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Blog series · 6 parts

Building My Own AI Agent

A six-part series about building a personal AI agent for production: the difference between a chatbot and an agent, over-architecture, eight expensive mistakes, the boundaries of autonomy, and the migration from OpenClaw to Hermes — honestly, without AI hype.

  1. A phone on a bedside table showing a Telegram morning brief at 6:30 AM on a winter morning.

    Part 1/6

    Why I Built My Own AI Agent Instead of Just Using ChatGPT

    Agent vs. chatbot: why a background AI worker beats a promptable chat for daily routines — the experience of a special education teacher.

    5 minRead part 1 →

  2. A terminal on a laptop showing a long list of launchd services, some red; next to it, a phone full of Telegram alerts.

    Part 2/6

    When Your AI Assistant Becomes an Operating System: The OpenClaw Lesson

    OpenClaw grew into 30 launchd tasks and three task lists. The story of why my AI assistant turned into a mini operating system.

    8 minRead part 2 →

  3. Laptop dashboard with a token usage graph peaking in red — skyrocketing AI costs.

    Part 3/6

    Eight Expensive Lessons, Part 1: When AI Fails Silently

    22% of my weekly AI budget burned in one night. Four expensive and silent mistakes from building my AI agent — and what I learned.

    8 minRead part 3 →

  4. Two phones side-by-side: on the left, a raw JSON error (Before), on the right, the same in plain language (After).

    Part 4/6

    Eight Expensive Lessons, Part 2: When an Agent Turns Against Itself

    A self-learning skill, a fallback flip, and an agent that almost shut itself down: four lessons on the limits of an autonomous AI agent.

    9 minRead part 4 →

  5. Two laptops: on the left, OpenClaw's messy red system diagram, on the right, Hermes' tidy green dashboard.

    Part 5/6

    From Chaos to Control: Why I Switched My Entire Agent Platform

    I switched my agent from OpenClaw to Hermes: one gateway, searchable memory, and automations that finally work. From chaos to control.

    9 minRead part 5 →

  6. Laptop screen with two columns: green 'What Works' and yellow 'Problems' (reliability debt).

    Part 6/6

    The Agent System Isn't a Project But a Process: What I Learned This Year

    What a year of building my own AI agent taught me about reliability, memory, and trust—and what is still honestly incomplete.

    9 minRead part 6 →

Building your own agent?

I help with the path from design to production — from a light training introduction to a full 1–2 day agent sprint.

See the agent sprint Contact me