Buzz + Hermes Skills

A small, portable collection of Hermes Agent skills for operating Hermes through Buzz: connecting a remote Hermes gateway to a Buzz community and delivering local media as native Buzz attachments.

buzz-skills/
├── buzz-media-attachments/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── buzz-self-hosting/
│   └── SKILL.md
└── hermes-in-buzz/
    ├── SKILL.md
    └── scripts/
        ├── update_buzz_credentials.py
        └── hermes_buzz_credential_helper.rs

hermes-in-buzz/scripts/update_buzz_credentials.py is a cross-platform credential updater. It reads keys locally with hidden input, atomically updates the active Hermes profile's .env, and never accepts secrets in command-line arguments.

hermes_buzz_credential_helper.rs is an optional Rust helper intended to be built from the same pinned block/buzz source release as the Buzz CLI. It derives a public agent identity and creates NIP-OA owner attestations without placing private keys in argv.

Copy one or both skill directories into the active Hermes profile's skills directory, preserving all nested files:

# Default Hermes home
cp -R hermes-in-buzz buzz-media-attachments buzz-self-hosting ~/.hermes/skills/

On Windows, the equivalent default destination is:

%USERPROFILE%\.hermes\skills\

If HERMES_HOME is set or you use a profile-specific Hermes home, install under that resolved directory instead. Start a new Hermes session after copying so skill discovery refreshes.

For a Git-based install:

git clone https://github.com/tonbistudio/buzz-skills.git
cp -R buzz-skills/hermes-in-buzz buzz-skills/buzz-media-attachments ~/.hermes/skills/

In a fresh Hermes session:

/hermes-in-buzz

Or ask:

Use the hermes-in-buzz skill to connect this Hermes host to my Buzz community.

The skill defaults to the native Hermes gateway topology:

Buzz Desktop / web client
          │
          ▼
      Buzz relay
          ▲
          │ Nostr WebSocket + Buzz CLI
          │
Remote Hermes gateway

The Buzz client and Hermes host connect independently to the relay; the client does not need an SSH connection to the Hermes machine and can be offline while the gateway keeps running.

Ask Hermes to attach a local video, GIF, or other supported media file to the current Buzz chat. The buzz-media-attachments skill verifies the source, finds the live channel UUID, invokes the Buzz CLI's native file attachment mechanism, and checks Buzz's returned acceptance result.

For MP4 files rejected by the relay, the skill first diagnoses the relay error, then uses a fast-start remux or canonical metadata-free H.264/AAC re-encode when needed. It can convert short clips to animated GIFs when the user requests an image attachment or canonical MP4 is unsuitable.

• Use a dedicated Buzz agent identity; never reuse a human owner's nsec as the agent key.
• Never paste private keys, auth tags, API tokens, or owner credentials into chat.
• Keys are entered locally with hidden input and are never passed through command-line arguments.
• Default to allow_all_users: false, an explicit owner allowlist, and require_mention: true.
• Write non-secret Hermes settings with hermes config set, not by manually editing config.yaml.
• Do not report a connection or attachment as successful solely from process state: verify a real relay/CLI result and, for gateway setup, a live inbound and outbound Buzz exchange.
• Load .env files with a dotenv parser rather than shell-sourcing them. BUZZ_AUTH_TAG may contain JSON that shell parsing can corrupt.

The exact requirements depend on the skill path and target platform, but typically include:

• Hermes Agent with gateway support
• A Buzz relay URL and a dedicated agent identity
• The external buzz CLI for outbound messages
• Python for update_buzz_credentials.py
• Rust/Cargo only when building Buzz or the optional credential helper from source
• FFmpeg/FFprobe for media inspection, MP4 repair, and GIF conversion

Before setting up a gateway, consult the current Hermes and Buzz documentation. The hermes-in-buzz skill treats the official Hermes Buzz integration documentation and the latest stable block/buzz release as authoritative when they differ from the skill text.

The hermes-in-buzz skill metadata declares the MIT license. Unless a separate license file is added, verify licensing expectations before redistributing the repository as a whole.