Hermes agent for lead generation means using Nous Research's open-source agent to research a short list of good-fit businesses, pull facts from their public websites, draft a first message for each one, and log everything to a CRM or sheet, while a person reviews and sends every message. It works best as a quality tool, not a volume tool. This page maps the real Hermes Agent v0.23.0 features and catalog entries to each step, and says plainly which tools have no entry.
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What Hermes Agent for lead generation covers
Hermes Agent is an open-source agent from Nous Research, released under the MIT licence. The latest release is v0.23.0, "The Hearth Release", published on 5 November 2026. It runs on your own machine or server and can run jobs on a schedule.
For lead generation, that adds up to five jobs:
- Research a short list of businesses that match your ideal customer.
- Enrich each one from its own public website.
- Draft a personalised first message that a person edits and sends.
- Log the lead, source links and draft to a CRM or sheet.
- Send a daily digest or instant summary of new inbound leads to your team chat.
The aim is ten well-researched businesses, not a giant list. Hermes does the reading and the first draft. A person keeps the relationship.
The Hermes Agent lead generation toolkit
Research and enrichment
The browser_exec tool drives a real browser: navigate, read, click, type, scrape and screenshot. In v0.23.0 it replaced the older browser tools. Web search and web extract handle lighter lookups. Keep enrichment to public business information, and respect each site's terms and robots rules.
Schedules and inbound events
Cron jobs take plain-language schedules or cron expressions, can attach skills, and deliver results to chat, local files, or targets such as Telegram or Slack. The webhook adapter accepts POST requests, checks an HMAC signature, turns the payload into a prompt, and delivers the reply to Slack, Telegram, email and other targets.
CRM, sheet and booking connectors
Each connector below was checked against the v0.23.0 catalogs on GitHub.
- Attio (Nous-approved MCP catalog): "CRM records, lists, and notes in Attio."
- Close (Nous-approved MCP catalog): "Sales CRM: leads, opportunities, calls, and emails." Its voice-agent tools, which place real outbound AI phone calls, are off by default.
- Airtable (Nous-approved MCP catalog): bases, tables and records.
- Calendly (Nous-approved MCP catalog): scheduling links, events and invitees.
- Google Sheets and Gmail through the bundled google-workspace skill.
- Twenty CRM (community plugin, third-party): a self-hosted or external Twenty instance.
Outreach and compliance plugins (third-party)
Community-tier entries are third-party. A human review admitted them; Nous Research does not support them. Read each entry before you connect it.
- FOUND connects FOUND's hosted LinkedIn and email service: leads from buying signals with reasons, account research and drafted messages. FOUND states that campaigns created from Hermes start paused.
- LinkedCamp runs LinkedIn and email campaigns. Its launch and send tools reach real people, so Hermes asks before them and blocks them in unattended runs. LinkedIn's own terms still apply.
- Precleared checks each new cold-email recipient against rules such as UK PECR and UK GDPR, US CAN-SPAM and Canada's CASL, and sends anything not cleared to the approval prompt. It shares the recipient address and your pitch with Precleared's servers.
- Draft Cards shows drafts as cards in Hermes Desktop and never sends anything on its own.
No catalog entry
There is no HubSpot, Pipedrive, Apollo, GoHighLevel, ZoomInfo, Clay, Lemlist, Instantly or Hunter entry in either v0.23.0 catalog. Salesforce appears only as a Chatter messaging plugin, not a CRM data connector. You can add your own MCP server for any tool, but that is your setup, not a catalog entry.
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Hermes Agent for lead generation: task-by-task map
| Task | Hermes feature | Trigger | Approval point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build a short list of good-fit businesses | Web search plus browser_exec | You ask in chat | You review the list before anything is saved |
| Enrich each business from its public site | browser_exec, web extract | Same chat, or a weekly cron job | Source links kept beside every fact for checking |
| Draft a personalised first message | Skill plus Draft Cards or a Google Doc | After enrichment | A person edits and sends it |
| Log the lead | Attio, Close, Airtable, Twenty CRM or Google Sheets | After you approve the list | MCP write calls prompt when the server is marked untrusted |
| Summarise a new website form lead | Webhook route delivering to Slack or Telegram | Form sends a signed POST | Summary only; no reply goes out |
| Daily inbound digest and follow-up reminders | Cron job delivering to Telegram or Slack | Every weekday morning | Reminders only; a person follows up |
| Offer a meeting time | Calendly MCP | When a lead replies | The person sending the reply picks the link |
📺 Watch: Build a 24/7 Lead Generation Agent With Hermes
A Hermes Agent lead generation example: a two-person web design agency
This is an illustration, not a customer story. A two-person web design agency could ask Hermes on Monday morning: "Find ten independent dental practices in our city whose websites have no online booking. For each, note the practice name, the public contact page, one specific thing on the site we could improve, and the source link. Save them to the Leads sheet. Draft a three-sentence first email for each that mentions that one thing. Don't send anything."
Hermes searches, opens each site, writes the sheet rows, and returns ten drafts. One partner reads them, cuts any poor fits, edits the rest in their own voice, and sends from their own mailbox.
The same agency could then add a cron job: "Every weekday at 8am, check the Leads sheet for anyone we emailed five days ago with no reply, and post a reminder list to our Telegram chat." Hermes reminds. The partners decide who gets a follow-up.
For the selling side after a lead replies, see Hermes Agent for sales. For the content that brings inbound leads in, see Hermes Agent for marketing.
Inbound leads with Hermes Agent: form to webhook to team chat
Inbound leads carry the least risk, because the person asked to hear from you.
- Turn on the webhook adapter with hermes gateway setup and set a secret. Each route needs a secret for HMAC signature checks, so use a form tool or relay that can sign its POST.
- Add a route for your contact form and set its delivery target to Slack or Telegram.
- Write the route prompt: summarise the enquiry, check the company's public website, suggest a fit score, and draft a reply for a person to send.
Webhook and API sessions default to an unattended mode that denies dangerous commands, and cron jobs block them by default too. For the full cron setup, see the Hermes Agent cron job guide.
Hermes Agent lead generation rules: approvals, sending and the law
Hermes approvals cover dangerous commands and MCP write calls. They do not cover outgoing messages in general. So build the workflow so the agent drafts and a person sends.
- Mark outreach and CRM servers as untrusted in your MCP config, so every write-capable call asks first.
- Exclude tools you never want used, such as campaign launch or bulk send tools.
- Keep enrichment to public business information. Respect each site's terms and robots rules.
- Follow anti-spam and privacy laws where you and your prospects are, such as CAN-SPAM in the US and GDPR in the EU and UK. This is general information, not legal advice.
Before you pick a model for the drafting step, Goldie Bench is Julian's own model testing. For how this fits a wider agent setup, read the Agent OS guide.
Who Hermes Agent for lead generation fits, and who it doesn't
It fits
- Small agencies, consultants and service businesses that sell to a defined, findable group of businesses.
- Teams already on Attio, Close, Airtable, Twenty CRM or Google Sheets.
- Owners who want research and first drafts done, and still want to write the final word themselves.
- People comfortable running a self-hosted agent and editing a config file.
It doesn't fit
- Anyone who wants an agent to send cold messages at volume with nobody reading them.
- Teams whose CRM is HubSpot, Pipedrive or GoHighLevel and who need a ready catalog connector today.
- Businesses that sell mainly to consumers, where cold outreach rules are stricter.
- Anyone who wants a hosted product with no setup at all. Compare Grok Bot for lead generation, which runs in xAI's cloud.
FAQ: Hermes Agent for lead generation
Can Hermes Agent send cold emails by itself?
It can send mail through tools such as its email gateway or Gmail, but approvals do not gate outgoing messages in general. Set it up to draft, and have a person send. Outreach plugins such as LinkedCamp and FOUND are marked untrusted, so Hermes asks before their write tools and blocks them in unattended runs.
Does Hermes Agent work with HubSpot or Pipedrive?
Not through the v0.23.0 catalogs. Neither has an entry. Attio, Close, Airtable and Calendly are in the Nous-approved MCP catalog, and Twenty CRM is a community plugin.
How do I keep lead generation with Hermes Agent compliant?
Research public business information only, respect site terms and robots rules, follow laws such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR, honour opt-outs, and keep a person on every send. A plugin such as Precleared can flag recipients, but it does not replace legal advice.
Want the exact prompts, skills and cron jobs for this workflow? Join the AI Profit Boardroom, or book a free AI strategy session to plan lead generation with AI agents for your business. You can also book your free AI strategy session here and bring your current lead list.
