Hermes Agent: How to Build Your Own Powerful Offline AI Assistant with Qwen3.6-27B

Artificial intelligence is quickly moving beyond simple chatbots.

Until recently, most of us used AI by opening a website, asking a question, receiving an answer, and then closing the conversation. The AI could write, explain, brainstorm, and answer questions—but it usually waited for us to direct every step.

AI agents are different.

An AI agent can be given a goal, decide which tools are needed, work through several steps, interact with files, organize information, remember useful details, and return with a completed result.

In my previous article, Choosing My Offline AI Model: Qwen3.6-27B, I explained why I chose Qwen3.6-27B as my preferred local AI model.

But the model alone is only the brain.

To give that brain tools, memory, skills, project access, and the ability to perform real work, we need an agent system around it.

That is where Hermes Agent comes in.

An Offline, Less-Restricted Qwen Model for Creative Writing

While researching local AI models in the past, I discovered an interesting version of Qwen that I wanted to preserve here as a future reference:

Josiefied-Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct-abliterated-v4

It is a modified, less-restricted version of Qwen2.5-14B that can run locally on my NVIDIA RTX 4080 SUPER with 16 GB of VRAM.

Although I am currently exploring newer Qwen models, this remains an interesting alternative for creative writing and situations where a model’s frequent refusals become disruptive.

Choosing My Offline AI Model: Qwen3.6-27B for Writing and Creative Work

In my previous post, I wrote about upgrading my computer for local AI and exploring what my new NVIDIA RTX 4080 SUPER with 16 GB of VRAM could handle.

After doing a new search and comparing the available Qwen models more carefully, I have now selected the model I plan to use with my Hermes AI agent:

Qwen3.6-27B-GGUF — UD-IQ3_XXS

This may look like a complicated name, but the basic idea is simple: it is a capable AI model that has been compressed so it can run on a powerful home computer without needing an expensive professional graphics card.

Upgrading My Local AI Setup: Exploring Qwen3-14B

been exploring Qwen3-14B as a possible upgrade for my local AI setup.

One of the things that caught my attention is that Qwen3 is designed to support both fast responses and deeper reasoning within the same model. That makes it particularly interesting for anyone who wants to run a capable AI locally without constantly switching between completely different models.

Building a Digital Brain: Giving Obsidian a Try

After my friend Zen Drako brought it up and I watched a few videos on how it works, I decided to finally download Obsidian and see what the hype is about.