Skip to main content
This guide walks through creating a managed Hermes agent on OpenComputer, connecting it to Telegram, and chatting with it. By the end you’ll have a personal AI agent running Claude via OpenRouter, reachable from your phone.

​
Prerequisites

​
Install the CLI

Install the oc binary from the CLI installation guide. 
oc config set api-key YOUR_API_KEY

​
Step 1: Create the agent

oc agent create my-hermes --core hermes
This creates the agent, provisions its environment, configures the LLM provider, and starts the Hermes gateway. Check that the agent is running: 
oc agent get my-hermes

ID:        my-hermes
Name:      my-hermes
Core:      hermes
Channels:  -
Packages:  -
Instance:  inst_... (running)
Wait for the status to show running before proceeding. Provisioning typically takes 20–30 seconds.

​
Step 2: Create a Telegram bot

Open this link to BotFather in Telegram (or search for @BotFather in the app). Then:
  1. Tap Start if it’s your first time
  2. Send /newbot
  3. Enter a display name when prompted (e.g. “My Hermes Agent”)
  4. Enter a username — must end in bot (e.g. my_hermes_test_bot)
  5. BotFather replies with a token like 110201543:AAHdqTcvCH1vGWJxfSeofSAs0K5PALDsaw — copy it

​
Step 3: Connect Telegram

oc agent connect my-hermes telegram
The CLI will prompt you to paste the bot token. Alternatively, use the API directly: 
curl -X POST https://api.opencomputer.dev/v1/agents/my-hermes/channels/telegram \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"bot_token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"}'
This registers a webhook with Telegram, configures Hermes for webhook mode, and restarts the gateway. Verify it worked: 
oc agent get my-hermes

Channels:  telegram

​
Step 4: Chat with your agent

Open Telegram, find your bot by its username, and send a message. The agent responds using Claude (via OpenRouter) with the full Hermes personality — memory, tool use, and multi-turn conversation. If the bot suggests setting a home channel (/sethome), do it — this is where Hermes delivers cron job results and cross-platform messages.

​
Shell access

You can shell into the agent’s sandbox at any time: 
oc shell my-hermes
This opens an interactive terminal inside the agent’s environment. You have full access — inspect logs, edit Hermes config, install tools, change the model, add skills. Anything you can do with Hermes locally, you can do here. See the Hermes docs for what’s possible.

​
Cleanup

Disconnect the channel and delete the agent: 
oc agent disconnect my-hermes telegram
oc agent delete my-hermes
Disconnecting deregisters the Telegram webhook and removes the channel config from Hermes. Deleting the agent tears down the sandbox.

​
What’s next

  • Install gbrain for persistent memory: oc agent install my-hermes gbrain
  • Connect Slack instead of Telegram (planned)
  • Create an OpenClaw Agent — same journey, different core: multi-channel gateway with plugin SDK and hot-reload config
  • Custom cores — bring your own agent runtime with oc shell and the raw sandbox API
  • Hermes docs — see the full Hermes documentation for skills, cron jobs, voice, browser tools, and more