Hems

A Hem is a standing role on your one Hermes agent. It has a written brief and one to three scheduled check-ins, so it keeps an eye on a job for you at set times.

The Hems page

Open Hems from the sidebar, or from the menu on a phone, in simple mode or builder mode. You hire one of five roles there, and the page lists the Hems you've hired.

On a free account the page says "No active plan" and shows the five Hems for you to read. "Pick a plan" opens the plans page.

A new Hem runs its first check-in as soon as you hire it, so a first message can arrive right away.

The five Hems

Hem	What it does	What you give it	Check-ins	Default setting
Watcher	Tells you when a page, price or news feed changes.	A link to a public page, one that opens without signing in.	At 8:00, 13:00 and 18:00. You can pick Every hour, Daily at 8:00 or Mondays at 8:00 instead, but no other times.	Ask first
Research scout	Sends a weekly digest on your topic, with sources.	A topic. If OpenAlex is connected, you can add it.	Mondays at 8:00.	Acts on its own
Chief of staff	Plans your morning and wraps up your evening from your tasks.	A connected task app: Todoist, Notion, Linear or Asana.	Daily at 8:00 and at 18:00.	Ask first
Money keeper	Spots unpaid invoices and failed payments, then drafts reminders.	A connected payment app: Stripe or PayPal.	Daily at 8:00.	Ask first
Social manager	Drafts posts and checks whether your post queue is running low.	A connected Buffer app.	Mondays at 8:00 for drafts, and daily at 8:00 for the queue.	Ask first

Ask first or Acts on its own

During its check-ins, an "Ask first" Hem reads and prepares. The page puts it this way: "It reads and prepares, and won't send, post, pay or edit through your apps until you say yes." Your yes in chat or Telegram is a normal chat turn, and that's when your agent carries the action out.

An Ask first Hem can read web pages and files on your agent, and it can keep notes in its own notepad. It can't run other commands.

Apps are a special case. During a check-in, an Ask first Hem uses an app's action only if the app marks that action as read only, or MyHermes has checked it by hand. Plenty of apps don't say which of their actions only read. When an action isn't marked, the check-in stops there and the Hem tells you what it couldn't look at.

"Acts on its own" means "It can act inside its apps and tells you what it did." It's only as careful as its instructions and the model. Ordinary chat and ordinary scheduled tasks work as they always have.

Where it reports

Choose "Telegram" and its messages arrive there, when your bot is connected. Your reply is a normal chat turn.

Choose "This page" and the Hem's card shows a "Last report": a short excerpt of its latest message, ending in "…" when it's cut. For the full text, open that check-in's "See latest result" on the Scheduled page. With "This page" you also get "Reply", which opens a chat with a draft that quotes the excerpt. It never sends the draft for you.

Ask for a Hem in chat

Ask for an ongoing job in chat, for example "be my bookkeeper". Your agent agrees the details with you, reads the plan back, and waits for your yes before it makes the Hem. A Hem made this way is changed in chat, and its card says "Change this Hem in chat."

Pause, resume, edit or remove

"Pause" stops a Hem's check-ins, and "Resume" starts them again. "Edit" is there for Hems you hired from the page. If one watches a page or follows a topic, type the link or topic again: "Please type the page or topic again. The saved list does not include it."

"Remove" asks you to confirm, then deletes the Hem and its saved settings, and its check-ins stop. To get it back, you hire it again. If you only want a break, use "Pause". "Keep it" cancels the removal.

When you see a saved copy

Sometimes the page can't get the live list from your agent. It then shows a saved copy and says "Showing the saved copy. Live details and controls come back after your next chat or check-in." Press "Refresh". If it's still the saved copy, send a message in chat and press "Refresh" again.

Limits

A Hem can have at most 3 check-ins. Each check-in is its own scheduled task, and your plan's daily limit applies to each one separately. Scheduled tasks has the numbers. Hourly is the fastest check-in the page offers. When a check-in reads from a connected app, it uses that app's own allowance, the same as anything else your agent does there.

Your agent uses its own time zone for check-ins, so set its time zone before you pick times. The Scheduled page shows a Hem's check-ins with names such as "Hem: Watcher (check)". A second Watcher shows there as "Hem: Watcher 2 (check)".