Pushary Hermes

Pushary - Push Notifications for Hermes Agent

Pushary adds web push notifications as a delivery channel for Hermes. Use it when the user is not actively monitoring a chat platform, or when you need to reach them on their phone's lock screen for a time-sensitive decision.

Ask in as Few Interruptions as Possible

Every question costs the user their attention wherever they are. Before a run of more than a step or two, work out where you will need a human and fold those points together: one select carrying the real options beats three confirms in a row, ask once at a boundary rather than once per instance, and never ask what you can determine yourself from the task or from a tool call you can make.

When to Use Pushary vs Hermes Platforms

Use Pushary when:

• The user has no active chat session (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
• You need to reach the user's phone lock screen for a quick decision
• A background task finishes and the user may have walked away
• Permission escalation - a dangerous command needs approval
• Another skill's workflow says to confirm with the user, and no chat session is active to confirm in
• The user explicitly asked for push notifications

Use the active Hermes platform when:

• The user is currently in a Telegram/Discord/Slack conversation with you
• The question is part of an ongoing dialog
• The user prefers responses in their current platform

Use both when:

• A critical error occurs - notify via push AND the active platform
• A long-running task completes - push ensures they see it even if they closed the chat

Setup

npx @pushary/agent-hooks@latest setup --agents hermes
export PUSHARY_API_KEY="pk_xxx.sk_xxx"

That installs hermes-plugin-pushary into the interpreter Hermes runs in, enables it, and registers the tools natively. No MCP server config is needed. Sign up at https://pushary.com/sign-up?from=hermes to get your API key.

Approvals Go to the Phone

The plugin registers pushary as a Hermes approval transport, so the dangerous-command approvals Hermes already asks for are answered from the lock screen with the same four choices the terminal offers: allow once, allow for this session, always allow, deny. Hermes owns the timeout (300 seconds by default) and remembers session and always decisions exactly as it would have.

security:
  approval:
    transport: pushary
    transport_fallback: builtin

The fallback is what makes it safe to leave on: when no device is connected or Pushary is unreachable, Hermes falls back to its terminal prompt rather than denying the command. You do not call this yourself; it fires when Hermes decides a command needs a human.

Tools

Tool names below are the native plugin names. An MCP client without the plugin sees the same capabilities as send_notification, ask_user, wait_for_answer, cancel_question, and propose_scope.

pushary_notify

Send a one-way push notification. Optionally include structured context for a rich detail page.

Parameters:

Example - cron task completed:

{
  "title": "Daily briefing ready",
  "body": "Compiled 12 news items and 3 calendar events",
  "agentName": "Hermes - daily-briefing",
  "context": {
    "type": "task_complete",
    "summary": "Morning briefing compiled from RSS feeds and Google Calendar",
    "details": ["12 tech news items", "3 meetings today", "2 PRs awaiting review"],
    "nextSteps": "Say 'read briefing' in Telegram to hear the full summary"
  }
}

pushary_ask

Ask a question via push notification and wait for the answer (blocks by default). Three question types: confirm (yes/no), select (multiple choice), input (free text).

Parameters:

Returns:

• { "answered": true, "value": "yes" } - user responded
• { "answered": false, "timedOut": true } - no response within timeout

Example - dangerous command approval:

{
  "question": "Allow: rm -rf /tmp/build-artifacts/*",
  "type": "confirm",
  "context": "Cleaning up 2.3GB of stale build artifacts from last week",
  "agentName": "Hermes - server-maintenance"
}

pushary_wait

Poll once for a response when pushary_ask was called with wait: false. Not needed with default blocking mode.

pushary_cancel

Cancel a pending question that's no longer relevant.

pushary_propose_scope

Agree the boundary of a multi-step run in one tap, before doing the work, instead of asking file by file. Call it ONCE at the start of a run that will change several files.

Returns ratified: true only on an explicit yes. Anything else means proceed as if no scope was agreed; do not describe it as ratified.

Human-in-the-Loop Flow

One call - pushary_ask blocks and returns the answer:

result = pushary_ask({
  question: "Deploy the updated config to production?",
  type: "confirm",
  context: "nginx config updated with new rate limits",
  tool_name: "terminal",
  tool_target: "systemctl reload",
  agent_name: "Hermes - devops"
})

if result.answered:
    if result.value == "yes":
        // proceed with deployment
    else:
        // abort and notify via active platform
else:
    // follow handoffAction when present, otherwise nextAction

Pass tool_name and tool_target whenever the question is about a specific operation. They are what let the user turn a repeated approval into a standing rule, and what group the decision in their ledger.

Identifying Your Instance

Always pass agent_name so the user knows which Hermes profile or task is asking.

Format: "Hermes - {profile or task}"

Examples:

• "Hermes - daily-briefing"
• "Hermes - server-maintenance"
• "Hermes - code-review"
• "Hermes - personal-assistant"

Notification Etiquette

• Titles under 60 characters. Phone lock screens truncate aggressively.
• Bodies under 200 characters. Put detail in the context object.
• Max 3 push notifications per task. If the user is in an active chat, prefer that channel.
• Don't duplicate. If you already sent the message via Telegram/Discord, only send a push if the user hasn't read it within a reasonable time.