◆ Sparround

Project 1: install and your first automation

Goal: a working Hermes install and one cron job that sends you a useful result every morning.

This project pulls the first three stages together: installation, configuration, tool selection and scheduling. At the end you will have a real automation running — and, more importantly, you will know what it costs.

Steps:

  • Install, and confirm with hermes doctor
  • Configure one provider and route auxiliary work to a cheap model
  • Run your first session in an empty directory
  • Choose the work to automate: a daily digest (git log, issues, logs, email — whatever fits you)
  • Run it by hand first: use hermes -z "..." to confirm the result is actually useful
  • Only then turn it into a cron job and set a delivery target
  • Let it run for a week, then measure the cost with hermes insights

The most common mistake is putting the job straight into cron without trying it by hand. The usual result is a message that arrives every morning and nobody reads. First make sure the result is worth having, then automate it.

Practice. Finish the project and, after a week, ask yourself three questions: (1) did I read the message every day? (2) how many tokens did it cost? (3) what change would make it more useful? Done means: you have revised the prompt at least once based on those answers.

📚 Sources and documentation