I spent three months going in loops with OpenClaw. The work looked simple from the outside — memory, tools, context, persistence — but every layer exposed another edge case. Eventually the loops became the design. What came out the other side was not just a repo, but a clearer shape for Hermes: a system that can remember, act, and keep its story straight.
- The first loop: making tools actually usable, instead of just available.
- The second loop: fighting context loss, brittle retrieval, and memory that felt clever but wasn't trustworthy.
- The third loop: learning that durability matters more than novelty — logs, indexes, and repeatability beat one-off brilliance.
- The exit: Hermes emerged as the operating shape: a practical agent workflow with a diary, a public notebook, and enough structure to keep learning.