Edgeless Agent Starter Kit: Launch Your AI Swarm on macOS in Under an Hour

Setting up a multi-agent AI swarm from scratch is overwhelming. Hermes Agent has dozens of moving parts: profiles, skills, cron jobs, Paperclip integration, ChromaDB, Discord bridge. Most people give up before they get a single agent working.

This kit is the exact setup we use to run 10+ agents daily on a MacBook Pro. Extracted from 3+ months of production use. Not a tutorial. A working system you deploy in under an hour.

What you get

45-page PDF guide with 6 sections and 5 bonuses:

Section 1: One-Command Setup

• setup.sh script: installs Hermes, creates your first profile, connects Discord + Telegram
• Tested on macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon)
• Linux instructions included (not automated)

Section 2: Agent Swarm Blueprint

• 5 pre-configured agent roles: research, orchestration, execution, documentation, and audit
• AGENTS.md templates for each role
• Routing matrix: when to use which agent, with real examples
• Paperclip integration config

Section 3: Skill System

• 8 starter skills (research, coding, docs, monitoring, triage, enrichment, sales, dispatch)
• Skill authoring template (YAML frontmatter + markdown body)
• How to load skills on-demand vs. default
• How to add your own skills

Section 4: Automation Stack

• 3 pre-built cron job templates: RSS intelligence, email triage, health checks
• Cron silent-failure detection built-in
• Notification routing: Telegram vs. Discord thresholds
• How to add your own cron jobs

Section 5: Knowledge Base

• Obsidian vault setup (taxonomy, templates, inbox system)
• ChromaDB integration for semantic search
• RSS intelligence pipeline config
• How to query your knowledge base from agents

Section 6: Troubleshooting

• 15+ common failures and fixes from production ops
• Provider fallback patterns (OpenAI to Fireworks to etc.)
• Supervisor threshold tuning
• What to do when an agent goes silent

Bonuses

1. Agent Autonomy Policy Template: fill-in-the-blank AGENTS.md for any new agent
2. Discord Envelope Protocol Cheatsheet: compact routing reference
3. 50 Production Skills Index: curated list of best Hermes skills with install commands
4. Weekly Health Check Script: automated system audit
5. Paperclip Task Routing Config: project-to-agent mapping template

Who this is for

• AI developers who want to run local agents but the setup is overwhelming
• Solopreneurs who need a research + coding + documentation team that works while they sleep
• AI researchers experimenting with multi-agent systems
• NousResearch community members who want a working Hermes swarm on macOS

Who this is NOT for

• This is macOS-optimized. Windows users need WSL2 or a Linux VM.
• You need API keys for at least one LLM provider (we recommend Fireworks for cost efficiency)
• This is not a beginner's guide to AI. You should know what an LLM is.

Technical requirements

• macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon)
• API key for OpenAI, Fireworks, or similar
• 8GB RAM minimum (16GB recommended for multiple agents)
• ~2GB disk space for the full stack

All configs are tested and working. No "edit this file and hope it works."