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Recipe: research a business question, with sources

Ask Hermes a business question that needs looking up (platforms, prices, rules) and get a short answer where every point has a link you can check.
Time needed 5 minutes
You need A Hermes agent connected to an AI model
Result A short report with source links, saved as a file

1. Ask a precise question

In CHAT, say what you want to decide, what to compare, how long the answer should be, and ask for sources. For example:

I want to sell my bakery products online in Portugal. Research and give me, in English, with a source link for each point: 3 options to take online orders (platform, approximate monthly cost, pros/cons), and the main legal obligations for selling food online in Portugal. Max 15 lines. Save it as workspace/online-shop-research.md.

2. Let Hermes search and read

  1. Hermes searches the web, then opens and reads the most useful pages (web_search, web_extract), and writes the file.
  2. It answers with the options and obligations it found, and says plainly what it did not cover and where the figures come from: "Several figures come from commercial guides rather than official pages, and this is not legal advice."

Hermes researches with sources

In our test this took about 2 minutes. The links are in the saved file, next to each point (download it from FILES → workspace).

Check the sources before you decide

Prices and rules change, and web pages can be wrong or out of date. Open the links for anything important, and confirm legal points with the official body or your accountant, as Hermes itself recommends.

Check that it worked

  • Open online-shop-research.md: every point has a link.
  • Open two or three links and check that they say what the report says.

Make it yours

  • "Find 5 flour suppliers near Porto with their contact page."
  • "What do my 3 nearest competitors charge for a birthday cake? Give links."
  • Repeat it every month as a scheduled task: "every 1st of the month, check if the prices in online-shop-research.md changed".

Common problems

Hermes gives an answer without links

Ask "give me the source link for each point". For decisions, always ask for sources in the first message.

The figures look wrong

Ask "where exactly did you find the €19/month?" and open the link. If a page is out of date, tell Hermes to look for an official or more recent source.

Next steps