All lessons
19 lessons across 3 guided paths
Read in order, or jump to the path that matches your next decision: agents, models, or projects.
AI Agents
Start here if you want an AI assistant that can actually do work.
What Is Hermes Agent? A Beginner's Guide to AI Agent Harnesses (2026)
An AI agent harness wraps a model so it can read files, run commands, schedule jobs, and remember context across sessions. Hermes is the harness we'll use in this course.
How to Install Hermes Agent for Beginners (2026): Mac and VPS, Step-by-Step
Install Hermes on Mac or VPS in under twenty minutes. Pick a model, paste an API key, verify with `hermes doctor`.
Hermes Agent TUI vs Desktop App: Which One Should You Use in 2026?
Hermes Agent has two interfaces — a Terminal User Interface (TUI) and a Desktop App. Both run the same agent underneath. Here's how to pick the right surface for the work, and when to run both at once.
Hermes Agent Skills and Skill Bundles Explained for Beginners (2026)
How to turn the prompts you keep re-typing into reusable Skills, and how to group them into Skill Bundles so one slash command replaces five.
Hermes Agent MCP Catalog & Integrations: Connect to Linear, GitHub, Notion (2026)
MCP is how Hermes talks to outside apps. The built-in catalog makes it four commands. Here's the catalog-vs-custom mental model, the four commands, and how to install Linear without breaking anything.
How to Pick the Cheapest AI Model for Hermes Agent (2026 Cost Guide)
The model you pick is the single biggest factor in your monthly bill. Here is how to read pricing tables, route cheap tasks to cheap models, and set a $20 budget cap on day one.
How to Secure Your Hermes Agent (2026): Tailscale, Scoped Keys, and the #1 Mistake
The one-port-away risk every Hermes VPS install faces, and the 20-minute Tailscale + scoped-keys setup that closes it before you ever connect a paid model account.
Hermes Agent Automation: Cron, Kanban, and Sub-Agents (2026)
How to run Hermes on autopilot — daily cron jobs, multi-agent Kanban boards, and sub-agent delegation — and the gotchas that waste hours if you skip this lesson.
Hermes Agent vs Claude Code vs Mavis vs Gemini: Which One Should a Beginner Pick in 2026?
Four serious AI agent harnesses ship in 2026: Hermes, Claude Code, Mavis, Google Gemini. Pick by workload, not marketing.
AI Models
Pick the right model for the job without drowning in benchmarks.
What Is an AI Model Tier List? A Beginner's Guide to Comparing LLMs (2026)
Why 'best model' is the wrong question — and a 4-tier mental model that maps any workload to the cheapest model that will actually handle it.
Haiku vs Sonnet vs Opus: The Anthropic Model Family Explained (2026)
Anthropic ships three Claude tiers in 2026 — Haiku, Sonnet, Opus — and most beginners waste hundreds of dollars a month picking the wrong one. Here's the plain-English framework for matching tier to task.
Chinese Open-Weight Models in 2026: DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen, GLM, MiniMax, StepFun
Six Chinese open-weight labs, what each is best at, and how to pick the right one without confusing 'open-weight' with 'open-source' or 'free API'.
Qwen, MiniMax, and GLM: The Cost-Efficient AI Model Tier for 2026
Qwen, MiniMax, and GLM handle 80% of daily work at 5–20x lower cost than Claude Opus 4.8. Pick by workload, not by price.
Frontier vs Open-Weight AI Models: How to Pick in 2026 (Decision Framework)
The synthesis of L01–L04 into a single decision framework: given a task, what type of model do you choose — and when do you switch tiers mid-project?
AI Projects
Move from watching tools to shipping something useful.
What Is Claude Code? A Beginner's Guide to Coding Harnesses (2026)
What a coding harness is, where Claude Code sits in your dev loop, and when to use it instead of Hermes or Cursor.
Vibe Coding vs Real Coding in 2026: Which One Should You Use?
Vibe coding is for prototypes you'll throw away. Real coding is for anything that has to keep working. Here's the 2x2 framework for picking which one to use, and when to switch from one to the other mid-project.
Build a Side Project with Hermes + Claude Code in One Weekend (2026)
What one person can realistically ship in a weekend with Hermes doing the spec and Claude Code doing the build, and how to set up the handoff between them.
How to Build a Niche Directory Site with AI in 2026 (Honest Guide)
The '20K a month niche directory' claim is real but conditional — this lesson explains the three layers that have to work, the prerequisite 90% of beginners don't have, and whether AI changes the math.
The Online Business Stack for 2026: A Small Operator's Field Guide
A small online business in 2026 is mostly automated scripts. Here is the stack — landing page, product, email, monetization, analytics — and which pieces to automate first.