We Run Our Company on Hermes Agent — Here's the Exact Ops Stack

TL;DR — Running a company on AI requires a structured routing system, not just a chatbot. At VijayaTech Labs, we coordinate multi-brand operations using Hermes Agent instances deployed on a VPS and a developer laptop. By integrating Telegram, Google Drive, and a Kanban board, we maintain clear ownership and human-in-the-loop review gates. Here is our exact, production-tested ops stack and the configuration rules we use to prevent chaos.

Most people install an AI agent and expect the chaos to disappear.

It doesn’t.

A chatbot is not an operating system. If you drop one into a messy team, you get the same mess — just faster, and now with a bot arguing in your group chat.

We made a different choice. At VijayaTech Labs (and across our brands — Glint, OpenStart, Zira, LaunchLoop) we run Hermes Agent as a small ops system. Humans, agents, inbox, files, and tasks all have a place. The result is a 2-person team running multi-brand operations without drowning.

This post is the exact setup. Copy it, or hire us to build it for you.

The problem: AI toys don’t fix ops

The failure mode is always the same:

• Important work lives only in chat messages (lost by Friday).
• Files are scattered across personal Drives, desktops, and DM attachments.
• “The agent did it” has no owner, no review, no audit trail.
• Everyone assumes someone else is on it.

An AI assistant makes all four worse if you don’t give it structure.

The fix is not a smarter model. It’s a routing system: where humans talk, where agents act, where files live, and who owns what.

The cast: humans + agents, on one team

We don’t pretend agents replace people. We put them inside the team. Unlike standard AI Agents for SMBs that operate in silos, our setup is highly integrated.

Hermes on VPS is the always-on brain: it runs the gateway, answers in the group, runs scheduled jobs, and works the Kanban board. For details on how we host such infrastructure on a budget, see our guide to self-host n8n on a VPS.

Hermes on the laptop is for local tasks — a dev machine, a browser session, private files — when we don’t want that work on the server.

Two Hermes instances, one company system, different surfaces.

Rule: only ONE Hermes runs the Telegram gateway. If both tried, they’d fight over the same bot token. The laptop instance never starts a gateway.

The rule that keeps it sane

One sentence, on every wall:

Chat = talk. Kanban = ownership. Drive = files.

• If it’s only in a message, it will get lost.
• If it’s on the board, someone owns it.
• If it’s in Drive, everyone can find it.

That’s the whole philosophy. Everything below is just enforcement of those three lanes.

Layer 1 — Telegram as the team inbox

We use Telegram for all human↔agent communication.

• Private DM with Hermes = owner channel (private decisions, sensitive stuff).
• Ops group (team + bot) = shared communication.
• The bot is set to require @mention in the group, so it doesn’t reply to every human message — only when called.

Humans talk normally. The agent joins when mentioned, or when a task needs a human’s input.

This is the “inbox”: where work enters and where exceptions get surfaced.

Layer 2 — Google Drive as the shared brain

One team Drive. Not ten personal folders.

VVV Ops/
  00-inbox/        # drops from humans / VA
  10-briefs/       # trend radar, research
  20-projects/     # active work
  90-archive/      # done
  workspaces/      # per-workstream space

• Humans drop files.
• Agents upload results.
• Everyone opens the same tree.

No “can you resend that doc?” Ever.

Layer 3 — Hermes Kanban as the assignment system

This is where most setups break. They keep task state in chat. We don’t.

Every piece of real work is a Kanban card:

• assignee = an agent profile or a human
• parent / child for pipelines (research → draft → review)
• block = needs human review before continuing
• unblock = approved, carry on

The gateway’s dispatcher automatically claims cards that are ready and spawns the right profile to work them. No manual “hey agent, do this” required.

A human only gets pulled in when a card is explicitly blocked for review. That’s the approval gate — and it’s the reason we can let agents work unattended without fear.

Agent roles (profiles)

On the VPS we run three profiles:

External coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) are not board assignees. Inside an implementer task, they can be spawned as coding lanes — but Hermes owns completion and the human gate. For messaging connectivity, we route notifications through the Atharva AI WhatsApp API platform.

The daily human loop

It’s boring on purpose:

1. Check Telegram (DM + ops group).
2. Check the board — list, blocked, needs-review.
3. Comment + unblock, or reassign.
4. Pull artifacts from Drive.

You manage exceptions. Agents grind the rest. A small team can run multiple brands this way because the system, not your memory, tracks ownership.

What this delivers for a small team

• Multi-brand ops without 10 tools. One system, every brand.
• Clean handoffs. Human ↔ agent transfers leave a trail.
• Always-on work. Cron jobs + the dispatcher run while you sleep.
• Clear ownership. No “I thought you had it.”
• Repeatable onboarding. A new hire gets the same board, Drive, and group.

This is the difference between an “AI toy” and an “AI coworker.”

Want this built for your team?

We set up Hermes ops for other teams — and we harden it, not just install it:

• Hermes on a VPS + gateway
• Telegram bot → DM + ops group (with @mention rules)
• Profiles: default / orchestrator / implementer
• Kanban dispatch wired into the gateway
• Google Drive team folder + agent auth
• Human approval gates on real work
• Handoff and ownership conventions documented for your team

If you want this running in your company, DM “HERMES OPS” and I’ll send the setup scope and pricing.

Copy-this setup order (DIY)

Don’t start with 20 agents. Start here:

1. Install Hermes on a VPS, get the gateway running. For hosting, you can self-host on a VPS.
2. Add the Telegram bot → private DM + one ops group (require @mention).
3. Create profiles: default, orchestrator, implementer.
4. Enable Kanban dispatch in the gateway.
5. Create one Google Drive team folder and give the agent auth.
6. Put one real task behind a human block gate.

That’s it. Two humans, one always-on Hermes, zero chaos.

FAQ

Can Hermes Agent handle multiple tasks concurrently?

Yes. The orchestrator profile breaks down complex, multi-brand goals into isolated child tasks. The dispatcher then assigns these child tasks to concurrent implementer profiles (worker lanes), running them in parallel while monitoring execution state.

Do I need a high-performance VPS to run this stack?

No. Because Hermes Agent primarily routes heavy inference tasks to external model endpoints and coordinates files in Google Drive, the server-side footprint is very low. A simple VPS costing ₹500/month to ₹1,000/month is more than enough for small team operations.

How does the human review gate prevent errors?

The Kanban board implements strict state transition checks. When an agent reaches a task that requires verification (e.g. sending an email or publishing a code change), the task status is set to blocked. Hermes then sends a Telegram alert and pauses the workflow. The task only resumes once a human reviews the draft and toggles it to unblocked.

Sources

• Nous Research Hermes Agent Repository — Open-source agent architecture and learning loop implementation.
• VijayaTech Labs AI Agents Overview — Our framework for evaluating AI automation projects.
• Self-Host n8n VPS Guide — How to spin up private orchestration servers.

Viswanatha Reddy runs VijayaTech Labs — AI visibility and agent tooling for small teams. Building in public.