Automation Templates: making cron jobs smart with Hermes Agent

TL;DR: I have 12 cron jobs running on my server. I never read the output of 11 of them. They run at 2am, produce logs, and I forget they exist. Hermes Agent’s Automation Templates fix that: an LLM evaluates the output, decides if it matters, and sends a Telegram summary.

Cron jobs are reliable. They run on schedule. They never complain.

They’re also dumb. A cron job runs a script at 2am, dumps output to a log file, and moves on. If something breaks, you find out when a user tells you: not when the cron job runs.

Hermes Agent’s new Automation Templates fix this by putting an LLM between the script and the output. Instead of dumping to a log, the script’s output goes to an LLM that decides: is this important? Should I alert someone? Can I stay silent?

The result is a cron job that thinks before it speaks.

Key takeaways:

• Automation Templates are pre-built recipes for cron + LLM workflows: copy, paste, run
• Three trigger types: schedule, GitHub events, API calls
• LLM evaluates output and decides: alert, summarize, or stay silent
• Works with any model: the LLM is only evaluating structured data
• Six official templates: triage, PR review, docs audit, security audit, deploy verify, uptime monitor

Why are dumb cron jobs a problem for automation?

Every team has them. A nightly backup check that emails a log. A weekly dependency audit that dumps to a file. A monitoring script that pages you at 3am for every minor blip.

The common pattern: run script → dump output → hope someone reads it.

Automation Templates flip this to: run script → LLM evaluates output → ships only what matters.

The LLM isn’t doing heavy lifting here. It’s reading structured output (a list of issues, a diff, a status page) and making a binary decision: alert or stay silent. If it alerts, it writes a one-paragraph summary. If nothing’s wrong, it says nothing at all.

This is the perfect job for an LLM. It’s not creative work. It’s triage.

How do I set up a nightly issue triage automation?

The simplest template to start with is the nightly backlog triage. It runs every night, checks for new GitHub issues, and sends a summary to Telegram.

hermes cron create "0 2 * * *" \
 "You are a project manager triaging the repo.
 1. Run: gh issue list --repo owner/repo --state open --json number,title,labels,author,createdAt --limit 30
 2. Identify issues opened in the last 24 hours
 3. For each new issue: suggest a priority label (P0-P3) and category (bug, feature, docs, security), write a one-line triage note
 4. Summarize: total open, new today, breakdown by priority
 Format as a clean digest. If no new issues, respond with [SILENT]." \
 --name "Nightly backlog triage" \
 --ships telegram

The [SILENT] token is the key detail. If there are no new issues, the LLM returns [SILENT] and Hermes sends nothing. If there are issues, you get a Telegram message with a summary. No empty reports, no noise.

How do I set up automatic PR code review?

The PR review template hooks into GitHub webhooks. When a PR is opened, Hermes fetches the diff, runs it through an LLM review prompt, and posts a comment directly on the PR.

hermes webhook subscribe github-pr-review \
 --events "pull_request" \
 --prompt "Review PR #{pull_request.number}: {pull_request.title}
 Fetch diff: curl -sL {pull_request.diff_url}
 Review for: security issues, performance concerns, code quality, missing tests.
 If trivial docs/typo change, say so briefly." \
 --skill github-code-review \
 --ships github_comment

The webhook route is set up in one command. No server config, no middleware. Hermes listens on its webhook port and routes the event to the LLM prompt.

How do I set up a dependency security audit?

This one runs daily and checks for vulnerabilities:

hermes cron create "0 6 * * *" \
 "Run: pip audit && npm audit
 Flag any CVEs with CVSS >= 7.0
 Check if upgrades are available
 Note whether each dependency is direct or transitive
 If clean, respond with [SILENT]" \
 --name "Dependency security audit" \
 --ships telegram

The LLM parses the pip audit and npm audit output, filters by severity, and summarizes only the critical findings. A clean audit produces zero noise.

Why this pattern works

Automation Templates work because they match the shape of the problem to the shape of the tool:

Problem	Solution
Cron output nobody reads	LLM evaluates and summarizes
Alert fatigue from noisy monitors	LLM filters by severity, stays silent when clean
PRs merged without review	LLM reviews and posts comments automatically
Security advisories buried in email	LLM surfaces only CVSS >= 7.0

The LLM isn’t replacing a human reviewer for complex judgment calls. It’s replacing the log file you never read with a Telegram message you see.

How do I create my own automation template?

To use Automation Templates, you need Hermes Agent running with:

1. The cron scheduler enabled (default)
2. A delivery target configured (Telegram, Slack, Discord, or email)
3. The webhook platform enabled (if using event-driven triggers)

Delivery targets are configured in config.yaml or ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

platforms:
 telegram:
 enabled: true
 bot_token: ".."
 chat_id: ".."

That’s it. The templates handle the rest.

Hermes Agent docs cover Automation Templates, cron integration, and skill configuration.

FAQ

What are Hermes Agent Automation Templates? They’re copy-paste recipes for common automation patterns using Hermes Agent’s cron scheduler and webhook platform. Each template includes a trigger (schedule or event), an LLM prompt that processes the output, and a delivery target (Telegram, Slack, email, etc.).

How is this different from regular cron jobs? Regular cron jobs run a script and dump output. Hermes Automation Templates run a script, feed the output to an LLM, and the LLM decides what to do : summarize, alert, or stay silent. You get a Slack message instead of a log file you never check.

What triggers do Automation Templates support? Three trigger types: schedule (cron : hourly, nightly, weekly), GitHub events (PR opens, pushes, issues via webhook), and API calls (any external service POSTs JSON to your Hermes endpoint).

Do I need a specific model for this? No. Automation Templates work with any model Hermes supports : Claude, GPT, open-source models, local Ollama. The LLM’s job is evaluating structured output and deciding whether to act, which even smaller models handle well.

Related Posts

• How to set up Hermes Agent. Getting Hermes running from scratch
• How to build your first AI agent in 2026. The fundamentals of agent loops
• AI agent error handling patterns. Building reliable production agents

Hermes Agent documentation covers Automation Templates, cron integration, and skill configuration.

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This article was published on Agentic Up (https://agenticup.dev): practical guides for developers and founders building with AI agents. Reach me at hello@agenticup.dev.