How to Build a Hermes AI Agent for Smart Boiler Automation
What happens when you spend an entire afternoon vibe-coding an AI agent to perfectly automate your smart boiler based on Israel's chaotic weather? You end up with a flawless, over-engineered system that brilliantly concludes… the sun is already doing the job for free. From fighting outdated firmware to dusting off an old Raspberry Pi 3, here is the story of how I built an automated solution for a problem that nature solves everyday.
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Time for a Side Project
The weather in Israel has been crazy for the last couple of years. It seems like every single day is completely different. It wasn’t always like that-I remember when winter was just a few months of straight rain, and the rest of the year was just hot summer. Nowadays, it’s more like Sunday sunny, Monday dusty, Thursday rainy. This means I have to constantly check the weather and manually tweak my smart boiler "Switcher" schedule every time things change. Then I thought, man, I could just hand this over to a simple AI agent and Home Assistant. So, this is the story of how I knocked out a one-day project to set up an AI agent to handle the boiler, so I never have to deal with it myself again.
My first thought was just to set up my Hermes VPS agent to check the forecast daily, use the Switcher API, and turn it on if it's cloudy. Sounds simple and clean. I'll create a skill with some Python scripts using Codex and deploy it to the VPS-I have Johnny over there, my first and only agent, and he can just handle the work.
So, I started planning and vibe-coding with Codex for an hour or so. When it finished its first coding session, it mentioned that I needed to edit a .env file for an API key and a Home Assistant URL. I didn't know what it was talking about - I was planning to just use the Switcher API to talk to it externally. Back then, you could easily get a Switcher API key through their site if you were a registered user. Anyway, I asked my coding agent to explain what I was missing, and apparently, I actually needed Home Assistant to finish the job. I looked into the Raspberry Pi 3 setup because I had an old Pi lying around doing nothing for a couple of years. I went to download the pre-configured Home Assistant OS from the raspberrypi.com/software page. They have a really easy, clean installer app now-you just download it, pop an SD card into your laptop, and burn the OS. Super straightforward.
Firmware Blocker
I completely lost my mind trying to figure out why the hell Home Assistant wouldn't start my boiler. I tried turning it on from the GUI dashboard, but I didn't get any errors or anything. Visually, it would just turn itself right back off. No matter what I tried, it just kept failing.
Codex kept telling me that the docs said to update the Switcher firmware, but I was being stubborn. I thought it was just trying to take the easy way out instead of finding the real issue.
The Bitter Pill of Being Wrong
After about two hours of staring at logs, rewriting Python functions that didn't need rewriting, and cursing at my Wi-Fi router, I finally gave in. I opened the official Switcher app on my phone, went to the settings, and there it was-a glowing, mocking little red dot next to "Firmware Update."
I tapped update, waited two minutes for the boiler switch to reboot, and went back to my Home Assistant dashboard. I clicked the toggle.
Click. The relay snapped shut, the light turned red, and Home Assistant actually registered that the boiler was on. I sat back in my chair, rubbed my eyes, and muttered a quick apology to Codex. Turns out the AI wasn't lazy; I was just dense. With the hardware finally cooperating, it was time to hook everything up to Johnny, my VPS agent, and let him do his thing.
The Plot Twist Ending
So, how did this epic automation project actually turn out?
Well, the code works flawlessly. Every single evening at exactly 20:00, Johnny triggers his script, runs through the decision matrix, and checks the weather forecast for the next day. Then, he pings my phone with a status update on whether he needs to schedule a morning boiler run.
But there’s a catch.
Because we live in Israel, almost every single day is just blazing, hot sunshine. Even with all the recent weather randomness, the sun still dominates the sky. So, despite all the hours I spent vibe-coding with Codex, troubleshooting Home Assistant, setting up environment variables, and fighting with outdated firmware... Johnny has yet to actually suggest turning on the boiler even once.
Every night at 8 PM, I just get a message telling me the sun has got it covered.
Was it a complete waste of an afternoon? Absolutely not. My old Raspberry Pi 3 has a purpose again, Johnny has a new skill on his resume, and the automation is sitting there, locked and loaded. Whenever the next crazy storm actually hits, Johnny will be ready. But until then, I'll just keep enjoying the free solar energy and the daily automated reminders of how beautifully over-engineered my life is.
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