'm gonna keep skills.
7:19 I don't wanna disable
7:21 the skills tool sets.
7:22 This, I believe, enables
7:24 Hermes to create its own skills
7:26 when it needs them for
7:27 tasks that you delegate to it.
7:29 So yes, also keep skills.
7:32 And, all right.
7:37 And I accidentally
7:37 sent that off too early,
7:38 but I basically wanted yes
7:40 for each of these questions.
7:42 So now we're gonna see how Hermes agent,
7:45 powered by an open source model,
7:47 is gonna optimize itself
7:48 with no data retention by the provider.
7:53 So now we're getting a nice warning
7:55 that the remove command was blocked
7:57 because that could be a
7:58 security issue, right?
8:00 It's on our computer
8:01 and it's letting us know
8:02 where those directories are.
8:04 They're all inside of the .hermes folder.
8:06 So yes, I approve.
8:08 Now, this could be dangerous in general.
8:11 I am installing on a
8:13 pretty fresh machine.
8:15 There is no sensitive or personal
8:16 or just really
8:18 important data on this computer,
8:20 which is why I'm starting
8:21 fresh with Hermes agent here.
8:23 But it is recommended you install these
8:25 on their own devices,
8:26 a Mac mini, a Raspberry Pi,
8:27 something that doesn't risk
8:29 destroying your whole life
8:31 if it accidentally deletes something.
8:33 Now, there's no
8:33 guarantee that will happen,
8:35 but it isn't unheard of.
8:37 And on another note, if
8:38 you follow along here,
8:39 it's just really fascinating
8:40 to see an open source model
8:43 do this agentic work on
8:45 itself in a lot of ways.
8:47 The agent is working on itself.
8:48 It's just doing such a good job.
8:50 These open source models
8:51 really have come a long way.
8:53 So we went from 5.2
8:55 megabytes to 160 kilobytes.
8:57 97% smaller.
8:59 So we need to restart Hermes,
9:02 but first while we're
9:04 in this conversation,
9:05 let's just tell it to yes,
9:07 set up the cron job and the memory entry
9:10 because that will be forgotten about
9:12 after we restart and
9:13 enter a new conversation.
9:14 So let's just have it set that up
9:16 while it knows what we're working on.
9:18 So let's start a new session.
9:20 We do control C to close this.
9:23 And now we can just type in Hermes
9:25 and it will start it again.
9:30 And now we can see that
9:31 there's many less tools
9:33 and skills available.
9:34 So say, let's continue your setup
9:39 here to be my computer
9:41 manager and assistant.
9:43 So I can focus on my work
9:46 while you keep my machine clean.
9:49 And now might be a good time
9:50 to activate the computer use tool.
9:53 Also want to practice
9:55 your computer use tool.
9:58 Make a plan for our setup.
10:01 Now in general, making
10:02 a plan is very helpful
10:04 so your agent can stay on track.
10:06 Every agent follows plans differently.
10:09 And now we can see in the beginning
10:10 it loaded the planning skill
10:12 as well as the macOS computer use skill.
10:14 So it wrote the file for the setup.
10:19 So here we have the plan phase one,
10:21 audit the current state of the computer,
10:23 phase two, practice the
10:25 computer use tool, phase three,
10:27 establish organization conventions,
10:29 like rules we're gonna follow
10:30 and how we want this to work.
10:32 And then we'll set up
10:33 an ongoing workflow.
10:34 And we'll also make Hermes
10:36 agent load on the computer boot.
10:38 So when the computer
10:39 starts, it'll automatically load
10:40 and I don't have to worry about,
10:42 is it running or not?
10:43 Is it gonna forget
10:43 what it's supposed to do?
10:44 So let's answer its questions here.
10:46 How aggressive should cleanup be?
10:49 Always archive old stuff.
10:52 Any folders that are strictly off limits.
10:54 For now, no, but potentially yes, later.
10:59 Three, want daily
11:00 check-ins or weekly report?
11:01 Daily check-ins.
11:03 Four, organization
11:05 style, desktop minimalism,
11:08 organize screenshots and
11:10 keep folders organized.
11:14 What do you suggest?
11:16 And now you can see here is
11:17 we are all still only at
11:19 6% of the context length.
11:20 Remember, we were a lot higher than that
11:23 before we disable all the skills.
11:24 So we've got an efficient Hermes agent
11:27 getting started here.
11:29 Okay, here's what I
11:30 suggest for organization.
11:31 We'll organize the
11:32 screenshots in the pictures folder.
11:34 Oh, I forgot about that folder.
11:36 Downloads, anything
11:37 older than seven days,
11:38 moves to archives down, oh
11:40 great, that's a great idea.
11:41 But keep screenshots on desktop,
11:46 keep downloads archive in downloads.
11:53 Archives of folders
11:55 should be inside the root.
11:59 All right, so those are my preferences.
12:01 You might have other
12:02 preferences for yourself,
12:04 but yes, I like that.
12:06 All right, so here it goes.
12:07 Didn't require any
12:08 more confirmation for me,
12:10 just ready to go.
12:11 So let's think about this.
12:12 So far, we've had Hermes
12:14 agent with an open source model,
12:16 edit itself, configure
12:17 itself, modify its skills and tools,
12:21 create a plan, create
12:22 an organization strategy.
12:24 So it hasn't done anything
12:25 yet, but let's take a look.
12:27 Here's our desktop,
12:29 there's some screenshots.
12:30 We'll keep that open up here.
12:32 And this is a pretty new computer,
12:33 so there's not too much going on.
12:35 And we also have some
12:36 things in the downloads folder
12:38 that can also be removed.
12:41 Yes, do those two things.
12:46 I will eventually get to a point
12:48 where it'll remove the archive folders
12:50 because I don't know if we need those,
12:52 but at least it'll
12:53 keep things clean for now.
12:55 Now, we just saw the
12:56 downloads folder here.
12:58 Now we have an archives
12:59 folder and in the desktop as well.
13:02 Cool, those are now in
13:03 the screenshots folder.
13:05 Neat.
13:07 Now we're gonna practice computer use.
13:09 Oh, I don't even have to tell it.
13:11 I'm just gonna go for it.
13:12 Let's take a look and see how this goes.
13:14 We're not even at 10%
13:15 context window, this is great.
13:16 And it's working.
13:17 I've said this so many
13:18 times in this video already,
13:20 but don't sleep on
13:21 these open source models
13:22 that Venice provides.
13:24 They're so much cheaper
13:25 and they get the job done.
13:26 You don't need Opus
13:28 and GPT for everything.
13:30 So it looks like we
13:30 need to reset the session
13:33 to load computer use.
13:35 And I'll just, yeah.
13:38 This starts a fresh session.
13:40 Proceed.
13:42 Let's continue.
13:45 It's checking its memory now
13:47 from our most recent conversation.
13:49 I do like seeing
13:50 everything Hermes-Agen is doing,
13:52 which OpenCloud doesn't do by default.
13:54 You can actually shut
13:55 that off in the configuration
13:56 if you don't like it,
13:58 especially if you're
13:58 using WhatsApp or something,
13:59 maybe kind of weird to see all the notes.
14:03 So now it's loading
14:04 the computer use skill.
14:06 So one thing was missing from our setup
14:08 and Hermes-Agen took care of that,
14:10 installing the Kua driver.
14:12 And now we need to grant
14:13 it permissions on macOS.
14:15 So we take this command here, we copy it,
14:18 paste that into the terminal.
14:19 And now we're going
14:20 to see that Kua driver
14:21 would like to record this
14:22 computer screen in audio.
14:24 So yes, in order to use the computer,
14:26 it's going to need these permissions.
14:27 Remember, you're giving
14:28 your AI a lot of power here.
14:29 So make sure you're
14:30 doing this on a machine
14:31 that doesn't have a lot to lose.
14:33 Now we need to quit and reopen it.
14:34 And now let's see if it's working with
14:37 this second command.
14:39 It's to do it again.
14:41 The terminal needs to do it now.
14:43 Open the terminal back up.
14:45 Let's run that command again.
14:48 It looks like we need to do
14:49 the accessibility permission again.
14:52 So a lot of permissions
14:53 we got to give here, right?
14:56 And we got it, cool.
14:57 So now let's go back to Hermes-Agen
14:59 and we just have to type
15:00 Hermes into the terminal
15:02 to launch it.
15:03 Let's practice the computer use skill.
15:07 Let's see.
15:08 Now it has it in its memory
15:10 and knows what's been going on.
15:12 So it should know
15:13 exactly what we're doing here.
15:15 And now we can see that
15:17 we need to give permission
15:19 for Kua driver to use.
15:22 It looks like, all right.
15:27 Okay, so we're all ready to go,
15:29 but there's one quick thing
15:31 you may or may not have to do
15:32 depending on when you're watching this.
15:34 And if news research,
15:35 the Hermes-Agen team
15:37 has patched this for custom providers.
15:39 So over here in my reminders app,
15:41 which we're gonna use in just a second,
15:42 I have a prompt here.
15:44 And this is gonna be below.
15:45 You can find this prompt,
15:47 but you're going to need to
15:48 feed it to your Hermes-Agen.
15:50 And what it's basically
15:51 saying is to make a patch
15:52 in its own code so
15:54 that the computer use tool
15:55 with screenshots will not
15:57 overload the context window.
15:58 Because unfortunately,
16:00 this is just a bug in the code
16:01 that we have to fix.
16:02 So first thing we're
16:03 gonna send that through
16:04 and we can even say, check your code.
16:07 Do we need to do this?
16:10 And then that way you'll know if it's
16:12 already been patched
16:13 in the official repository or not.
16:15 This type of thing is
16:16 actually easier and easier to fix
16:17 because the agent itself can do it,
16:19 but we have to be aware of it.
16:20 And sometimes it can be a little
16:22 confusing or off-putting
16:23 when it came out of nowhere.
16:25 Okay, so it looks like
16:26 we already got it fixed.
16:27 So we're all good here.
16:29 Let's start a new conversation.
16:31 And here we are.
16:32 We're gonna say, let's
16:33 practice the computer use tool
16:34 using the reminders app.
16:36 And I'll even just mention
16:37 the current note in there
16:40 is to be provided to the audience
16:42 when this video goes live.
16:46 Otherwise I want to
16:47 create a system of notes
16:50 corresponding to my projects folder.
16:55 So I have a projects folder.
16:57 It'll scan all those projects
16:58 and then we'll just
16:59 create folders or something.
17:00 I've never used the reminders app.
17:02 We could also use Obsidian, for example,
17:04 to have maybe a little more flexibility
17:07 with markdown files.
17:08 But for now we'll just go with the
17:09 default apps on macOS.
17:11 So now it's using the
17:11 Apple reminders skill
17:13 and it's using the computer use tool.
17:16 And I'm keeping the
17:17 reminders window open up here
17:18 so we can see the changes it makes.
17:21 See, we've got the cursor moving.
17:23 That's fun.
17:24 These kinds of things
17:25 can be a little finicky,
17:27 but once it learns,
17:28 normally it does a good
17:29 job after forevermore.
17:31 Now you can see this
17:32 focus keeps getting stolen.
17:34 So a tip here is try
17:37 not to keep anything open
17:38 that doesn't need to be open,
17:40 especially while it's learning.
17:43 All right, we've got our reminders, cool.
17:46 So now we have lists of reminders.
17:50 We'll say yes to all
17:51 three of the suggestions.
17:54 I also want to create a
17:56 folder for video tutorials,
17:59 like the one I'm creating now
18:01 for Hermes agent computer use.
18:07 And we should set up cron jobs to ping me
18:11 and remind me as to how they're going
18:15 and update the to-do lists.
18:19 We should have to do lists per project.
18:24 So part of this for me
18:25 is really just exploring
18:27 how it works and what it does.
18:30 I don't generally use these apps
18:32 and I've never had an AI assistant
18:34 that just controls my computer.
18:36 So that would be my recommendation
18:38 as you mess around with this.
18:39 Just see what it does, see
18:41 what works, what doesn't work.
18:43 Remember, if you're not
18:44 satisfied with the results
18:45 with these open source models,
18:47 you can always use the more
18:48 expensive frontier models,
18:49 but you will be sacrificing your privacy
18:52 in the trade-off for performance.
18:54 So it's done a bunch of things here,
18:56 created the reminder lists,
18:58 which unfortunately I
18:59 can't actually select
19:00 while this is running,
19:02 which is a little bit annoying.
19:06 Okay, so I've got everything
19:07 open here to close this off,
19:10 but then what I would like to try to do
19:12 is add a widget over
19:13 here for Hermes agent.
19:15 So let's just prompt
19:16 Hermes to see if I can do this.
19:18 I'd like you to start on
19:21 boot every time I log in.
19:24 I'd also like there to
19:26 be a Hermes agent widget
19:29 in the left side of the desktop,
19:32 similar to the
19:33 calendar and weather widget.
19:38 So ideally the widget
19:39 there I can just chat with
19:40 and I don't have to open the terminal
19:42 and I don't have to use a messaging app.
19:45 Okay, so it's been working.
19:46 I had to install Xcode,
19:48 which Hermes agent walked me through,
19:51 and now it is creating
19:53 the Hermes widget over here
19:54 with what's just disappeared.
19:57 And it needs Xcode to build this
19:59 because that's how you
20:00 build basically software
20:02 for Apple products.
20:03 So I'm gonna stop it real quick.
20:08 The widget appears, but
20:09 it should be moved down
20:11 to not overlap the other widgets.
20:14 Can we put a chat input text box here
20:20 that automatically sends?
20:22 So now it just takes a
20:23 little bit of finessing,
20:24 but this is what is possible now.
20:27 And you could
20:28 theoretically create visual widgets
20:31 for anything you want
20:32 now with an AI agent
20:34 on your computer in Xcode.
20:36 And then with computer use,
20:38 the skill with Hermes agent,
20:39 which is only gonna get better.
20:40 I will definitely admit this is not
20:43 incredible right now,
20:45 especially on an open source model.
20:46 I have a feeling if you were
20:47 to use GPT 5.5 or Opus 4.7,
20:50 we'd probably have better results.
20:52 But this is also saving a lot of money
20:55 in API inference costs.
20:56 This is interesting too.
20:58 One of the options I
20:59 thought for routing the chat input
21:01 from here is just to
21:04 hit Venice API directly.
21:05 So that could be a whole nother project.
21:07 I mean, even without Hermes agent,
21:09 you could just put a
21:09 widget on your desktop
21:11 to just access any
21:12 model via the Venice API.
21:14 If you're interested in
21:14 seeing a video where I build that,
21:16 drop a comment down
21:17 below, because it could be fun.
21:19 And now we're just vibe
21:20 coding widgets on our desktop.
21:22 Okay, here we go.
21:24 The gateway is running.
21:25 We got the model.
21:28 Okay, so as it turns out,
21:30 you actually can't type in these widgets.
21:33 You can't even move them.
21:34 So we're just gonna say
21:36 in that case, forget it,
21:39 but show me a list of
21:41 whatever is planned,
21:43 scheduled by Hermes agent,
21:46 what it's currently working on,
21:49 etc, a dashboard UI with a
21:52 button to open up the terminal
21:55 with Hermes command to chat.
21:59 So it was going to just
22:00 create a titled window,
22:01 like an actual app window,
22:03 but I kind of want to stick
22:04 with the widget format here
22:06 so it can feel more
22:07 like locked into the OS.
22:09 And we'll check back in on that.
22:11 Okay, so here we go.
22:13 We've got our
22:14 sessions, our scheduled jobs,
22:17 and we really just have
22:19 the possibilities now.
22:21 We can see what's possible here.
22:23 If I close Hermes agent,
22:26 let's see, I'll click that button
22:28 and it opens up the terminal for me.
22:30 I'll have to fix that.
22:31 So it automatically opens up Hermes.
22:33 That's no problem, but there you go.
22:34 And in conclusion, we can
22:36 now have a fully private AI
22:39 running a really cool agent
22:42 framework on our computer,
22:44 act as a manager and
22:46 assistant on our computer,
22:47 and the possibilities are endless.
22:49 So I hope this video was inspiring.
22:50 Thanks for watching.
22:51 Share with us what you're
22:52 working on in the Venice Discord.
22:54 There's a link below.
22:55 And if you want more
22:56 tutorials on using AI, AI agents
22:58 with a focus on privacy,
23:00 hit that subscribe button.