---
title: "Cut Your Hermes Agent Token Bill: 10 Tips With Copy-Paste Prompts | Komputer Mechanic"
url: https://komputermechanic.com/tutorials/hermes-agent-token-saving
description: "Cut your Hermes Agent token bill with 10 tips: /context and /usage, fresh chats, subagents, auto-prune, fewer tools and skills, a short SOUL, a cheaper model for background jobs and scheduled jobs that only wake the model when something is new. Every prompt from the video."
lang: en
---

Home (https://komputermechanic.com/)Tutorials (https://komputermechanic.com/tutorials)Cut Your Hermes Token Bill

AI Agents // Hermes

# Cut Your Hermes Agent Token Bill: 10 Tips, Every Prompt

Ten ways to make Hermes Agent use fewer tokens without making it worse: see where the tokens go, start fresh chats, hand big reading to a subagent, switch off background work, prune old tool results, trim tools, skills and your SOUL, move small jobs to a cheaper model, and stop waking your agent for nothing. Every prompt from the video, in order.

16 prompts · 10 parts · copy-paste ready

43 builders viewed

— Watch the Full Tutorial

## // Contents

### Tip 01 / 10 — See where your tokens go

- 1 See what goes out with every message
- 2 See what the whole session used

### Tip 02 / 10 — Start a fresh chat when the topic changes

- 3 Start a new session
- 4 Compress a long chat

### Tip 03 / 10 — Let a helper agent do the big reading

- 5 Hand the research to a subagent

### Tip 04 / 10 — Switch off the work you never asked for

- 6 Find the background jobs
- 7 Switch the background jobs off

### Tip 05 / 10 — Let Hermes clean up old tool results

- 8 Turn on auto-prune

### Tip 06 / 10 — Turn off the tools you don't use

- 9 Find the tools you don't need
- 10 Switch those tools off
- 11 Check your other agents

### Tip 07 / 10 — Keep your always-on text short

- 12 Move long instructions into skills

### Tip 08 / 10 — Clear out the skills you never use

- 13 Find the skills you never use
- 14 Switch those skills off

### Tip 09 / 10 — Give the small jobs to a cheaper model

- 15 Put background jobs on a cheaper model

### Tip 10 / 10 — Don't wake your agent for nothing

- 16 Only wake the agent when something is new

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

## Prerequisites

- ▸ Hermes Agent installed and answering (Telegram or terminal chat)
- ▸ Words in [square brackets] in the prompts are yours to fill in

Paste each prompt into your Hermes agent, in its Telegram chat or its terminal chat. These are the prompts used in the tests on camera; only the [brackets] are new.

Tip 01 / 10

## See where your tokens go

PROMPT 1

### See what goes out with every message

your Hermes agent

Type these straight into the chat, one at a time:

```
/context
```

PROMPT 2

### See what the whole session used

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
/usage
```

`/context` shows what goes out with every message, piece by piece. `/usage` shows the whole session: how many calls to the model it took, and how many tokens it read.

Tip 02 / 10

## Start a fresh chat when the topic changes

PROMPT 3

### Start a new session

your Hermes agent

When the topic changes, start a new session:

Show full prompt

```
/new
```

PROMPT 4

### Compress a long chat

your Hermes agent

Your agent keeps its memory and instructions. If a chat has to stay long, type this at a good stopping point instead. It costs one call to the model, so it pays off on a long chat, not a short one:

Show full prompt

```
/compress
```

Tip 03 / 10

## Let a helper agent do the big reading

PROMPT 5

### Hand the research to a subagent

your Hermes agent

Give big research jobs to a subagent, so all the reading stays out of your chat:

Show full prompt

```
Don't do this research yourself. Hand the whole job to one subagent, and give me back just its
5 bullet points: [YOUR RESEARCH JOB]
```

The example from the video: "find the 5 most-viewed YouTube videos about Hermes Agent from the last month, get their transcripts, and work out what their first 30 seconds have in common." The helper works in the background, so wait for its answer.

Tip 04 / 10

## Switch off the work you never asked for

PROMPT 6

### Find the background jobs

your Hermes agent

First, see what runs behind your messages:

Show full prompt

```
Which background jobs do you run on your own after my messages, like reviewing memory or making
chat titles? And how many model calls have they made on this machine so far?
```

PROMPT 7

### Switch the background jobs off

your Hermes agent

Then switch them off:

Show full prompt

```
Switch off the background review that runs after every turn, and the automatic chat titles.
Change the settings themselves, not a memory note.
```

Your agent still remembers what you tell it to remember, and you can name a chat yourself.

Tip 05 / 10

## Let Hermes clean up old tool results

PROMPT 8

### Turn on auto-prune

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Turn on auto-prune for old tool results in our chats, starting at 48,000 tokens.
```

The setting is off until you give it a number. It never touches your messages or the agent's answers, and it costs no extra call to the model.

Tip 06 / 10

## Turn off the tools you don't use

PROMPT 9

### Find the tools you don't need

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Which of your tools and add-ons have we never used, and which don't I need for [YOUR JOB]?
Give me a numbered list.
```

PROMPT 10

### Switch those tools off

your Hermes agent

Then tell it which ones to switch off, by their numbers:

Show full prompt

```
Switch off numbers [X, Y, Z].
```

PROMPT 11

### Check your other agents

each of your other agents

If you run more than one agent, check every one of them. Paste this into each other agent:

Show full prompt

```
You're my [ROLE] agent now. You only [WHAT IT DOES]. Which of your tools don't you need for
that job?
```

Tip 07 / 10

## Keep your always-on text short

PROMPT 12

### Move long instructions into skills

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Move any long, task-specific instructions out of your SOUL into skills, and keep your SOUL short.
```

A skill only sends its name and one line until your agent needs it.

Tip 08 / 10

## Clear out the skills you never use

PROMPT 13

### Find the skills you never use

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Which of your built-in skills have we never used, and which won't I need for [YOUR JOB]?
Group them.
```

PROMPT 14

### Switch those skills off

your Hermes agent

Then:

Show full prompt

```
Switch off those groups.
```

Tip 09 / 10

## Give the small jobs to a cheaper model

PROMPT 15

### Put background jobs on a cheaper model

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Put your background jobs on a cheaper model. Keep the main chat on the model it uses now.
```

Then type `/new` so the change kicks in. If a helper or a scheduled job needs real thinking, keep that one on the strong model.

Tip 10 / 10

## Don't wake your agent for nothing

PROMPT 16

### Only wake the agent when something is new

your Hermes agent

Show full prompt

```
Change the [JOB NAME] job so it only wakes you up when [something new has actually arrived].
```

The agent writes a small check that runs first. If there's nothing new, the model isn't called at all, so an empty run costs nothing.

All 16 prompts are. Or skip the setup:

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## // What you're building toward

An agent that spends its tokens on your work: short always-on text, only the tools it needs, background jobs on a cheaper model, and nothing running when there is nothing to do.

Stuck on a step? Drop a comment on the video, or book a session and we'll walk through it together.

### Usage & License

Use the prompts and downloadable templates on this page in your own personal and commercial projects. What's not allowed: reselling, repackaging, redistributing, or republishing this material — on YouTube, Gumroad, paid courses, newsletters, or anywhere else. Send people to https://komputermechanic.com/ instead. Violations get reported and taken down.

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