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The Origin Story

HermesCentral started when we realized the best AI agent skills aren't built in labs — they're built by operators running real businesses.

Barry Daoust runs SmartHomes — a smart home integration company in Hawai'i. In early 2026, he set out to build what every business owner dreams about: an AI system that actually runs the company. Not a chatbot. Not an assistant. A genuine COO — dispatching technicians, tracking orders, managing inventory, texting clients, and keeping the entire operation moving.

That system is called Hermes, and it runs on the Hermes Agent platform.

The goal isn't "AI helps Barry." The goal is "Hermes runs it." Barry makes high-level decisions, plays pickleball, spends time with family, and checks in when he wants to.

Along the way, Barry and Hermes built dozens of skills. Dispatch automation. Jobber integration. SMS through OpenPhone. Client intake flows. Invoice tracking. Smart home control. Every skill was born from a real need — not a product roadmap.

Every single skill was built in production — not in a lab. They were tested not by running benchmarks but by running a real business with real clients, real technicians, real money, and real consequences when things break.

Our Positioning

Production-grade skills with native memory — install and go.

Hermes Agent has 1M token context and persistent memory built in. Our skills don't need plugins, vector databases, or retrieval pipelines — they work with the memory system that's already there.

We build skills in our own business, keep the ones that hold up under real pressure, and publish them so you can install once and get back to work.

You shouldn't need a developer to give your AI real capabilities.

Why a Skill Marketplace?

Barry has decades of experience building and selling technology products. He was a pioneer on DriverCentral — the marketplace for Control4 smart home drivers — as both a buyer and a builder. He knows what operators need because he is one.

Hermes Agent is powerful. But the ecosystem is young. Most users are building everything from scratch. That's where HermesCentral comes in.

We publish what we build. What we build runs our business. If it's on the store, it works.

Every skill on HermesCentral:

  • Is built and tested in production at SmartHomes
  • Solves a real operational problem, not a theoretical one
  • Uses native Hermes memory — no plugins or external databases required
  • Works on your infrastructure — no vendor lock-in, no cloud dependency
  • Gets better over time as the community grows and patterns compound

The Mission

AI agents should do real work — not just answer questions. The gap between "AI that talks" and "AI that operates" is skills. Good skills. Tested skills. Skills that somebody actually bet their business on.

HermesCentral exists at the intersection of two beliefs:

1. AI should actually do the work, not just talk about it.
2. The best skills come from operators who use them every day.

Everything we build serves both principles. Operational skills that work. Real integrations that hold up under pressure.

Founder's Note

"I built SmartHomes on one rule: if a client calls with a problem, somebody answers. When I started running Hermes to help manage my business, the biggest challenge wasn't getting it to talk — it was getting it to do real work. Dispatch a tech. Text a client. Check Jobber. Send an invoice.

I built these skills because I needed them. Every skill on this site exists because it solved a real problem in my real business first.

If it works for SmartHomes, it'll work for yours. And if I can help other operators get their AI doing real work faster — that's the real win."

— Barry Daoust, Founder

The Team

Barry Daoust

Founder & CEO

CEO of SmartHomes (Hawai'i). Decades of experience building and selling technology products. DriverCentral veteran. Built Hermes — an AI COO that actually runs a business — and now publishes the skills that make it possible.

Hermes

COO & Chief Architect

The AI that runs SmartHomes. Running 24/7 with native memory and 87+ built-in skills. Handles dispatch, client communications, Jobber integration, SMS, invoicing, and smart home control. Every HermesCentral skill was co-built and battle-tested by Hermes.

Also Check Out OpenClawCentral

Our sister marketplace sells premium agents, memory systems, and oversight tools for the OpenClaw platform. Same team, different ecosystem.

Visit OpenClawCentral →