> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.boxd.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Personal assistants

> An always-on machine your assistant lives on, with tools, memory, and a messaging gateway.

A personal assistant needs a computer of its own, and a boxd machine is built to be one. Run Hermes, OpenClaw, or any assistant that lives on a box. The assistant's files, notes, cron jobs, tool logins, and half-finished work all sit on a persistent disk, and it answers webhooks at its own public HTTPS URL.

<Frame caption="/boxd-setup-hermes installs the Hermes assistant right on the machine.">
  <video autoPlay muted loop playsInline src="https://mintcdn.com/azin/psRZbQh2QwMUVL3U/videos/setup-hermes-2.mp4?fit=max&auto=format&n=psRZbQh2QwMUVL3U&q=85&s=1bf8570ccca245cad0f6813c0331b03d" data-path="videos/setup-hermes-2.mp4" />
</Frame>

## Put an assistant on a machine

Any assistant that runs on Linux can live here. [Hermes](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent) by Nous Research is one example, a self-improving CLI agent with a built-in messaging gateway for Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, and Signal, and it happens to be the one boxd ships a skill for. One command installs it on a machine:

```text theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
/boxd-setup-hermes
```

Run it from Claude Code on your laptop (it creates or reuses a VM and installs over `boxd machine exec`) or inside any machine, where the skill comes pre-baked. It runs Hermes' official installer, then hands you the interactive parts:

```bash theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
hermes setup     # pick an LLM provider, paste an API key
hermes           # start the agent
```

The skill can also expose Hermes' messaging gateway on the machine's public URL, so your chat apps reach it directly. See [Skills](/reference/skills) for what it installs.

Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode also ship on every machine, so `ssh mybot.boxd` and `claude` is a personal assistant with a computer too. See [Coding agents](/use-cases/coding-agents).

<Note>
  Hermes is an independent project by Nous Research. The skill automates installing it on a boxd machine.
</Note>

## Give it your tools

Connect [integrations](/guides/integrations/overview) once at the account level and every personal machine carries ready credentials for them:

* **Slack**: `SLACK_BOT_TOKEN` and `SLACK_USER_TOKEN` in the environment, for reading channels and posting as the bot or as you.
* **Linear**: `LINEAR_ACCESS_TOKEN` in the environment, for reading and filing issues over the GraphQL API.
* **GitHub**: `git` and `gh` work against your private repos with nothing to configure, for any tool that shells out to them.

The coding agents on the machine discover these on their own. An assistant framework brings its own configuration, so point it at these environment variables where it expects credentials. The values are already on the machine, which makes wiring it up a reference instead of a copy-paste.

Everything else the assistant needs, like API keys for its LLM provider or your services, goes in once through [env vars and secrets](/guides/env-secrets) and is injected into every machine you own. Secrets are sealed at rest and never readable back.

## Keep it awake

If your assistant runs background tasks like scheduled jobs, we recommend keeping its machine always on. Turn hibernation off with:

```bash theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
boxd machine config set mybot auto-hibernate.timeout 0
```