SKILLoptionalHermes Optional Skills

Watchers

Name: Watchers
Author: Hermes Agent

Poll RSS, JSON APIs, and GitHub with watermark dedup

cronpollingrssgithubhttpautomationmonitoringOptional

Last registry verification2026-08-18v1.0.0Hermes Agent

Open original source ↗اقرأ بالعربية

Plain meaning

What does it add to Hermes?

Poll RSS, JSON APIs, and GitHub with watermark dedup

Watchers is a skill related to software development and repositories. It helps the agent understand code or work with a software project instead of only giving generic advice.

This plain-language explanation is based on the publisher description. The original text remains visible for verification.

Use it when

Use it when your goal in software development and repositories is clear and you can limit it to the data and actions it actually needs.

Skip it when

Do not add it merely to experiment when Hermes already has a simpler path, or when you cannot review its source and permissions.

Who is it for?

Best for users who want a repeatable way of working inside Hermes.

Safe first test

Try it on a disposable repository with read-only access and ask for a summary of one file with its path.

Original publisher description

Poll RSS, JSON APIs, and GitHub with watermark dedup

✓

Data source

This entry was indexed from Hermes Optional Skills. Our explanation interprets the type and domain without inventing a capability not present upstream.

Security review

The source is official or editorially reviewed, but you still need to review permissions and version compatibility.

Safe setup path

Inspect, install, then test.

01
Open the source
Match the publisher, license, and description to your need. Check the real update history.
02
Review permissions and secrets
Never paste a secret value into this site. Use environment-variable names and grant the smallest scope.
03
Copy setup only after review
The controls below copy text. They do not execute commands on your device.
04
Test with a non-sensitive task
Inspect the visible tools, then exclude write or delete tools you do not need.

Install command

Review the command, then copy it.

hermes skills install watchers

Hermes Belarabi does not execute this command. Installation happens on your device and remains subject to Hermes scanning and your review.

The full skill definition

Exactly what Hermes loads when this skill runs.

Reproduced from the official documentation. Read it before enabling the skill: this text becomes the agent's instructions.

Poll RSS, JSON APIs, and GitHub with watermark dedup.

Skill metadata

A lookup table. Do not read it all; find the row that applies to you.

Source	Optional — install with `hermes skills install official/devops/watchers`
Path	`optional-skills/devops/watchers`
Version	`1.0.0`
Author	Hermes Agent
License	MIT
Platforms	linux, macos
Tags	`cron`, `polling`, `rss`, `github`, `http`, `automation`, `monitoring`

Reference: full SKILL.md

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

Poll external sources on an interval and react only to new items. Three ready-made scripts plus a shared watermark helper; wire them into a cron job (or run them ad-hoc from the terminal).

When to Use

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

User wants to watch an RSS/Atom feed and be notified of new entries
User wants to watch a GitHub repo's issues / pulls / releases / commits
User wants to poll an arbitrary JSON endpoint and get notified on new items
User asks for "a watcher for X" or "notify me when X changes"

Mental model

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

A watcher is just a script that:

Fetches data from the external source
Compares against a watermark file of previously-seen IDs
Writes the new watermark back
Prints new items to stdout (or nothing on no-change)

The scripts below handle all three. The agent runs them via the terminal tool — from a cron job, a webhook, or an interactive chat — and reports what's new.

Ready-made scripts

Settings you configure once. Change one at a time so you can see what each does. Set WATCHER_STATE_DIR in your environment, not in the chat.

All three live in $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/ once the skill is installed. Each reads WATCHER_STATE_DIR (defaults to $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/) for its state file, keyed by the --name argument.

Script	What it watches	Dedup key
`watch_rss.py`	RSS 2.0 or Atom feed URL	`<guid>` / `<id>`
`watch_http_json.py`	Any JSON endpoint returning a list of objects	Configurable id field
`watch_github.py`	GitHub issues / pulls / releases / commits for a repo	`id` / `sha`

All three:

First run records a baseline — never replays existing feed
Watermark is a bounded ID set (max 500) to cap memory
Output format: ## <title>\n<url>\n\n<optional body> per item
Empty stdout on no-new — the caller treats that as silent
Non-zero exit on fetch errors

Usage

Settings you configure once. Change one at a time so you can see what each does. Set HERMES_HOME, GITHUB_TOKEN in your environment, not in the chat.

Run a watcher directly from the terminal tool:

Shell2 lines

python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py \
  --name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss --max 5

Watch a GitHub repo (set GITHUB_TOKEN in ${HERMES_HOME:-~/.hermes}/.env to avoid the 60 req/hr anonymous rate limit):

Shell2 lines

python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_github.py \
  --name hermes-issues --repo NousResearch/hermes-agent --scope issues

Poll an arbitrary JSON API:

Shell3 lines

python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_http_json.py \
  --name api --url https://api.example.com/events \
  --id-field event_id --items-path data.events

Wiring into cron

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

Ask the agent to schedule a cron job with a prompt like:

Every 15 minutes, run watch_rss.py --name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss. If it prints anything, summarize the headlines and deliver them. If it prints nothing, stay silent.

The agent invokes the script via the terminal tool inside the cron job's agent loop; no changes to cron's built-in --script flag are needed.

State files

Settings you configure once. Change one at a time so you can see what each does. Set HERMES_HOME in your environment, not in the chat.

Every watcher writes $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/<name>.json. Inspect:

Shell1 line

cat $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/hn.json

Force a replay (next run treated as first poll):

Shell1 line

rm $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/hn.json

Writing your own

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

All three scripts use the same template: load watermark, fetch, diff, save, emit. scripts/_watermark.py is the shared helper; import it to get atomic writes + bounded ID set + first-run baseline for free. See any of the three reference scripts for how little boilerplate it takes.

Common Pitfalls

Explains the idea itself. Read it slowly; the later sections build on it.

Printing a "no new items" header every tick. Callers rely on empty stdout = silent. If you print anything on an empty delta, you spam the channel. The shipped scripts handle this; custom scripts must too.
Expecting the first run to emit items. It won't — first run records a baseline. If you need an initial digest, delete the state file after the first run or add a --prime-with-latest N flag in your own script.
Unbounded watermark growth. The shared helper caps at 500 IDs. Raise it for high-churn feeds; lower it on constrained filesystems.
Putting the state dir where the agent's sandbox can't write. $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/ is always writable. Docker/Modal backends may not see arbitrary host paths.