Course 4 - Personalise the agent and connect Telegram

Before this course, finish Courses 1, 2, and 3. You will need 30 minutes and a phone with Telegram installed.

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What this course does

By the end of this course, you will have:

• Answered 7 onboarding questions the agent uses to personalise itself
• Picked one of the eight essentials as your focus
• Connected Telegram so the agent can message you on your phone
• Set up the three daily rituals: Morning Minute, after-school chat, evening plan
• A working relationship with an agent that knows your name, your interests, and your week

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Lesson 1 - Why personalise

The agent by default knows nothing about you. It's like a new teacher who has read the curriculum but never met a student.

Personalisation is what makes it useful. Once the agent knows:

• Your name
• Your age (so the language fits)
• Your interests (so the activities connect to your world)
• Your challenges (so the agent knows what to be gentle about)
• Your energy pattern (so the planning happens at the right time)
• Your learning style (so the lessons use the right format)
• The essential you want to focus on

...the agent stops being generic. It starts being yours.

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Lesson 2 - The 7 onboarding questions

The agent will ask you these in order. Take your time. There are no wrong answers.

Q1: What's your name?

The agent will use your name in every conversation. Don't worry about formality - first name is fine.

Q2: How old are you?

This adjusts the language and the activity length. The agent uses simpler vocabulary for younger teens and gives more autonomy to older ones.

Q3: What do you like doing?

This is the personalisation key. Whether it's sport, music, gaming, reading, art, or something else - the agent will weave your interests into every lesson.

Examples: "football, drawing, hanging with my dog", "music production and gaming", "reading sci-fi and going for runs"

Q4: What's hard for you right now?

This is honest input. Could be school, friends, family, sleep, anxiety, motivation - whatever's real. The agent will use this to be gentle in the right places.

If you don't want to share, say "nothing comes to mind" and the agent will move on.

Q5: When do you have the most energy?

Morning, afternoon, or evening. The agent schedules its main activities for your high-energy window.

Q6: Do you learn better by reading, listening, or doing?

Reading: the agent gives you text to read and reflect on.

Listening: the agent generates audio and talks through it.

Doing: the agent gives you hands-on tasks.

Most people are a mix. If unsure, say "a bit of all three" and the agent will rotate.

Q7 (essential-specific): tell me your context

This depends on which essential you picked:

• Silent: "When was the last time you sat in complete silence? What was it like?"
• Body: "What's one thing your body does really well? What do you wish it did better?"
• Skills: "What's one thing adults do that you have no idea how to do?"
• Digital: "If you put your phone down for an hour, what would you do instead?"
• Community: "Who are the people you can be completely yourself with?"
• Knowledge: "When did you last memorise something? What was it?"
• Nature: "What's your favourite outdoor place? Where do you feel most alive?"
• Faith: "What's a time you did something hard because it was the right thing?"

There are no wrong answers. The agent uses your answer to tune the first lesson.

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Lesson 3 - Where the agent saves your answers

After you answer the 7 questions, the agent saves a summary to its memory.

Where to find it

In Hermes Desktop, click the profile icon or menu, then choose Memory or Profile.

You will see something like:

ONBOARDING SUMMARY
Profile: Silence & Stillness
Name: Alex
Age: 15
Interests: drawing, basketball, manga
Challenges: focus in class, sleep
Energy: afternoon
Learning style: doing
Essential insight: tried silence once, found it uncomfortable
Activity difficulty: medium

What it's used for

Every activity the agent runs from now on uses this profile. The Memory View shows you what the agent "knows" about you.

Check

• You can see your onboarding summary in Memory / Profile

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Lesson 4 - Pick your essential

You picked one during the onboarding. Revisit the choice.

The eight essentials

1. Silence & Stillness - learning to be quiet, to listen, to wait
2. Body as Temple - sleep, movement, hydration, body care
3. Skills - real-world competence: cooking, money, fixing things
4. Digital Self-Defence - understanding how attention gets stolen
5. Real Community - actual relationships, not just contacts
6. Knowledge Without Wi-Fi - wisdom stored in your own head
7. Prescribe Nature - time outside, slow rhythm, sunlight
8. Tested Faith - standing for something when it's hard

How to choose

If you picked one during onboarding, you can change it any time. The agent will design lessons around whatever you choose.

Changing it

In Hermes Settings, find Essential or Focus. Pick a new one. The agent will start designing around it from the next conversation.

Check

• You know which essential you're focused on
• You can change it if you want to

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Lesson 5 - Set up Telegram

The agent will message you on your phone through Telegram. Other options (WhatsApp, Discord) work similarly.

Install Telegram

1. Open the App Store (iPhone) or Play Store (Android)
2. Search for Telegram
3. Download and install
4. Open Telegram and create an account (your phone number)

Create a bot

The agent needs its own Telegram account, called a "bot."

1. In Telegram, search for @BotFather
2. Start a chat with BotFather
3. Send: /newbot
4. BotFather asks for a name. Type: My Afterschool Agent
5. BotFather asks for a username. Type something unique, ending in "bot" (e.g. alex_afterschool_agent_bot)
6. BotFather gives you a token - a long string of letters and numbers separated by colons

Save the token

Copy the token. You'll paste it into Hermes in the next step.

Check

• You have a Telegram bot token
• The bot appears in your Telegram contact list (you can search for it by username)

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Lesson 6 - Connect Telegram to Hermes

Steps

1. Open Hermes Desktop
2. Click Settings
3. Find Messaging Platforms or Integrations
4. Click Add Telegram
5. Paste the bot token from Lesson 5
6. Click Test Connection to confirm
7. Save settings

Test it

1. Open Telegram on your phone
2. Search for your bot's username (the one you picked in Lesson 5)
3. Tap Start
4. Send a message: "Hello"
5. The agent should reply within 10 seconds

Check

• You can message the bot in Telegram
• The bot replies with your agent's voice

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Lesson 7 - Schedule the Morning Minute

The Morning Minute is a 60-second audio message delivered at 6 AM. It opens the day's essential.

Steps

1. Open Hermes Settings
2. Find Scheduled Tasks or Cron
3. Click Add Schedule
4. Set:

• Name: Morning Minute
• Time: 06:00 daily
• Action: Generate audio of today's essential prompt
• Send to: Telegram (your bot)

1. Save

What it sounds like

A 60-second voice message to your phone. Friendly. Brief. It tells you which essential is in focus today and gives you one question to carry.

Check

• Tomorrow morning, your phone gets a 60-second audio message at 6 AM
• The voice is the agent's voice

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Lesson 8 - Schedule the after-school check-in

Every day at 4:30 PM, the agent messages you on Telegram to check in.

Steps

1. In Hermes Settings, Add Schedule
2. Set:

• Name: After-school check-in
• Time: 16:30 weekdays
• Action: Send "How was your day?" message
• Send to: Telegram

1. Save

What it does

Sends a short message to your phone. You reply. The agent replies. About 5 minutes of conversation.

Check

• Tomorrow at 4:30 PM, you get a message on your phone
• The conversation is about your day, not a lesson

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Lesson 9 - Schedule the evening plan

At 8 PM, the agent helps you plan tomorrow.

Steps

1. In Hermes Settings, Add Schedule
2. Set:

• Name: Evening Plan
• Time: 20:00 daily
• Action: Run tomorrow's planning session
• Send to: Telegram

1. Save

What it does

Asks you three questions:

• What's the most important thing tomorrow?
• What's one thing you want to do for yourself?
• What's one thing you want to do for someone else?

Writes a 3-line plan. Sends it to your phone. You wake up with direction.

Check

• Tomorrow at 8 PM, you get the planning prompt
• You reply with the three answers
• The agent sends back the plan

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Lesson 10 - Use the agent for a week

This is the real test. Use the agent naturally for 7 days.

Daily rhythm

• 6 AM: Morning Minute arrives on Telegram
• After school: The agent checks in
• 8 PM: You plan tomorrow
• Anytime: You open Hermes Desktop and chat

What to expect

• Day 1-2: The agent feels generic. Be patient.
• Day 3-4: The agent starts to remember things. It calls you by name. It knows your interests.
• Day 5-7: The agent feels like a real tutor. It references what you said yesterday. It builds on your week.

Adjust if needed

By the end of the week, you might want to:

• Change which essential is in focus
• Adjust the timing of the scheduled tasks
• Add a new schedule (e.g. weekend reflection)
• Drop a schedule that doesn't work

Check

• You used the agent every day for 7 days
• The rituals became automatic

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You're done with Course 4

When you finish this course, you have:

• A personalised agent that knows your name and interests
• A daily rhythm: Morning Minute, check-in, evening plan
• Telegram connected so the agent reaches you on your phone
• A working relationship with the agent that gets better every day

The four courses are done. The agent is yours.

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The next chapter

The first four courses get you set up. What follows is the curriculum itself - the eight essentials, taught one at a time, personalised by your agent.

You'll find the eight essentials curriculum in your hub. Each essential has 8-12 lessons. The agent walks you through them in order, but you can revisit any essential at any time.

The agent scales as you grow. By Month 6, you'll have had hundreds of conversations. By Month 12, you'll have a relationship with an agent that knows you better than any app ever has.

That's the goal. You're there.

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Troubleshooting

The Morning Minute didn't arrive at 6 AM

• Check that Hermes Desktop is running at 6 AM. The agent can't message you if it's offline.
• Check Hermes Settings > Scheduled Tasks. Confirm the time is correct.
• Check Telegram - the message might be in a different chat.

The bot replies in Telegram are very slow

• Cloud model delays. The local model is faster. Make sure LM Studio is running.

The agent doesn't remember my answers

• Check Hermes Settings > Memory. The summary should be there.
• If it's empty, re-run the onboarding (usually a button in Settings).

The agent is too chatty / not chatty enough

• Adjust the verbosity in Settings. Most agents have a 1-5 scale.

I want to change my essential

• Settings > Essential. Pick a new one. The agent will redesign the next lesson.

The Telegram bot stops working

• The token may have expired. Create a new bot with BotFather and update the token in Hermes.

I need to talk to a person

• Email go@getonetoeight.org or message the Afterschool Agent on Telegram.