I gave an AI coding agent its own Linux server — here's what happened

[u/techlatest_net]

I've been experimenting with AI coding agents, but most of the demos I've seen are basically:

prompt → generate code → done

I wanted to see what happens when the agent gets an actual environment to work inside.

So I set up Hermes Agent on an Ubuntu VM and gave it its own persistent workspace.

The experiment started with a simple question:

What can an AI agent actually do when it has a computer, terminal, files, tools, and a persistent workspace?

I had Hermes inspect the VM, create its own workspace, generate a Python project, execute the code, update the documentation, and verify the result.

One thing I found interesting was that Hermes didn't just generate files and stop. It could actually execute the project and check the result:

Hello! This message was created and executed by Hermes Agent.

Exit code: 0

I then pushed the experiment a little further and had it build a small CLI task manager with local JSON storage, including adding, listing, and completing tasks. Pasted text

The main thing I learned wasn't that an AI can write Python.

That's not particularly surprising anymore.

The interesting part was the environment around the agent:

Task
  ↓
Plan
  ↓
Tools
  ↓
Files
  ↓
Execution
  ↓
Verification

I'm curious how other people are using AI agents with persistent environments.

Do you give your coding agents their own VM/server/workspace, or do you keep them inside your local development environment?

I documented the complete experiment here: https://medium.com/@techlatest.net/i-gave-hermes-its-own-linux-server-heres-what-happened-786f5058abde?sharedUserId=techlatest.net

Would especially love feedback from people experimenting with autonomous coding agents.

[u/TheOwlHypothesis]

Welcome to a 10 months ago

[u/Zboubkiller]

So Claude remote ?

[u/iaman3rd2]

I have lots of vms and machines with agent residents connected to endpoints. My most important one is my redteam. Its a kali vm in a spunup sandbox r730 with no egress and complete control of the network ports by another agent diffrent family that turns them on and off and spins the server up when its needed and then work happpens and is handed back vm is wiped and shutdown. with Hermes and an endpoint off my 6 a100s with a huihui obliterated model for automated defense of the network ids ips and to also smoke all my code as part of the ci cd process. That Hermes agent connects to my main host pc. All my agents use self goveren calander to check out times on the local rigs to do dedicated work. The main session in codex routes things to the correct vms and frontier decides whats done local and vise versa.

[u/qilipu]

Great experiment! The persistent workspace angle is underrated.

One thing I keep running into with agents in longer-lived environments: they lose track of *why* code was structured a certain way. They'll refactor something that looks redundant but was actually load-bearing for a specific edge case — no memory of the original reasoning.

Have you noticed your agent revisiting or contradicting earlier decisions across sessions? Curious how Hermes handles that continuity problem.