About 3 minutes
Stage 1 — Know your computer
Find out which of the three computers you have.
Before you start
You can start here. Nothing needs to be done first.
You'll need
- Your laptop
- About 3 minutes
What you'll have at the end
You can say out loud which one you have: Mac (M1 and newer), Mac (Intel) or Windows.
Look at your laptop. Is there an Apple logo on the lid, or is it a Windows laptop from a brand like Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus or Acer?
On a Mac, click the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen, then click About This Mac.
A small window opens with the details of your machine.
What About This Mac looks like, with the line to read marked. Your Mac shows its own chip name and its own macOS version. The line to read is the one marked Chip.
Read the line that says Chip.
If it says Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4, you have a Mac (M1 and newer). If it says Processor Intel, you have a Mac (Intel).
On Windows, click Start, then Settings, then System, then About.
Any Windows laptop bought from 2020 onward is fine.
Windows Settings, then System, then About. If this is your screen, you are on Windows. The Mac steps above do not apply to you.
Write down which one you have. You will need it in Stage 7.
Frequently asked questions
Open the Apple menu, then About This Mac. A Mac with Apple chip shows Chip: Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4. An Intel Mac shows Processor: Intel Core followed by a number. If you still cannot tell, send Sean a photo of that window.
Message Sean on WhatsApp before you spend the evening on it. Stage 7 has an Intel section, and it may work, but you should know the risk before you start.
Use a Mac or a Windows laptop. The tablet is fine for the Telegram part, and you will need your phone there anyway.
Any Mac or Windows laptop with 8GB of memory works. The laptop only has to stay awake while your agent is answering. Everything heavy happens on the internet.
Set up on the laptop you will keep. If you change computers later, you do the whole guide again on the new one.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 15 minutes
Stage 2 — Get your ChatGPT Plus subscription
Pay for the brain your agent will use, before you install anything.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 1 is done.
You'll need
- Your laptop
- A bank card or e-wallet that works for online payments
- The email address you want to keep using
- About 10 minutes
What you'll have at the end
An active ChatGPT Plus subscription you can log into on the laptop, with device code authorization for Codex switched on in its settings.
On your laptop, open Safari, Chrome or Edge, and go to chatgpt.com.
Do this part on the laptop, not on your phone. On the laptop it is quick. On the phone you will be fighting that keyboard all afternoon.
Click Log in, and log in with the email address you will keep using for your agent work.
Click your account name in the bottom left corner, then click Upgrade plan. If you see the words Upgrade to Plus on the page, click that instead.
Choose Plus. Read the price on the screen before you pay.
The price on the screen, in ringgit. Read yours before you pay. Prices change. Check the number on your own screen before you confirm anything.
Enter your card details and confirm the payment.
Wait until the page shows that your plan is Plus.
If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus, skip the payment. Log in on the laptop with the same account you use on your phone and check that it says Plus.
Stay in the same browser tab, and click the button below to open your ChatGPT settings.
The same screen is Settings, then Security and login, in the left column of the ChatGPT sidebar. Either route lands in the same place.
Frequently asked questions
A subscription bought inside the phone app belongs to the Apple or Google account that paid for it. It does not belong to the email address you use on the laptop. Log in on chatgpt.com with the same account you used on the phone. If it still says Free, check which email your phone app is signed into, under Settings, then Account, and log in on the laptop with that one. Last resort: subscribe on the laptop and cancel the phone one.
Yes. Log in to ChatGPT, open your account, go to Settings, then Account, and cancel there. You keep Plus until the end of the month you already paid for. There is no annual plan and no lock-in.
Open your banking app, look for online or overseas transaction settings, and switch them on. If that does not work, use another card. Malaysian banks block this charge often enough that it is worth checking the setting first.
Pro is a bigger plan with much higher usage limits and a much higher price. Choose Plus. It includes Codex access, which is the part Hermes uses. Pro is for people who run heavy workloads all day. You can upgrade later if you ever need to.
This guide uses ChatGPT Plus because that is the route we teach, support and troubleshoot. Other providers can be connected to Hermes, and that is a conversation for the workshop, not for tonight.
Open chatgpt.com, then Settings, then Security and login, then scroll down to the section headed Advanced security. The switch is at the bottom of that section, named Enable device code authorization for Codex. If your page has no such switch, check that you are signed in with the same account you paid for Plus with.
ChatGPT Plus costs MYR 99.90 a month, as shown on OpenAI's own pricing page in Malaysia. OpenAI bills you every month, not AutoRunBiz. We never see your card and we cannot cancel it for you. You cancel it yourself inside ChatGPT, under Settings, then Account. The workshop fee does not include this subscription. If your card is billed in US dollars, your bank adds its own conversion on top of that price.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 15 minutes
Stage 3 — Install Telegram on your phone, then your laptop
Get Telegram onto both machines, with your phone doing the signing in.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 1 is done.
You'll need
- Your phone, with the app store on it
- Your laptop
- About 15 minutes
What you'll have at the end
Your own chats open on the laptop, with the last message you sent from the phone in them.
On your phone, open the app store. On an iPhone it is the App Store. On an Android phone it is Google Play.
Search for Telegram Messenger. Check the maker: it is Telegram FZ-LLC. Anything else in that list is not it.
Telegram in the App Store. The maker is Telegram FZ-LLC. On Android the store looks different. Look for the same name and the same maker.
Install it, open it, and sign in with your phone number.
Telegram sends you a code by SMS. Type that code into the app. Telegram never asks you to pay, and neither do we.
Set a username if Telegram asks for one.
Your username is the @name other people see, like @ahmad_kedai. It is not the bot username you will make in the next stage. This one is you.
Now pick up the laptop and open a browser. Go to desktop.telegram.org.
On a Mac you can also install Telegram from the Mac App Store. This page works for both Mac and Windows. The laptop copy matters. Your bot token is long, and with Telegram on both machines you copy it and paste it on the same screen.
The Telegram Desktop page. Choose the version for your computer. Install it the same way you install any app, then open it on the laptop.
A large square code fills the window. That is a QR code, and it is waiting for your phone.
The laptop waits with a QR code until your phone recognises it. Telegram's own text on this screen says: Go to Settings, then Devices, then Add Device.
Pick up your phone. Open Telegram, then Settings, then Devices.
On some phones Devices sits inside Settings, then Privacy and Security. If your phone says something slightly different, look for the word Devices.
Choose the button that adds this device. It says Add Device in the current version, and Link Desktop Device in some others.
Some phones call it Link Desktop Device, and some show only Add Device. It is the same button, and it is the one that opens your camera.
Point your phone at the code on the laptop screen.
The camera reads the code and the laptop fills with your chats. If the code stops working, close the Telegram window on the laptop and open it again for a fresh one.
Put the phone down and look at the laptop. Your chats are there, and your last message from the phone is at the bottom.
Keep Telegram on both machines. You will create your bot on the phone in the next stage, and you will read its replies there at the end.
Frequently asked questions
No. Your bot answers you on the phone, and that is where you will use it. The laptop version is worth the ten minutes because it has a keyboard. Typing a token on a phone screen is the slowest part of this whole guide.
Yes. Telegram sends a code to that number by SMS, and that code is how it knows the account is yours. Sean will never ask you for that code. Nobody from any workshop will. If someone does, close the chat.
The code does not last long, and that is a safety feature. Close the Telegram window on the laptop and open it again to get a fresh code. Then point the phone at the new one. Do this with the phone already on the Devices screen, so you are not racing it.
Then start at step three and skip the phone. Your account, your chats and your groups all stay exactly as they are. This stage only adds the laptop.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 10 minutes
Stage 4 — Create your agent bot
Ask Telegram for two things: the username of your bot, and the long key called a token that lets your agent use it.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 3 is done.
You'll need
- Your phone or your laptop, with Telegram on it
- Somewhere to keep three lines: the phone Notes app, or a text file on the laptop
- Your phone beside you, in case Telegram on the laptop asks you to log in
- About 10 minutes
What you'll have at the end
Three lines saved in your phone notes: the bot name, the username, and the token.
Open Telegram — either on your phone or on your laptop.
Both work, and the screens are the same. On the laptop it is easier to finish: you can copy each line straight into your notes file instead of retyping it. If you use the laptop, open the Telegram app, or web.telegram.org in your browser.
Tap the search bar at the very top of the screen and type BotFather.
You are searching inside Telegram itself. Do not search in a browser.
Search inside Telegram, and read the name before you tap it. The list holds lookalikes with similar names. The real one has the exact name and the blue tick.
Tap the result named BotFather that has the blue verified tick.
There are fake ones. Look for the exact name BotFather and the blue tick. If the bot asks for money, a phone number or a password, it is not the real one. Close it.
BotFather
What can I do for you?
BotFather answers in the same chat window, like a person would. Tap START at the bottom of the chat.
Nothing happens until you tap START. A Telegram bot cannot message you first.
Type /newbot and send it.
/newbot
Alright, a new bot. How are we going to call it? Please choose a name for your bot.
Ask for a new bot in your own words, using the command. BotFather asks for a name. Type the name you want your agent to have, and send it.
A friendly name, in your own language if you like. The name can be changed later, so do not overthink it. Pick something that sounds like a colleague.
BotFather asks for a username. Type one that ends with the word bot, and send it.
The username cannot be changed later, so write it down before you send it. Small letters are easier to type again. If BotFather says it is taken, add a number and try again.
The same step on Telegram's web version: name, username, then Create Bot. On the phone, BotFather asks the same three things one message at a time.
BotFather replies with your token. Tap the token text and choose Copy, or tap the Copy button if you see one.
A token is a long password for your bot. It looks like a long line of letters and numbers with a colon in the middle. The example above only shows the shape. Yours is different, and it is the real one.
The token, with the real one covered by us. Copy and Revoke sit right below it. Yours arrives in the same place: one long line of letters and numbers with a colon in the middle.
Save three lines — the bot name, the username ending in bot, and the token — in your phone notes, or in a text file on the laptop.
For example: bot name, bot username, bot token. If Telegram is open on the laptop, copy each line and paste it straight into the file. You will paste the token into Hermes in Stage 9.
Keep that note, or that file, open. You will add two more lines to it before you install anything.
The username and the token are two of the three things Hermes will ask you for.
Frequently asked questions
Open Telegram and use the search bar at the top of the app. BotFather is a Telegram account, not a website.
Scroll up in that chat and look for a START button. Tap it, then send your message again.
Typing the search words by hand brings up lookalike accounts, and some of them are run by strangers. Close the chat, go back to search, and type BotFather carefully. Open the one with the blue tick and the exact spelling. Anything selling you something is not it.
If you cannot see a menu, type /newbot and send it. The command works even when the buttons do not appear.
Add a number to the end, before the word bot. For example, suri_master2_bot. Send it and BotFather tells you straight away whether it is free.
Scroll up in the BotFather chat to find it. If you cannot find it, type /mybots in the same chat, choose your bot, and you can read the token again.
Small letters are easier to type later, and Telegram treats them the same. Choose all small letters and move on.
Go to BotFather, type /revoke, and make a new token for the bot whose token leaked. Save the new one in your notes. Then tell your agent the new token is safe to store. The agent was right, and nothing is broken.
Open the Telegram settings in Hermes and put the token from your notes back. A token does not change unless you press Revoke in BotFather.
Your token is a key, not a password to memorise. Anyone who has it can use your bot. Never paste it into a group chat, a WhatsApp message, or a screenshot you send to anyone, including us. If you did paste it somewhere, open BotFather, type /revoke, and make a new token. Keep it in your notes and bring it to the workshop.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 5 minutes
Stage 5 — Find your own Telegram user ID
Get the number that tells your bot whose messages to answer.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 3 is done.
You'll need
- Your phone, with Telegram open
- Your notes: the phone app, or the text file on the laptop
- About 5 minutes
What you'll have at the end
A number of 8 to 10 digits, saved in your notes.
In Telegram, tap the search bar at the top and type userinfobot.
Careful with the spelling. A typo opens a different bot, and there are a few with similar names.
Open the one spelled exactly @userinfobot.
It answers with information about you. That is its whole job, and it is a safe one to use.
Tap START at the bottom of the chat.
As with BotFather, nothing comes back until you tap START.
It replies with a line beginning Id: followed by a number.
The number is 8 to 10 digits long, with nothing else in it. That is your Telegram identity, the equivalent of your phone number on Telegram.
What @userinfobot sends back. The number you want is the one after Id. The black bar covers a real person's number. Yours sits in the same place, and it is 8 to 10 digits.
Copy the digits only. Nothing in front of them and nothing behind them.
Save the number in your notes under the heading my Telegram ID.
This number is what stops strangers talking to your agent. In Stage 9 you paste it into Hermes, and from then on your bot answers you and nobody else.
Frequently asked questions
Close that chat, search again, and open the account whose username is exactly @userinfobot. If a bot asks you to pay, to log in somewhere, or to send a code, leave it. That one is not it.
Scroll to the top of that chat and tap START. Then wait a few seconds.
The bot reports several lines about your account. You want the line that begins with Id. It is the only long number in the message. Copy those digits only.
Paste it into your notes, delete everything except the digits, and check it has no letters or symbols. Anything from 8 to 10 digits is right.
Two different things, and they are close enough to mix up. A bot username has letters and ends in bot, like @yourname_bot. Your user ID is digits only, 8 to 10 of them, with no @ and no letters.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 5 minutes
Stage 6 — Save your three things in one note
Put the username, the token and your Telegram ID in one place you can reach from both machines.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stages 4 and 5 are done.
You'll need
- Your laptop, so the three lines can live in a text file on it
- Your note with the three lines, on the phone or on the laptop
- About 5 minutes
What you'll have at the end
Three labelled lines in one note, and the same three lines in a text file on the laptop.
Open your notes app on the phone and start a new note. Give it a title you will recognise: my AI agent.
On an iPhone that is the Notes app. On an Android phone you can use Keep, or whatever notes app you already use.
Type the first line: bot username, then the username from Stage 4 that ends in bot.
This is the one people lose. It is the only thing you need in order to find your bot again.
Type the second line: bot token, then the long key from Stage 4.
Copy and paste it if you can. If you must type it, type slowly. One wrong character stops the whole thing, and the error will not tell you where the mistake is.
Type the third line: my Telegram ID, then the number from Stage 5.
Digits only. No spaces, no plus sign, no country code.
Read the three lines back and check each one against the original messages in Telegram.
This is the thirty seconds that saves the evening. A note with a typo in it is worse than no note, because you will trust it.
Send that note to yourself so it exists on the laptop as well.
In Telegram, open your own Saved Messages and paste the three lines in. You can send a message to yourself in Telegram, and only you can see it.
Check the laptop can see it. Open Telegram on the laptop and look in Saved Messages.
This is also the first proof that your two machines are properly linked.
Three lines, three labels. That is the whole stage. On the laptop, put the same three lines in a text file and keep that file open while you install.
On Windows, click Start, type Notepad and open it. On a Mac, open TextEdit and choose Format, then Make Plain Text. Paste the three lines in, save the file on your Desktop as my-agent-details.txt, and leave it open — the token and your Telegram ID get copied out of this file, not out of Telegram.
Frequently asked questions
Nothing is lost for good. The username and the token both come from BotFather: open that chat, type /mybots, choose your bot, and it shows you the token again. Your Telegram ID comes from @userinfobot in one tap. It costs you five minutes, not the evening.
Not the token. A photo of your phone screen in a group chat is the one way this ends badly, because a token is a key to your bot. Saved Messages in Telegram is better: it is yours alone, and it is on both machines.
The token, in the sense that it acts like one. Treat it the way you treat your online banking password: do not paste it into a group chat, and do not send it to anyone. If it ever leaks, go to BotFather, type /revoke, and you get a new one instantly.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 20 minutes
Stage 7 — Install Hermes on your laptop
Get Hermes onto the laptop and open it for the first time.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stages 2 and 6 are done.
You'll need
- Your laptop, with the internet on
- The answer from Stage 1
- Your three lines — the note, or the text file — open beside you
- About 20 minutes, most of it waiting
What you'll have at the end
The words HERMES IS READY on your screen.
Which computer are you on?
You have an Apple Silicon Mac. This is the route we can support fastest, and the one in these screenshots.
Open Safari or Chrome on your Mac and go to hermes-agent.nousresearch.com.
Only download Hermes from this address. If you found a download link in a Facebook post, a group chat or an ad, close it and use this one.
The official Hermes page. The button says macOS on a Mac. Click the download button. On a Mac it says macOS or Apple Silicon.
When the download finishes, open Finder from the icon in the Dock, then click Downloads in the left sidebar.
You are looking for a file called Install Hermes. Double-click it.
The Install Hermes app in your Downloads folder You are looking for one file named Install Hermes. Double-click it, and the question in the next step appears.
A small box will appear saying that Install Hermes is an app downloaded from the internet, and asking if you want to open it.
This is normal. It appears for every new app on a Mac, including apps made by Apple. Click Open.
The macOS security question The box says, word for word: "Hermes" is an app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it? Your two choices are Cancel and Open. Click Open.
The installer window opens with a list of jobs to run. Leave it alone and let it work.
You will count ten steps in that list. The counter at the top of the window counts its own jobs and can read one more than the list below it. The names sound technical. They are all automatic. Do not close the window.
The installer checklist before it starts The list reads: download Hermes Agent, create a Python virtual environment, install Python dependencies, install browser-tool dependencies, install the hermes command, prepare config and skills, configure API keys and settings, configure the gateway service, build desktop app, finish install. Ten lines, and every one runs by itself. You do not need to understand any of them.
Watch the line that says Build desktop app. The bar will sit still there for several minutes.
This is the longest wait on the whole page. It is not frozen. One student watched it sit at 57 per cent for eight minutes in the last class, and it finished.
When the window says HERMES IS READY, click Launch Hermes.
This is the screen Stage 7 is for.
If anything here does not match your screen, stop and send Sean a photo. Guessing is what costs the evening.
Frequently asked questions
Click the Install Hermes icon in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. The box will come to the front. Then click Open.
Click the Finder icon in the Dock, then look for Downloads in the left sidebar. The file is usually first in the list.
Look at the top right of the Safari window for the download arrow, or open Finder and check Downloads. If there is no file at all, go back to the same address and click the button again.
Check your Wi-Fi is on, open Downloads, and run Install Hermes again. It starts from the beginning and that is fine. Nothing is broken.
Anything from 8 to 10 digits is a real Telegram ID, and older accounts have shorter ones. What matters is that your number is copied exactly as the bot sent it, with nothing added and nothing left out.
Your Mac is Intel, which is older hardware. Hermes runs best on Apple Silicon, so this route uses the terminal, and it may not finish on a very old machine. Message Sean before you start if you would rather have help with it.
Only open this if About This Mac says Intel
A terminal is a black or white window where you type a command instead of clicking a button. It looks like something for experts. You will only paste one line into it, and we give you that line to copy. Nothing else in this guide needs a terminal.
Intel Macs are the one group where this cannot be promised to work. Ask Sean before you start.
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bashCopy the whole line, paste it into the terminal window, and press Enter.
Open your Downloads folder in Finder and delete anything called Install Hermes.
The installer app is built for Apple Silicon. On an Intel Mac it cannot run.
Press Command and Space on your keyboard at the same time, type Terminal, and press Enter.
A window appears with white or black background and a line of text. This is the terminal. It is a text version of an app.
In that window, type hermes --version and press Enter.
This checks whether Hermes is already on the machine. Most of the time it is not, and you will see an error. That error is expected.
Paste it into the terminal window and press Enter.
The text moves and prints a lot of lines. That is the installer working. Leave it alone until the lines stop.
If the terminal asks for your password, type your Mac login password and press Enter.
Nothing appears on screen while you type. That is normal on a Mac. Keep typing and press Enter.
When the lines stop and you see the word done, type hermes desktop and press Enter.
Hermes opens. From here, Stage 8 is the same as any other computer.
Intel Macs are the one group where we cannot promise this works. Ask Sean before you start.
Frequently asked questions
Close the terminal window, open a new one the same way, and type hermes --version again. If it still says command not found, send Sean a photo of the last ten lines on screen.
Send Sean a photo of the error. If Hermes cannot run on this Mac, the honest options are a newer laptop or borrowing one for the workshop. Do not spend a whole evening on it.
The bot reports several lines about your account. Command and C to copy, Command and V to paste. If the text does not appear, press Enter anyway. The command does not show until it runs.
Any Windows laptop bought from 2020 onward works. Two screens will look alarming and both are normal. They are explained before you reach them.
Open Microsoft Edge. It is already on every Windows laptop: the blue and green swirl icon in the row along the bottom of the screen.
Click in the long white bar at the very top of the window, type hermes-agent.nousresearch.com, and press Enter.
That bar is the address bar. Type the address exactly as it is written here. Only download Hermes from this address, never from a social media post or an advertisement.
Click the download button. On Windows it says Download for Windows.
The official Hermes page on a Windows laptop. Open File Explorer. It is the yellow folder icon in the row along the bottom of the screen.
Click Downloads in the left sidebar. Then double-click Hermes-Setup.exe: two quick clicks with the left button, one after the other. That is the file the download button gives you. If you cannot see it, it is further up or down the list: the newest file is the one you want.
What the screen looks like: Downloads, newest file at the top. A blue box may appear in the middle of the screen, saying Windows protected your PC.
This is normal. It appears for every new app from the internet, including apps from large companies. Nothing has gone wrong and nothing on your laptop is infected.
What the screen looks like: the warning, with More info on it. Click More info, then click Run anyway.
Only do this because you downloaded Hermes from the address in the first step. Run anyway does not appear until you click More info.
What the screen looks like: after More info, Run anyway appears. Click Next on each screen of the installer. Do not change any of the choices.
If Windows asks whether you want to allow the app to make changes, click Yes.
This question appears because installing an app changes your computer. It is Windows asking permission, once, for this install.
What the screen looks like: the permission question. Wait for the installer to finish. It runs a long list of jobs by itself, and the slowest one can sit still for several minutes.
Leave the laptop alone during this. Do not close the installer window.
What the screen looks like while it works. When it says Hermes is ready, click the button to open Hermes.
Do not run the installer on a work laptop without checking with your IT department first.
Frequently asked questions
Open your antivirus app and look at its protection history or quarantine list. If a Hermes or Python file is there, choose restore and allow it. Then download Hermes again from the same address and run it. If the antivirus blocks it twice, send Sean a photo of the antivirus message.
Leave it alone and check your Wi-Fi is still connected. On the Mac route the same stage sat still for eight minutes and then finished. Only close it if the bar has not moved for more than half an hour.
The bot reports several lines about your account. Press the Windows key, type Downloads, and press Enter. The file is at the top of that list.
Find the Hermes file in Downloads and run it again. When Windows asks, click Yes. Nothing is broken.
You will need three things during the install: your Wi-Fi on, the laptop plugged in if you can, and twenty minutes without clicking anything else. None of them are secrets you type anywhere.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 10 minutes
Stage 8 — Connect your ChatGPT subscription to Hermes
Give Hermes a brain, using the subscription you bought in Stage 2.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 7 is done.
You'll need
- Hermes open on your laptop
- The ChatGPT account details from Stage 2
- Your phone, in case OpenAI asks to confirm it is you
- About 10 minutes
What you'll have at the end
The words CHATGPT OR CODEX SUBSCRIPTION CONNECTED, one model chosen, and Gateway ready in the bottom left corner.
Hermes opens on a welcome screen and asks you to connect a model provider.
Hermes cannot chat yet. The software is installed and running, but it has no brain. This stage gives it one. Provider is the word Hermes uses for the company that supplies the brain. Yours is OpenAI, the same account you paid for in Stage 2.
The provider screen. This is where the clicks happen for this stage. Click ChatGPT or Codex Subscription.
If you cannot see it, click Other providers to open the full list. It is the same option, further down.
The full provider list. ChatGPT or Codex Subscription is the one to click. Hermes says Starting sign-in for ChatGPT or Codex Subscription.
This screen is Hermes waiting, not doing nothing. Leave Hermes open for the whole of this stage. The clicks happen in the browser. Hermes then shows a short code, with a Copy code button beside it and a timer counting down.
Hermes waiting at the sign-in step. A new tab opens in your browser and asks for that code. Type it in, or click Copy code in Hermes and paste it.
The page is auth.openai.com/codex/device. If the tab does not open, type that address into your browser yourself. The code is short and it expires after a few minutes — if it runs out, click the sign-in option in Hermes again for a fresh one. Never send this code to anyone: it signs in as you. If the page will not accept it, check that the switch you turned on in Stage 2 is really on.
Your browser opens a page at auth.openai.com that asks which account to continue with. Click the account with your Plus subscription on it.
The ChatGPT account chooser
Hermes sends you to a page that asks which account to use. Pick your own account, and keep the email address to yourself.
The next page asks you to allow Codex access. Click Continue.
The Codex authorisation screen
The button to click is Continue. When it is done, the page tells you that you can close it.
The browser now says Signed in to Codex, and tells you that you may close the page.
Close the browser tab, or leave it. Either way, go back to the Hermes window.
The browser side, finished. Now go back to Hermes. In Hermes, wait for the words CHATGPT OR CODEX SUBSCRIPTION CONNECTED.
That is your subscription doing the work. The agent is not a chatbot service of its own.
Connected. The subscription you paid for is now the engine. Click the model name to open the Switch model list.
The model picker. This is where you choose what the agent thinks with. Choose GPT-5.6 Luna. If there is a second one with 900k after the name, that is not the one.
Model names on this screen change over time. If you do not see this exact name, pick the closest one with Luna in it, and ask on WhatsApp.
Click BEGIN.
The last click of this stage. Hermes opens its workspace. Look at the bottom left corner of the window.
The words Gateway ready mean the engine is running and waiting for an instruction. If it says something else, close Hermes completely and open it again.
The Hermes workspace with Gateway ready Look for Gateway ready in the bottom left corner.
Frequently asked questions
Open Hermes again, go back to the provider screen, and click ChatGPT or Codex Subscription. Nothing is broken and nothing was charged. Start the stage again from the top.
Click Other providers to open the full list, then choose ChatGPT or Codex Subscription.
Look for the tab that says Signed in to Codex. If it is there, click on the Hermes window and wait a few seconds. If nothing moves after a minute, click the sign-in option in Hermes again and repeat the browser part.
In the browser, open the account menu at openai.com and sign out. Then in Hermes, choose ChatGPT or Codex Subscription again and pick the account with the Plus plan on it.
Look in the Hermes window: it shows a short code with a Copy code button beside it. Click that button, then paste the code on the page in your browser. The code expires after a few minutes, so if it stops working, click the sign-in option in Hermes again for a fresh one.
Pick the one called GPT-5.6 Luna. If a name ends in 900k, it is not the one on this page. Model names on that screen change over time. If you do not see this exact name, pick the closest one with Luna in it, and ask on WhatsApp.
Open the model picker again from the workspace. The model with a tick beside it is the one in use. Change it to GPT-5.6 Luna if it is anything else.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 10 minutes
Stage 9 — Connect Telegram to Hermes
Hand Hermes the token and your ID, and turn the messaging gateway on.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stages 6 and 8 are done.
You'll need
- Hermes open on your laptop
- Your notes with your bot token and your Telegram ID
- About 10 minutes
What you'll have at the end
The Telegram line in Hermes reads Connected.
In Hermes, open the messaging settings, then click Telegram.
Telegram sits in a long list of messaging platforms with names you will not recognise. Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Mattermost and many more. You are only touching Telegram tonight.
The Telegram panel, switched off, before you paste anything. Paste the bot token into the bot token box.
Paste it from your notes. Do not type it. A token is long, and one wrong character stops the whole thing.
Paste your Telegram user ID into the allowed user IDs box.
Digits only, from Stage 5. This is the field that keeps strangers out. Without it, anyone who finds your bot can talk to your agent.
Click Save changes.
Hermes replies: Saved. Restart the messaging gateway so the new settings take effect.
This message alarms people, and it should not. It means your settings are safe and waiting for one more click.
Click Restart now.
If you cannot find Restart now, open the system panel from the bottom left corner of Hermes and choose Restart Gateway there.
The saved message and the Restart now button Your panel reads Saved, with Restart now beside it. The black bar covers a bot token and user ID that belong to the computer this was captured on.
If you prefer the terminal, or Restart now does not work, type hermes gateway restart in Terminal and press Enter.
Both routes do the same thing. Terminal on a Mac and PowerShell on Windows are the black windows where you type commands by hand. You will not need this if Restart now is there.
The terminal fallback for restarting the gateway The same command, typed by hand when Restart now is missing.
Look at the Telegram line in Hermes again. It reads Connected, with the gateway running.
Telegram reading Connected Your panel reads Connected, and the bottom left corner no longer says the gateway is stopped. The black bar covers a bot token and user ID that belong to the computer this was captured on.
Frequently asked questions
Nothing is broken. The gateway is the part of Hermes that talks to Telegram, and it needs a restart after settings change. Click Restart now, or run hermes gateway restart in Terminal. The words messaging gateway stopped are expected at this exact point, and everyone sees them.
No. Click Restart now in Hermes. You never need to restart the laptop for this. If Restart now is missing, quit Hermes completely and open it again.
Delete what you put in the allowed user IDs box, then paste the number from Stage 5. Your username, the one ending in bot, belongs in a different place, and the ID field wants digits only.
That is correct behaviour and it means your token is in there. If Telegram says the token is invalid after saving, delete the field, paste the token again from your notes, and save.
Open the Telegram panel, check both fields still have something in them, then restart the gateway once more. If it is still off, send Sean a photo of the panel with the token field covered.
Go to Stage 10, which walks through the three things that stop a first reply, in order.
Never photograph or screenshot this panel for anyone. It holds your token, and a token in a group chat is a bot that strangers can use. If you want help from us, cover the two fields or read the ID out loud instead.
✅ Checkpoint
Tick the checkpoint to unlock the next stage.
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
About 3 minutes
Stage 10 — Prove it works
Send one message and get one reply, from your own bot, on your own phone.
Before you start
You can only do this once Stage 9 is done.
You'll need
- Telegram on your phone
- Hermes open on your laptop, and the laptop awake
- Your notes with your bot username
- About 3 minutes
What you'll have at the end
A reply from your own bot, in Telegram. That reply is the whole point of today.
In Telegram on your phone, tap the search bar and type the username of your agent bot.
The one you saved in Stage 4. It ends in bot.
Open that chat and tap START at the bottom.
A bot cannot send you a message until you have started the chat. Skipping this is the most common reason nothing happens.
Type /new and send it. When Telegram asks you to confirm, tap Always Approve.
Slash new is the first of three commands. Each one is a separate message: type it, send it, and wait for the reply before the next. All three go in the message box at the bottom of this chat. That screen is normal, and Always Approve stops it asking again.
Your bot answers the first command. Three of these, then it is done. The chat name is covered in this screenshot. Yours shows the bot you named in Stage 4.
Type /sethome and send it.
This tells your agent that this chat is its home, the one place it always answers. Same chat, same message box.
Type hi and send it.
Anything works here. Hi is enough. That is the third and last command.
Wait. The first reply can take up to a minute.
You may see it typing, checking things and thinking out loud before it answers. That is the agent working, not a fault. Watching it work is normal.
The bot replies. That is the end of this guide. You have a working agent.
Keep that chat. Screenshot the conversation and keep it. It is the proof that tonight worked, and it is also what we ask for at the workshop.
Frequently asked questions
One: did you tap START in the bot chat. Two: is Hermes still open on the laptop, and is the laptop awake and on Wi-Fi. Three: does the Telegram line in Hermes still read Connected. If all three are fine and it is still silent, wait two minutes and send one more message. Then WhatsApp Sean with a photo of your screen.
Go back to your notes and type the username from your notes character by character. Delete the wrong chat from Telegram if you want to keep things tidy.
The agent runs on your laptop, not in the sky. When the laptop sleeps, the agent cannot hear you. Open the laptop and wait for Hermes to come back. Your screen may go to sleep on its own, and that is fine. The laptop itself has to stay awake and connected while you want your agent to answer.
A laptop running all night costs a few ringgit a month in electricity. The expensive version of all this is the kind that runs inside your own computer, and that needs a far more costly machine. Yours runs on OpenAI instead, which is the ChatGPT Plus you already pay for.
That is Day 2 work. Your bot has to be made an admin of the group, and one privacy setting inside BotFather has to be turned off. The guide stops at private replies on purpose. Nothing is wrong with your setup.
Read the first line to see what it is about to do. If it is heading the wrong way, tell it to stop and say what you actually want. You will always be able to interrupt it.
Ask it what it would need in order to do the job. Telling it what you want, and why, gets further than repeating the same instruction. Day 2 is where we install skills that fix most of this.
Slash new starts a new session. Slash sethome tells your agent that this chat is its home, the one place it always answers. You send them once, and they are set.
Stop when you see the reply. That reply is the finish line. Bring it to the workshop. Do not set anything else up tonight.
✅ Checkpoint
Stuck? WhatsApp Sean at 010-931 8689 with a photo of your screen.
You have a working agent. Now use it.
This guide stopped at one thing, on purpose: your own bot, answering you. Everything past this point, skills, scheduled jobs, and the way you brief an agent properly, is workshop work.
If a stage did not work, message Sean on WhatsApp with a photo of your screen. Do not start the whole guide again. One screen usually says exactly which stage you are on.
See what to do with it
The free preview shows what a working agent actually does in a small business. What to point it at, how to brief it, and what to ignore. It is a session, not a sales video, and there is no obligation after it.
Watch the free previewAlready registered for the workshop? You're done — bring your laptop and your bot username.