Set a Clear Goal in Hermes Agent and Let It Keep Working

Hermes Agent can keep working toward one standing objective without you typing "continue" after every reply, according to the official Hermes Agent goals documentation. You write what finished looks like. After each turn, a judge checks the agent's latest reply and decides whether the goal is met, the documentation says. If work remains, Hermes carries on in the same chat until the goal is achieved, you pause or clear it, or the turn budget runs out.

What a goal does

A goal is a standing instruction attached to one chat, as the goals page describes it. A turn is one round of work by the agent, ending in a reply. The goals page says Hermes saves the goal with the conversation, along with its state: active, paused or done. If you close the app and later reopen that chat, the documentation says the goal is still there exactly as you left it.

A goal lives inside its own conversation, according to the documentation. Setting, pausing, resuming or clearing a goal leaves the Kanban board (the Hermes task board) untouched. If you want a task on the board, the documentation says you add the card yourself.

The goals page recommends a goal for jobs where you would otherwise say "keep going" several times. A job that finishes in one turn works fine as a normal message.

Where it works

The documentation says the classic terminal chat, the desktop app, the dashboard chat and the messaging apps all share one goal command. The same page says ACP, the connection some code editors use to talk to Hermes, currently offers no goal command. Check that the goal command appears in your own chat before you start.

What it costs

The goals documentation lists no separate price for goals. Each continuation turn uses your normal model plan, the same as any message you send yourself, according to the page.

On top of that, the judge runs once per turn. The documentation describes each judge call as small, about 200 output tokens. Tokens are the small pieces of text a model reads and writes, and they are what model providers bill for. By default the judge uses your main model, the documentation says, and you can point it at a cheaper, faster model in the auxiliary model settings.

Before you start

Pick a safe practice task. The goals page uses a simple example: create four small note files, one per turn, each holding its own number. Keep the work inside a folder you created for practice.

Write down what success means first. The documentation describes an optional completion contract with five parts:

• Outcome: the end state that must be true.
• Verification: the test or file that proves it.
• Constraints: what must stay unchanged.
• Boundaries: which folders or tools the agent may touch.
• Stop when: the moment Hermes should halt and ask you.

According to the documentation, a contract makes the judge stricter. It marks the goal done only when it sees concrete proof, such as a file or a test result.

Step by step: set a goal you can check

Step 1. Write your contract in plain words. For the practice task, the outcome is four numbered note files in your practice folder. Verification is that you can open each file and read its number. The boundary is that folder. Hermes should stop and ask if it would need to leave the folder.

Step 2. Set the goal. In the chat, type the goal command followed by your objective. The documentation says the first turn starts straight away, so you need no extra message.

Step 3. For help with the contract, use the draft option of the goal command. The documentation says Hermes then expands your one line into a full contract, shows it to you, sets the goal and starts the first turn. If drafting is unavailable, the page says Hermes sets a plain goal and starts anyway.

Step 4. Watch the first cycle. The documentation says the goal starts with a budget of 20 turns. After each turn the judge gives one of four answers: done, continue, blocked or wait. A continue message shows the judge's reason and how many turns are used, according to the goals page.

Step 5. Check progress. The show option prints the current contract, and the status option prints the goal, its state and the turns used, the documentation says. Both leave the goal as it is. If the agent is busy, the status, pause and clear options let the current turn finish, according to the page.

Step 6. Pause when you want to look at the files. The documentation says pause keeps the goal and stops the automatic turns. Resume restarts the loop with a fresh count of turns. Clear removes the goal completely.

Step 7. Talk to the agent whenever you like. According to the documentation, any message you send goes ahead of the next automatic turn, and the judge checks again after your reply.

Step 8. Compare the folder with your success rules yourself. The judge reads only the agent's last reply, according to the documentation, so your own check is the final word. If the judge says done too early, the page suggests a follow-up message or a more precise goal. If it keeps going after the work is done, the page says the turn budget catches it. The reason line on each judge message shows what the judge saw, according to the documentation.

Quality gates for a firmer finish

A quality gate is a check command on your own machine that must succeed before Hermes can call a goal done, according to the goals documentation. You add one with the gate option of the goal command. Add only a check you have read and trust.

The documentation says gates run before the judge at the end of every turn. When a gate fails, its result becomes the agent's next instruction, so the agent works on the real problem. Hermes reruns a failed gate on fresh files after every turn, the page says. Each gate gets three retries and five minutes to run by default, and after the last retry the goal pauses so you can step in, according to the documentation.

On messaging apps, the documentation says only a configured gateway admin can add a gate. Everyone can still list, remove and clear gates there.

Extras once the basics feel familiar

The subgoal command adds one more success rule to a running goal without restarting it, according to the documentation. The wait option holds the loop while a long background job runs, such as a build, and the judge can also choose to wait on its own, the page says.

Limits to keep in view

The default budget is 20 continuation turns, and the documentation says Hermes pauses when it is used up and tells you how to resume or clear. If the judge itself hits an error, the page says Hermes keeps working, and the turn budget remains the backstop. A goal the agent explains is impossible, or that needs your input, is marked blocked and paused, according to the documentation.

Quick answers

Does a goal add a card to the Kanban board? The documentation says the goal stays in its own chat, and you add board cards yourself.

Does pause stop the turn in progress? The documentation says the current turn finishes, and pause stops the automatic turns after it.

How do I end the loop for good? According to the documentation, clear removes the goal, pause keeps it for later and resume gives it a fresh budget of turns.

Related guides

• How to install Hermes Agent and start your first chat
• Hermes Agent Tokenjuice: shrink long terminal output
• Hermes Agent 0.23: one home for every chat
• Hermes Agent broke after an update: what to check first

Sources

• Official Hermes Agent goals page