Your first Hermes morning brief

01 / 05

Pick one decision

A brief should help you decide what to do. Start with three priorities from one task list. Give each task an owner, deadline and status. Use a copy with test data so you can check the source before adding email or calendar access.

YOUR ACTIONCreate tasks.md with five tasks. Mark one complete and give one an overdue deadline.

02 / 05

Write the output contract

Define the result: three priorities, the reason for each choice and its task reference. A missing deadline is “unknown”; an empty list is “no open tasks”. For the first version, let Hermes write a brief file. Executing the recommendations is a separate workflow.

YOUR ACTIONWrite brief-contract.md with the source, output format, missing-data rule and allowed action.

03 / 05

Run the brief manually

Give Hermes both files and have it create brief.md. Compare every line with tasks.md. The completed task should not appear among open priorities, and the overdue task should be identifiable. If the response stays vague, improve the contract rather than simply making the prompt longer.

YOUR ACTIONCheck the five test tasks and record which choices are correct.

04 / 05

Add a schedule afterwards

Hermes supports recurring tasks. Schedule only after the manual result is correct. State the timezone, working directory and output destination explicitly, and check your version against the official cron documentation. The gateway needs to be running at execution time; a sleeping laptop is not a dependable daily runner.

YOUR ACTIONHave Hermes prepare a local schedule for 07:00 Europe/Amsterdam. Inspect the next run time before enabling it.

05 / 05

Test a failed run too

An existing brief file might be yesterday’s result. Check the last successful run and source modification time. Temporarily rename the source in your test folder and run again. The run should report the missing file. Restore it, rerun and save both test results.

YOUR ACTIONDone when a new task appears in the next brief and a missing source produces a clear failure.

Your worksheet

# Brief contract
Source file: [absolute path to tasks.md]
Output file: [absolute path to brief.md]
Timezone: [your timezone]
Allowed action: write the brief only

| Task ID | Task | Owner | Deadline | Status |
| T01 | Review a proposal | [name] | [date] | open |
| T02 | Complete an overdue request | [name] | [past date] | open |
| T03 | Completed test task | [name] | [date] | done |
| T04 | New request | [name] | unknown | open |
| T05 | Next work step | [name] | [date] | open |

Acceptance: three priorities, each with a reason and task ID.
T03 must not be open. Do not invent a deadline for T04.
Missing source: report the error and stop.
Manual test: [date / result / change]
Next scheduled run checked: [timestamp]

STARTER

Make it concrete.

Read brief-contract.md and tasks.md in this test folder. Write brief.md with at most three open priorities. Include task ID, reason and source reference. Do not invent deadlines. Identify missing data. Do not execute tasks or send messages. Report the source files you read.

Download worksheet ↓

Sources and further reading

The AI Operator · M3.A.6, M3.E.4, M3.F.4

hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron/