Hermes Loop Master
Forces spec, RED/GREEN evidence and adversarial diff review before code ships
Test report
- Verdict
- Tested · Works
- Score
- Tested
- Jul 30, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
- Upstream re-checked
- Jul 30, 2026 · 474d222
⚠ This skill is no longer available upstream. Our re-check on Aug 10, 2026 couldn't find it any more (repo unreachable/deleted). The test below is what we measured on Jul 30, 2026 and we're leaving it up as a record — but there is nothing left to install, so we've removed the command.
Fixed the same duration-parser bug twice on identical repos, once free-hand and once under the loop. Both arms produced a green test suite, but the skill's mandated failure-path check exposed that the obvious regex fix silently returns 0 for 'banana' and '', 3600 for the typo '1h30', and 300 for '-5m' — a probe of ten inputs against both final versions diverged on five, with the no-skill version returning a wrong number where the skill version raises. The bundled harness_check.py is real and runs: it scored the loop artifacts 32/34, flagged two unchecked Done When boxes I had actually left open, correctly passed the good-loop and critical-loop fixtures and rejected the bad-loop fixture, and the repo's 36 unit tests pass. Costs three extra artifact files and roughly double the tool calls, so it earns its keep on risky work, not on typos. Note it is branded for Nous Research's Hermes Agent and its installer defaults to ~/.hermes, so Claude Code users must pass --target as in the command above.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 5/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 8/10
- Docs & honesty 4/5
What Hermes Loop Master does
A coding-discipline loop that makes the agent write a checkable execution contract, implement one slice at a time, prove behavior with RED/GREEN plus positive, negative, preservation and failure paths, then review its own diff against ten fake-done patterns before declaring work finished. Triggers on multi-step, production-facing, security-sensitive or cross-session coding tasks. Ships an executable harness that scores the loop artifacts, so the process is machine-checked rather than self-reported.
How to install Hermes Loop Master
Nothing to install: the source repository no longer has this skill. If the author brings it back, our daily re-check will pick it up and the command will reappear here.
Commands — how to trigger Hermes Loop Master
-
/hermes-loop-masterForces spec, RED/GREEN evidence and adversarial diff review before code ships
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
Fix this auth bypass in production, carefully, with proof it actually works -
Refactor the payment webhook handler, this will span a few sessions -
Continue yesterday's migration work under the RED/GREEN evidence loop
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Hermes Loop Master skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from s0heyl/hermes-loop-master. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does Hermes Loop Master work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 30, 2026. Verdict: Tested · Works. Fixed the same duration-parser bug twice on identical repos, once free-hand and once under the loop. Both arms produced a green test suite, but the skill's mandated failure-path check exposed that the obvious regex fix silently returns 0 for 'banana' and '', 3600 for the typo '1h30', and 300 for '-5m' — a probe of ten inputs against both final versions diverged on five, with the no-skill version returning a wrong number where the skill version raises. The bundled harness_check.py is real and runs: it scored the loop artifacts 32/34, flagged two unchecked Done When boxes I had actually left open, correctly passed the good-loop and critical-loop fixtures and rejected the bad-loop fixture, and the repo's 36 unit tests pass. Costs three extra artifact files and roughly double the tool calls, so it earns its keep on risky work, not on typos. Note it is branded for Nous Research's Hermes Agent and its installer defaults to ~/.hermes, so Claude Code users must pass --target as in the command above.
- What is the Hermes Loop Master SkillProof Score?
- 8.8/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 8/10, docs & honesty 4/5.
- How do I install Hermes Loop Master?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use Hermes Loop Master with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.