Own it forever

What to back up

• Hermes home / profile directory (SOUL, memory, config, skills you keep)
• Obsidian vault and AGENTS.md / project context you rely on
• .env holds 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.

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 official multi-agent docs when serial pain is real.

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

Course completion checklist

Next ops (optional)

Same product, deeper Settings: Docker terminal backend, remote providers, always-on gateway host, Termux paths. Official docs and Harness Labs (VPS ship, remote shell, session control, prompt budget) cover them after this checklist, not instead of it.

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.

Keep going

Official docs are the living manual. Optional labs deepen operations. Open Design is the next live mastery track on Forge.