Automate Everything with Cron

Think of it like setting an alarm clock on your phone—except instead of waking you up, Hermes Agent gets to work. You tell it in plain English, “check the server every two hours,” and it does exactly that, on time, every time, without you lifting a finger.

What Is a Cron Job, Really?

A cron job is simply a scheduled task. You tell Hermes when to do something (“in 30 minutes” or “every morning at 9 AM”), and it runs automatically. You can set it to fire once or loop forever. It’s like giving your AI assistant a built-in autopilot.

Two Ways to Create a Cron Job

Method 1: Just Say It in Chat

The easiest way is to type a command right in your conversation, like you’re asking a friend for a favor:

/cron add 30m "remind me to check the build"
/cron add "every 2h" "check server status"
/cron add "every 1h" "summarize new subscriptions" --skill blogwatcher

Method 2: Use the Terminal

Prefer the command line? No problem:

hermes cron create "every 2h" "check server status"
hermes cron create "every 1h" "summarize new subscriptions" --skill blogwatcher

What Can You Do with Cron Jobs?

• One-off or recurring: Set “remind me in 30 minutes” or “run every 2 hours”
• Attach skills: Add one or more skills, like “use the blog-watching skill to summarize new posts”
• Full control: Pause, resume, edit, trigger immediately, or delete any task
• Flexible output: Send results back to chat, save them to a file, or push them to another platform
• No-AI mode: Just want to run a script without AI involvement? Use “agentless mode”—it acts like a simple timer, executes the command, and gives you the output

Important: Which AI Model Runs Your Task?

There’s a clear priority order:

1. Model specified in the task itself (highest priority)
2. cron.model setting in your config (middle priority)
3. Global default model (lowest priority)

Key gotcha: If you don’t specify a model, Hermes takes a “snapshot” of the model you’re using when you create the task. If you later switch your global model, tasks without a specified model will automatically skip—they won’t secretly use a model you don’t want. This prevents surprise costs.

Things to Watch Out For

• No recursive creation: A running cron job can’t create new cron jobs. This prevents infinite loops.
• Use Portal for reliability: Set up Hermes with hermes setup --portal. This keeps your login fresh automatically, so tasks don’t fail due to expired sessions.

Summary & Practical Advice

Cron jobs are like cruise control for your AI assistant. Set them once, and they handle the repetitive work while you focus on bigger things.

Pro tip: Start small. Create a simple test task like “remind me to drink water every 30 minutes” to get comfortable. Once that’s running smoothly, add more complex ones—for example, “every morning at 8 AM, summarize last night’s news and email it to me.” This way, you build confidence without getting overwhelmed.