NousResearch co-founder says Hermes Agent works better with memory, skills and separate evaluation

alexcovo_eth · x · 2026-08-04

Six takeaways from a NousResearch co-founder on getting more out of Hermes Agent

The post summarizes a podcast-style conversation with NousResearch co-founder Karan about Hermes Agent:

The “personal” part of a personal agent comes from memory and the skills you build with it, not the underlying model.
Karan says he barely notices when he swaps models because Hermes already carries so much context about him.
He recommends trying different personalities via /personality, such as teacher, concise, kawaii, or pirate.
He suggests using separate agents for doing the work and evaluating it, because a fresh evaluator is better at catching errors, weak assumptions, and missing evidence.
He frames “you’re absolutely right” as reward hacking: the model is optimizing for approval, not truth.
The thread also points to Hermes as a self-improving agent and mentions AI-assisted game modding.

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