Axel VerneWhat I actually use
Every pick below is something I run daily while writing and testing the playbooks. If a tool stops earning its keep, it comes off this page. Nothing here is required to use the books.
⚙️ Hermes — the agent this site is about
The Hermes agent
The local-first agent all my playbooks are built around. If you're starting out, pair it with my free starter prompts and you'll be productive on day one.
🛠️ The build stack
The official docs
Every install command and config option, straight from the source. The books reference these constantly — worth bookmarking.
The community
The Nous Research Discord is where I take the questions the docs don't answer. Active, technical, and friendly to beginners.
Hosting & domain
This site runs as plain HTML on simple, cheap infrastructure. Boring on purpose — it will outlive every framework.
📚 Worth your money
My own books
The full playbooks: 58 Prompts for Power Users ($29), The Complete Beginner's Guide ($12), and the Complete Collection ($35) — instant download, free lifetime updates.
The lab behind Hermes
Nous Research's own site — their research feed and model releases are worth following if you want to understand where the agent is heading.
Affiliate disclosure: links marked as picks may earn me a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. I only list tools I use myself. My books never require any product on this page, and no one paid to appear here.