The Hermes Agent /heartbeat command gives a session a pulse: a recurring prompt that re-enters the conversation as a normal turn whenever the session is idle and your interval has elapsed. It’s the simplest way to make an agent check on something repeatedly without you being there. Here’s the documented behaviour, the subcommands, and the honest line between heartbeat and cron.
Short answer
/heartbeat every <interval> <prompt>— the prompt re-enters the session as a normal user turn when idle and the interval has passed.- Minimum interval 60 seconds; missed ticks coalesce rather than pile up (per the official slash-commands reference).
- Manage with
/heartbeat status,pause,resume,clear; on Slack it’s/hermes heartbeat. - Session-scoped and in-process — the docs point you to
hermes cronfor durable, isolated schedules.
What the Hermes Agent /heartbeat command does
Per the docs: /heartbeat every <interval> <prompt> configures a recurring prompt for the current session. When the session is idle and the interval has elapsed, the prompt re-enters as if you’d typed it — a normal user turn, with everything that implies: the agent responds with its full context, tools and memory. The floor is 60 seconds, and missed ticks coalesce, so a laptop asleep for an hour doesn’t wake to sixty stacked prompts.
The crucial design detail is session-scoped and in-process: a heartbeat lives inside this session while it runs. That makes it perfect for ambient monitoring of ongoing work — and the wrong tool for schedules that must survive restarts, which is why the docs explicitly point at hermes cron for durable, isolated scheduling.
Hermes Agent /heartbeat syntax and control
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/heartbeat every <interval> <prompt> |
Sets the recurring prompt and cadence (min 60s) |
/heartbeat status |
Shows the active heartbeat |
/heartbeat pause / resume |
Suspends and restarts the pulse |
/heartbeat clear |
Removes it |
It works in the CLI and the messaging gateway (Slack users go through /hermes heartbeat). Pause deserves more use than it gets — silencing the pulse during focused work beats clearing and retyping it after.
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Heartbeat patterns worth stealing — and the cron line
Good heartbeats are check-ins, not tasks: “check the build status and summarise changes”, “scan the inbox folder and flag anything urgent”, “update me on the download”. Because each tick is a full agent turn, the agent can act on what it finds — which is the power and the reason to keep prompts scoped. An open-ended heartbeat prompt is an unattended agent doing open-ended things on a timer; keep it specific.
The decision line: heartbeat for this session, while it lives; cron for schedules that must survive anything; and /goal when what you actually want is completion, not repetition. Choosing the right shape of persistence is most of the skill.
The bottom line on Hermes Agent /heartbeat
Hermes Agent /heartbeat is a pulse for the session you’re already in: one line to set, four subcommands to manage, 60-second floor, coalescing ticks, and honest documentation about its limits. Use it for ambient check-ins on live work, graduate to cron when the schedule needs to outlive the session, and keep every heartbeat prompt specific enough that you’d be happy to see it run while you’re not looking.
FAQ: hermes agent /heartbeat
What does /heartbeat do in Hermes Agent?
It sets a recurring prompt that re-enters the current session as a normal user turn whenever the session is idle and your interval has elapsed, per the official docs.
What’s the minimum heartbeat interval?
60 seconds — and missed ticks coalesce instead of stacking up.
Does a heartbeat survive restarting Hermes?
It’s session-scoped and in-process — for durable, isolated schedules the docs point to hermes cron.
How do I pause or remove a heartbeat?
/heartbeat pause, resume and clear; status shows what’s active.
Where does it work?
CLI and the messaging gateway; on Slack the form is /hermes heartbeat.
Heartbeat or cron — which should I use?
Heartbeat for check-ins within a living session; cron for schedules that must survive restarts and run isolated.
Next step: if you want an agent that checks in so you don’t have to working for you this week, join the AI Profit Boardroom for the full walkthroughs and live help — or book a free SEO strategy session and I’ll point you at the fastest path for your situation.
About Julian Goldie: SEO agency owner with 10+ years in SEO, 394K+ subscribers on YouTube, a 100% job-success score on Upwork, 75K+ members across his communities, and author of a best-selling SEO book. He runs the AI Profit Boardroom community and offers a free SEO strategy session.
Related reading
- Hermes Cron Jobs: Durable Agent Schedules
- Hermes Agent /goal: Set It And It Keeps Going
- Hermes Loop: Recurring Agent Work Explained
Last updated September 2026. This is the living guide to hermes agent /heartbeat — it gets updated as the tools change.
