Hermes Agent background modes are the seven built-in ways the agent can keep working when you aren't typing to it, and cron jobs on top of the gateway service are the pair I'd rate highest.
Hermes Agent is the free, open-source agent from Nous Research, and all seven modes ship with it at no extra charge.
The seven are cron jobs, the gateway service, /bg sessions, background terminal processes, delegated subagents, kanban workers and /loop.
This page is a reference, so each mode gets the same treatment: what it is, the real command, when to use it, how to see it, how to stop it, and its limits.
Every fact comes from the official Hermes docs or the help output of my own install, which is v0.21.4, checked on 12 October 2026.
The scores are my own judgement as a daily Hermes user, and they aren't a benchmark.
Hermes Agent Background Modes: The Scorecard
| Mode | Real command | Durability | Setup effort | My score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cron jobs | hermes cron create |
It survives restarts and updates. | Low | 9.5/10 |
| Gateway service | hermes gateway install |
It restarts on crash and at login or boot. | Low | 9/10 |
| Kanban workers | hermes kanban create |
The board is a database on disk. | Medium | 8.5/10 |
/loop |
/loop 5m <prompt> |
It lives inside one session. | Very low | 8/10 |
| Subagents | delegate_task, automatic |
A restart does not resume them. | None | 8/10 |
/bg sessions |
/bg <prompt> |
It lasts as long as its owning process. | None | 7.5/10 |
| Background processes | Ask in plain words | It belongs to the agent that started it. | None | 7/10 |
I scored durability, setup effort and how easy the mode is to inspect and stop.
I didn't score speed or output quality, because those depend on the model you connect.
1. Cron Jobs (9.5/10)
What it is. A cron job is a prompt on a schedule, and each run starts a fresh agent session with no chat attached.
This is the real command.
hermes cron create "0 6 * * *" "Read my to-do file and send me a short recap." --name "Daily 6AM To-Do Recap"
You can also type /cron add "every 2h" "Check server status" in a chat, or simply ask Hermes in plain English.
When to use it. Cron is the right mode for anything that should happen on a clock with nobody watching.
How to see it. hermes cron list shows each job's schedule, next run and last status, hermes cron runs shows the attempt history, and hermes cron doctor checks jobs for common health problems.
How to stop it. hermes cron pause <job> pauses one job, and hermes cron remove <job> deletes it.
Limits. The docs say cron execution is handled by the gateway daemon, so nothing fires while the gateway is down.
A recurring job that missed its slot catches up once when the scheduler returns.
Each run is a fresh session, so the prompt has to carry all its own context.
My evidence. My own hermes cron list on 12 October 2026 showed five active jobs, and the Daily 6AM To-Do Recap had run at 06:01 that morning with the status ok.
These are the features worth knowing.
- The
--deliverflag sends output to Telegram, Discord, Slack, email and other targets. - The
--skillflag attaches one or more skills to a job. - The
--workdirflag runs a job inside a project folder with that project's context files. - The
--no-agentflag with--scriptruns a script with no model call. - The
--monitor-urlflag skips the agent run when the fetched page hasn't changed. - A reply that contains
[SILENT]suppresses delivery while still saving the output. - Jobs are stored in
~/.hermes/cron/jobs.json, and output is saved under~/.hermes/cron/output/.
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2. The Gateway Service (9/10)
What it is. The gateway is the long-running Hermes process that answers chat platforms, ticks the cron scheduler and dispatches kanban workers.
This is the real command.
hermes gateway install
hermes gateway start
hermes gateway status
When to use it. You install it once on any machine where Hermes should work without an open terminal.
How it runs. The docs describe a launchd agent on macOS, a systemd user service on Linux and a Scheduled Task on Windows.
A Linux server can use sudo hermes gateway install --system for a boot-time service, or a user service with sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER.
How to see it. hermes gateway status reports the service, and hermes logs gateway -f follows its log.
How to stop it. hermes gateway stop stops the service, and hermes gateway uninstall removes it.
Limits. The machine still has to be awake, which I cover in the hosting section.
hermes gateway run is the foreground version for WSL and Docker, and it refuses to start beside an installed service unless you pass --force.
3. Kanban Workers (8.5/10)
What it is. Kanban is a durable task board shared across your Hermes profiles, where every task is a row in ~/.hermes/kanban.db and every worker is a full operating system process.
This is the real command.
hermes kanban create "Draft the weekly SEO report" --assignee researcher --max-runtime 30m
When to use it. It suits multi-step work with dependencies, handoffs between profiles and retries.
How to see it. hermes kanban list, hermes kanban show <id>, hermes kanban watch and hermes kanban stats cover the board from the terminal.
How to stop it. hermes kanban block <id> parks a task, and hermes kanban reclaim <id> releases a running worker's claim.
Limits. The dispatcher runs inside the gateway, so kanban also needs the service from mode 2.
A task is blocked after two consecutive failed attempts by default, which is a sensible circuit breaker.
Setup takes more thought than cron, because you need profiles to assign work to.
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4. The /loop Command (8/10)
What it is. /loop re-runs a prompt or a slash command on a recurring cadence inside your current session.
This is the real command.
/loop 5m check the deploy status and tell me if it's live yet
When to use it. It suits polling a deploy, a CI run or a queue while you keep working in the same conversation.
How to see it. /loop status shows the cadence, the ticks fired and the time to the next wakeup.
How to stop it. /loop pause keeps the loop for later, and /loop stop ends it.
Limits. There is one loop per session, and every tick is a full agent turn that costs tokens.
A backstop called loops.max_ticks pauses a loop after 100 wakeups by default.
The docs say unattended overnight work should use cron instead.
I covered real runs in my Hermes /loop guide, and you may need hermes update if your version is older.
/loop, /heartbeat, /goal And Cron Compared
/loop |
/heartbeat |
/goal |
Cron | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger | A timer, or self-paced | A fixed interval when idle | A judge verdict after each turn | A schedule outside any session |
| Lives in | Your current session | Your current session | Your current session | Its own session per run |
| Default backstop | 100 ticks | You clear it | A 20-turn budget | You remove the job |
| Best for | Polling and monitoring | One standing instruction in a thread | One objective until done | Unattended recurring jobs |
5. Delegated Subagents (8/10)
What it is. The delegate_task tool spawns child agents with their own context and terminal, and only each child's final summary returns to the parent.
The real command. There isn't one to type, because the docs say the agent delegates automatically when a task is complex enough.
When to use it. It suits parallel research, a review of work you just produced, and large refactors.
How to see it. The TUI's /agents overlay shows a live tree with per-branch cost and tokens, and Ctrl+T opens the live work monitor.
How to stop it. /stop ends a session's background delegations, and the overlay can stop one child without touching its siblings.
Limits. The docs say top-level delegations run in the background automatically, but a Hermes restart does not resume a running child.
The defaults are 10 parallel children per batch, 250 iterations per child and flat delegation with no grandchildren.
Children can't ask you questions, write shared memory, send messages or create cron jobs.
Herald OS note. Herald OS, the free desktop shell built on Hermes, exposes a setting for the number of background agents, which I showed in the video above and in my Herald OS review.
6. /bg Background Sessions (7.5/10)
What it is. /bg runs one prompt in a completely separate agent session while your main chat stays interactive.
This is the real command.
/bg Analyse the logs in /var/log and summarise any errors from today
When to use it. It suits a one-off research or file-processing task that you don't want blocking your conversation.
How to see it. Hermes prints a task ID when it starts, and the status bar counts active background tasks.
How the result arrives. In the terminal the result appears as a panel, and on a messaging platform it is sent back to the same chat.
Limits. The background session knows nothing about your current conversation, so the prompt must be complete.
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7. Background Terminal Processes (7/10)
What it is. The agent's terminal tool can start a long command in the background, and its process tool can list, poll, wait for, read and kill it.
The real command. You ask in plain words, such as "run the build in the background and tell me when it finishes".
When to use it. It suits builds, test runs, dev servers and exports that take minutes.
How to see it. Running processes appear in the live dock under the subagent rows, with the latest output line.
How to stop it. /stop kills all running background processes.
Limits. A background process belongs to the agent that started it, and a subagent's processes are killed when the subagent finishes.
On a chat platform, display.background_process_notifications controls how much status you receive, and its default is concise.
Approvals And Safety Settings For Unattended Runs
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
approvals.mode |
smart |
An auxiliary model assesses risk, and uncertain commands escalate to you. |
approvals.cron_mode |
deny |
A cron job that triggers a dangerous-command prompt is blocked. |
approvals.unattended_mode |
deny |
Webhook and API sessions are blocked the same way. |
approvals.timeout |
300 |
An unanswered approval is denied after 300 seconds. |
approvals.deny |
Empty | Your own patterns are blocked even under --yolo. |
| Hardline blocklist | Always on | A fixed list of destructive commands can't be overridden. |
Hermes also scans cron prompts for prompt-injection and secret-exfiltration patterns at creation time.
A cron run can't manage other cron jobs unless you set cron.allow_agent_scheduling: true.
You can narrow the tools that cron gets by running hermes tools and choosing the cron platform.
I think these defaults are right, and I'd only change cron_mode to approve inside a disposable container.
Cost Controls For Background Runs
| Control | Where it lives | Effect |
|---|---|---|
cron.model |
config.yaml |
Every unpinned cron job runs on this model instead of your chat model. |
--model and --reasoning-effort |
Per cron job | One job gets its own model and thinking level. |
--no-agent |
Per cron job | The job runs a script and spends no tokens. |
delegation.model |
config.yaml |
Subagents run on an inexpensive model. |
delegation.max_iterations |
config.yaml |
Each child stops at 250 turns by default. |
goals.max_turns |
config.yaml |
A goal pauses after 20 continuation turns by default. |
loops.max_ticks |
config.yaml |
A loop pauses after 100 wakeups by default. |
| Preflight validation | Automatic | A misconfigured cron job is blocked before any model call. |
hermes insights --days 7 reports token usage and cost, and hermes usage shows your provider's rate-limit windows.
Herald OS has a Usage panel that shows tokens used, your plan and your token balance.
One honest caveat is that agent.max_turns is unlimited by default, so a single badly written job can still run long.
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Where To Run It: Mac, VPS, Docker Or Hermes Cloud
| Host | How background work stays alive | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| A Mac | launchd runs the gateway, and caffeinate blocks sleep. |
Closing a MacBook lid still sleeps it. |
| A Linux VPS | systemd runs the gateway, with lingering or --system. |
You own updates and security. |
| Docker | The official image runs gateway run and restarts it on a crash. |
You manage volumes and the image. |
| Hermes Cloud | Nous Research hosts the agent. | It bills by the day while running. |
tmux or nohup |
The process outlives your SSH session. | Nothing restarts it after a reboot. |
The Hermes docs give this command for a Mac.
caffeinate -i -w $(cat ~/.hermes/gateway.pid) &
Hermes Cloud's Standard size cost $0.51 a day while running when I checked on 10 October 2026, and inference is billed separately.
My ranked server picks are in my best Hermes Agent VPS post.
The Emergency Stop
hermes pause deserves its own section, because it's the one command to remember.
The help text says it halts new work only, which means cron dispatch, kanban dispatch and new gateway turns.
It never kills work already in flight, and hermes resume lifts it.
You can attach a reason with --reason, which is shown to users while the stop is active.
My Verdict On Hermes Agent Background Modes
Cron plus the gateway service is the pair that turns Hermes from a chat tool into a worker.
Kanban is the strongest option for serious multi-agent work, and it costs you some setup.
/loop, /bg, subagents and background processes are session tools, and they're excellent as long as you don't expect them to survive a restart.
What I like most is that every mode has a clear way to inspect it and a clear way to stop it.
What I'd watch is cost on high-frequency jobs and the fact that your machine has to stay awake.
If you want Hermes on a chat app while these run, read my Hermes Agent bot breakdown, and for where commands execute, read my Hermes Agent backend breakdown.
My best Hermes Agent use cases list shows what to schedule first.
FAQ: Hermes Agent Background Modes
What is the best way to run Hermes Agent in the background?
A cron job with the gateway installed as a service is the best way for unattended work.
The gateway keeps Hermes alive and ticks the scheduler every 60 seconds.
What is the difference between Hermes cron and /loop?
Cron runs each job in its own session outside any chat, so it suits unattended work.
/loop re-runs a prompt inside your current session, so it suits monitoring while you work.
Do Hermes background subagents survive a restart?
No, because the docs say a restart does not resume a running child.
Cron jobs and kanban tasks are the durable options.
What does hermes pause do?
It halts new cron dispatch, kanban dispatch and gateway turns until you run hermes resume.
It never kills work that is already running.
Are background runs allowed to run dangerous commands?
They aren't by default, because approvals.cron_mode is set to deny.
A hardline blocklist also sits below every other setting.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 The step-by-step setup for running Hermes in the background
- 🌐 Seven real business uses for background Hermes jobs
- 🌐 The background quick-start and how it fits an Agent OS
- 🌐 Benchmark scores for the models behind your background jobs
📺 Video notes + links to the tools 👉
🎥 Learn how I make these videos 👉
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
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Start with one cron job on top of the gateway service, and you'll understand in a day why I rate it the best of the Hermes Agent background modes.
