Why I left OpenClaw for Hermes!

Hey Vibe Marketer,

Okay, with so much going on I acknowledge that AI fatigue is real.

Every time you commit to a new tool, there's a whole process. You watch the tutorials. You set it up. You break it. You fix it. You finally get it working the way you want it to. And just when you feel like you are getting somewhere, the internet moves on to the next thing.

That cycle has been hitting hard with agent harnesses.

A few months ago, OpenClaw was everywhere. Every tutorial. Every thread. Every creator saying "set up your AI agent in 20 minutes." People were building on it, figuring it out, investing real time into it.

Then the security reports came in. Then Hermes landed.

And now the conversation has shifted completely. People who built on OpenClaw are wondering if it's worth continuing. People who haven't started yet don't know which one to pick.

This week inside the vibe marketer’s community Tony Psaromatis, an agency owner, asked the very question a lot of people have been sitting with: "How to choose the best harness between OpenClaw and Hermes agent?."

This has also been a common question in our community only sessions, x and reddit too. So, if you are riding on the same boat, this newsletter issue is for you.

OpenClaw vs Hermes

Here’s a quick table that can help you understand the difference

Start with the tool that doesn't fight you. Hermes with Grok OAuth isn't just a configuration choice it's the difference between spending your time building and spending it debugging. Once it's running, it runs.

OpenClaw worked in January. Then updates broke things. Then more updates broke more things. Leif moved to Hermes in April and didn't look back. Stability isn't glamorous. But it's the only thing that actually compounds.

Months of repeating the same config. SSH-ing into his machine just to change a setting. Feeling defeated while everyone online claimed they were "automating their entire business." Then he installed Hermes. Every tool call visible. Memory updating on
its own. Skills creating themselves when something worked. He didn't get a better tool. He got his time back.

I could not agree more on what they are sharing about memory and stability.

Because, I left OpenClaw for Hermes

- Memory kept getting lost. I'd tell it something. Next session, gone.
- Execution felt sloppy. It would start a job and just… not finish it right
- Cron jobs never fired. I'd set them up, they'd confirm, nothing would run.
- I couldn't see what it was doing without digging into reasoning configs manually.
- Changing a setting sometimes took the whole service down. I would have to SSH in just to restart it.
- I gave it every chance. It just kept making me manage it instead of the other way around.

Note: If you are just getting started and want to hook hermes and try something interesting this issue might be helpful.

In fact, I built a personal email assistant in one afternoon with Hermes:

Thinking about security? Here is your answer:

#1 Is it safe to give Hermes access to your inbox?

I gave it access to my main email that is, my actual inbox. The difference is how it handles permissions. Read-only by default. Explicit approval before it drafts or sends anything. When I tested it asked to bypass the rule and I flagged it as a dangerous command instead of just doing it.

"It feels like having Claude Code in your Telegram, basically."

#2 What about prompt injection risks?

I took steps against it. It's something you configure, not something that's magically solved but Hermes makes it possible to set hard rules that actually hold.

#3 Do you need a separate install per project?

No. Multi-profile lets you run separate agents on the same core setup. Each with its own memory, its own context, its own Telegram handle. I have one per project. Clean separation, no cross-contamination.

#4 Which model should you run it on?

I use Sonnet 4.6. Cost-to-quality ratio was the call. Some people use a paid model for reasoning and a cheaper open-source model for grunt work. Either way works and it depends on how much you're running and what you're optimizing for.

#5 VPS or local machine?

VPS. Same server as my old OpenClaw setup, separate container. Local works for testing but if you want it running 24/7, put it on a VPS.

#6 Can it manage Claude Code?

Yes, and it does it well. I use Hermes as the persistent layer and drop into Claude Code for serious coding work. They're not competing. Hermes handles the always-on side. Claude Code handles the deep build sessions.

Wrapping it up

The tool isn't the point. Having an agent that actually runs, actually remembers, and actually does what you set it up to do. That's the point. Hermes just happens to be the one that delivers on it right now.

This is what I love about the vibe marketer’s community. Someone asks a simple question and suddenly the thread opens up how people are actually building, what’s working, what’s not, where they’re stuck, and the people who’ll probably help you solve your next problem too.

And that same energy carries into our live session with Boring marketer every two weeks. Discuss, exchange notes, showcase builds and come on hot seats and get their real business problems solved.

If you've been building with AI alone and you're looking for AI marketing practitioners who are figuring this out in real time solving real problems, shipping real things this is your place.

If you want the tools that power this kind of work plus the room where these conversations happen every day, this should be your pick.

—

Miscellaneous vibes

1. How to supercharge your Hermes agent for marketing…

2. How to build a second brain that maintains itself?

3. How to build a vertical AI agent cash-flowing startup?

4. Personal AGI is 3-6 months away…

5. Dario Amodei talks about how to prepare for what's coming.

6. GitHub repo for converting documents and media into structured JSON for LLMs…

7. Marketers aren't really looking for AI tools anymore…

Let’s vibe

Crazy time to be building with AI. And, looks like Claude code is leading the game…

Wanna scale marketing and outperform your competitors? Upgrade your AI.
Wanna learn from marketers actually shipping with AI? Upgrade yourself.
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The Vibe Marketer