Set up your first agent in 5 minutes
Step-by-step guide: from zero to a Hermes agent responding on Telegram. All you need is a bot token from @BotFather and your Telegram ID.
What you need before starting
- A Telegram account
- A bot created in @BotFather — free, takes 2 minutes
- Your numeric Telegram ID — get it from @userinfobot in seconds
That’s it. No server needed, no AWS account, no programming knowledge.
Step 1: Create the bot in BotFather (2 min)
- Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
- Send
/newbot - BotFather asks for the bot name — type your company name or any name
- BotFather asks for the username — must end in
bot, e.g.:acme_corp_bot - BotFather replies with the token — it looks like this:
123456789:AABBCCddEEFFggHHii...
Save that token. You need it in the next step.
Step 2: Get your Telegram ID
- Search for @userinfobot in Telegram
- Send it any message
- It replies with your User ID — a number like
987654321
Step 3: Message the martes.app admin
Send this message to the admin (via Telegram):
I want to activate my agent.
Company name: [your company]
Bot token: [the BotFather token]
Telegram ID: [your @userinfobot number]
The admin creates your tenant in ~30 seconds. You will receive a confirmation when it’s ready.
Step 4: Your agent is active
Open the bot you created in BotFather and send it anything. Hermes replies.
From the first message, Hermes:
- Starts learning who you are
- Has web search access
- Can execute Python code
- Can schedule automated tasks
- Can connect to your tools (next steps)
Useful commands to get started
/model → see current model and switch
/skills browse → explore available skills
/skills install notion → connect Notion
/cron add → schedule an automated task
/memory → see what it remembers about you
/help → see all commands
Step 5: Configure your own API key (optional, recommended)
The agent starts with a temporary platform key (30 days). For the service to continue beyond that, the client configures their own OpenRouter key:
- Create an account at openrouter.ai
- Generate an API key (free, you only pay for what you use)
- Message your agent:
Configure this OpenRouter API key: sk-or-v1-xxxxx
Hermes configures it alone, no restart, immediate effect.
Examples of what you can do from day one
Search for information:
"Search for the latest news on AI in Venezuela and give me a summary"
Schedule a report:
"Every Monday at 8am, remind me to review the week's pending payments"
Connect Airtable:
"Install the Airtable skill and connect my client database"
Automate:
"Whenever someone writes to me in this chat about a complaint, save it to my Airtable 'Support' table"
Got questions? Write to us here or directly to the admin via Telegram.