flag Bottom line
Yes — consolidate Circa into Hermes, staged. Hermes v0.13's multi-agent Kanban + v0.14's computer_use CUA-driver are the architectural primitives that make this clean. Aria dispatches tasks to the Hermes kanban; Hermes workers pick them up with circa-mode context loaded, execute via MCP + browser as needed, write results back to aria-inbox, Aria reviews irreversibles before they fire.
Yes — create a hermes-workbench sub-account at the agency level in GHL. Hermes's sandbox for testing workflows before they touch client sub-accounts. Audit logs visibly separate "Hermes testing" from "Hermes operating on $client." Should be included in the agency plan or low/no-cost add.
No Hermes upgrade needed. v0.14 is already live on M3 (verified). Aria's memory was stale.
schema Dispatch architecture
Aria plans, Hermes executes, Aria reviews. Kanban is the durable handshake.
┌──────────────────┐
│ Topher (MBA) │ ← single front door
└────────┬─────────┘
▼
┌──────────────────┐
│ Aria (M4 chat) │ ← COO · planner · reviewer
│ Opus 4.7 1M ctx │
└────────┬─────────┘
│
drops task via SSH +
hermes kanban add
▼
┌──────────────────┐
│ Hermes Kanban │ ← v0.13 durable board
│ ~/.hermes/ │ heartbeat·reclaim·retry
│ kanban.db │ zombie detection
└────────┬─────────┘
│
picked up by Hermes worker
▼
┌──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌───────────┐
│ MCP path │ │ Browser │ │ Skills │
│ (10 GHL │ │ (Camofox │ │ (circa- │
│ conns) │ │ persistent)│ │ mode) │
└───────────┘ └─────────────┘ └───────────┘
│ │ │
└──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┘
│
for IRREVERSIBLE actions:
write intent to
aria-inbox/pending-review/
│
▼
┌──────────────────┐
│ Aria reviews │ ← human gate
│ approves / edits │ before send/post/pay
└────────┬─────────┘
│
approved
▼
┌──────────────────┐
│ Hermes executes │
│ result → aria- │
│ inbox/done/ │
└──────────────────┘
check_circle What Hermes already has
Verified live via SSH on 2026-05-23.
| Component | State |
|---|---|
| Code version | v0.14.0 (Foundation Release, 2026-05-16) — gateway restarted 2026-05-17 12:10 AM |
| Aspire vault synced | ~/.hermes/vault/circa-sync/aspire-digital/ — ASPIRE.md, agents/, clients/, playbook/, process/, services/, skills/, standards/, templates/ |
| Active skills | 28+ including circa-ghl-sync (production), crawl4ai-web, mcp, github, email, lead-discovery, note-taking, content-intelligence, seo-aeo-monitoring |
| Kanban DB | ~/.hermes/kanban.db — schema initialized (tasks, task_runs, task_events, task_comments, task_links). 0 tasks today. |
| aria-inbox handshake | Production channel, 7-day file rotation, ghl-mcp-signals.md armed Day 2 |
| Scheduled jobs | morning-digest @ 4am ET (24 successful runs) · self-heal hourly (552 runs) · others |
| computer_use backend | CUA-driver (v0.14) — works with non-Anthropic models, focus-safe ops, persists across restart |
| browser_console | Persistent Chrome DevTools connection (180x faster in v0.14) |
build_circle What Hermes needs for Phase 1
| Component | Detail |
|---|---|
| browser/camofox skill | Core code is in hermes_cli/ — skill marketplace install required to enable |
| 10 GHL MCP connections | Currently live on M4 (Topher's ~/.claude.json). Need replicating in M3 Hermes MCP config, OR Hermes gets its own PITs scoped to read-mostly + write-with-approval |
| circa-mode skill | New skill that loads the playbook context + Circa's persona framing when a Hermes worker picks up a kanban task tagged "circa" |
| Aria → Hermes dispatch lane | aria-inbox today is mostly Hermes → Aria. Add an Aria → kanban write path. Probably a new skill on Aria's side that pushes tasks via SSH + hermes kanban CLI. |
| hermes-workbench GHL sub-account | Sandbox sub-account at agency level. Hermes tests workflows here before deploying to client sub-accounts. Audit logs cleanly segregate test from prod. |
| Irreversibility guardrails | Hermes ships with NO explicit guardrails for sends/payments/posts. Aria must review before any "publish" action fires. Wiring: Hermes writes intent to aria-inbox/pending-review/, blocks until Aria approves. |
timeline Phased rollout
Three phases. Phase 1 is committed; Phases 2-3 are signaled but proven before adopted.
Hermes as Circa's execution arm
this week
Aria still does the strategic thinking. Hermes does the tactical doing — MCP calls, browser UI work, routine workflow execution. Circa-as-Claude-Code-chat persists for heavy reasoning; Hermes handles everything below that bar.
Deliverables
- browser/camofox skill installed + Chrome profile named "Hermes" on M3
- Topher logs profile into 1 pilot GHL sub-account (suggest Made By Aspire — agency's own house, blast radius zero)
- 10 GHL MCP connections replicated in M3 Hermes config
- circa-mode skill — kanban tasks tagged "circa" load the playbook context
- Aria → kanban dispatch wired (new skill on Aria side)
- hermes-workbench GHL sub-account created
- One end-to-end pilot task: a real Vegas/Circa bouncer that ran to Hermes, executed, reviewed by Aria, completed
Success criteria
One real "Vegas handed this back to Topher" task gets handled by Hermes instead, with Aria reviewing before any irreversible action. Time-to-completion < same task done by Topher manually.
Hermes does tactical Circa reasoning too
when local models prove out (4-8 weeks)
As qwen3.6 / grok-4.3 / Claude-via-proxy show they can reason at Circa quality on client-context tasks, more of the brain moves to Hermes. Aria escalates only when Concierge-level strategy is needed.
Deliverables
- Quality benchmark: 20 tactical Circa tasks, scored Aria-quality vs. Hermes-quality
- Model-routing per task class — local for execution, cloud for nuance
- Circa-as-Claude-Code-chat retired for the task classes Hermes beats it on
Success criteria
Aria handoffs to Circa via the Greeter's task `H` drop by >50% — most Circa work happens autonomously on Hermes.
Vegas + other specialists follow the pattern
after Phase 2 proves
Same kanban handshake, different skill packs. Vegas-mode skill loads website-build context; Sahara-mode loads Shopify context. Hermes becomes the unified execution layer for all specialists.
Deliverables
- vegas-mode skill (website builds, deploy targets, design library)
- sahara-mode, circa-mode, strat-mode, paris-mode skills as needed
- Specialist Greeter handoff (task `H`) becomes obsolete — Aria just dispatches via kanban
Success criteria
Single front door (Aria) routes to Hermes for all execution. Specialist Claude Code chats reserved for genuinely-novel strategic work.
shield Risks + mitigations
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Local-model quality at Circa work | Phase 1 does NOT replace Circa thinking — only execution. v0.14 hermes proxy lets Hermes call Claude Pro via OAuth when needed. |
| Hermes wedges, takes down all client workflows | self-heal hourly cron already running 552 runs. Phase 1 pilot on workbench + 1 client first. Aria has SSH; can restart gateway in seconds. |
| Browser does the wrong thing in a client's GHL | (a) workbench sub-account for all testing (b) Aria reviews intent before execution for irreversible actions (c) start with read-mostly tasks, expand to writes only after track record |
| PIT secret sprawl — 10 client PITs now on M3 too | Document in `~/.hermes/.env` chmod 600, NOT in vault. Track as hygiene item. Hermes can scope its own PITs separately from Topher's if cleaner. |
| Aria → Hermes dispatch failure modes | aria-inbox handshake already exhibits the "if file exists, work is done" pattern. Kanban adds heartbeat + reclaim + retry on top. Same shape, more durability. |
fact_check What Aria verified today (2026-05-23)
Receipts so this doc isn't just speculation.
pyproject.toml: version = "0.14.0"Gateway PID 13803 started Sun May 17 00:10:51 2026 — after v0.14 release (May 16)kanban.db schema: tasks, task_runs, task_events, task_comments, task_links, task_notify_subskanban tasks count: 0 (never used)~/.hermes/vault/circa-sync/aspire-digital/ — full agency vault present~/.hermes/cron/jobs.json — morning-digest + self-heal active, last_status: okaria-inbox: 7 files for last 7 days + ghl-mcp-signals.md (production handshake)browser core (camofox, browser_console, managed_persistence) present in hermes_cli source`browser`, `camofox`, `computer_use` skills NOT installed in user skills dir (next install)