Hermes Backlink Outreach: Crawl, Pitch and Send
Quick answer: In Hermes Agent, crawl competitor articles with Firecrawl, look up author emails with Hunter.io, keep Mailgun sends behind the gates shown on camera, and read delivery numbers as a past snapshot. The 29 July 2026 recording did not show ranking results or inbox placement.
This is the outreach build from 29 July 2026, not a first Hermes install. Set up the app with Hermes Desktop. A memory plugin for the same agent is Hermes Agent Memory: Install Supermemory. If you are still deciding what an agent is for, start with What is an AI agent?.
What this recording shows
The agent looks for blog posts that mention competitors, extracts author contacts, writes a pitch into a markdown file, and sends through Mailgun. The two sites being promoted on camera were Tube Analytics, a YouTube analytics SaaS, and VisiScan, an AI search visibility SaaS at visiscan.app. For Tube Analytics, named competitors were VidIQ, TubeBuddy, and ViewStats. For VisiScan, the search was for AI search visibility tools.
Search ran across Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Brave. Duplicate checks and security checks ran before send limits in Mailgun. This page is not a claim that those emails produced backlinks or rankings. Separate visibility audits are VisiScan AI Visibility Audit, Rank Prompt AI Search Visibility, and Semrush MCP AI Visibility.
1. Map the outreach pipeline
The recording’s diagram had four stages: find articles, analyze each page and extract the author, write a personalized pitch into an MD file, then send and track. Pitch copy was researched from the specific article. One on-screen file listed the URL, the author, the email, why it was a fit, and whether a send had gone out. One row showed a 404 from the API. Another row was marked sent.
Follow-ups in that build were 3, 5, and 7 days if there was no reply. Mailgun webhooks recorded opens, replies, and conversion tracking as described on camera. Cron jobs named Tube Analytics backlink outreach and VisiScan backlink outreach. Listing them used this spoken command:
hermes cron listThe next run was set for 30 July 2026 at 8:00 a.m. with Firecrawl active. The recording also said it could run immediately instead of waiting.
2. Connect Firecrawl and Hunter
Firecrawl was added because Playwright scraping had been blocked on some sites. The recording described Firecrawl as a search, scrape, map, and crawl tool. Firecrawl onboarding completed with a CLI install, a credit count on screen, and 32 skills installed in Hermes Agent, Claude Code, and Codex. The Firecrawl API key was stored in the .hermes folder. To put Firecrawl on the schedule, this line was spoken:
build it into the cron jobIn Codex, this install prompt was spoken:
install FirecrawlA live crawl of the Tube Analytics site returned markdown and JSON. Credits on camera were 22 used, with about 1,400 still available for the month. The free tier was limited to 10 requests per minute, which the recording called a bottleneck. The hobby plan named on 29 July 2026 was about $20 a month for up to 5,000 credits. Check live pricing before you upgrade. One crawl path used an OpenRouter API key with a model behind Firecrawl.
Hunter.io was added because most major sites hide emails. The recording described a free start with up to 50 credits per month, an API, and a Chrome extension. Copy the API key from the Hunter dashboard into a .env file. This page does not invent the env variable name, because it was not spoken. Playwright stayed in the build for submitting contact forms. The recording said Firecrawl was not known to do that.
3. Keep Mailgun sends gated
Keep the send path behind the gates shown on 29 July 2026:
- Block risky domains.
- Skip addresses that already bounced.
- Start warmup at about five emails per day, then ramp.
- Cap automatic follow-ups at three (3, 5, and 7 days).
- Read the markdown send list, including 404 rows, before you treat a batch as done.
Mailgun was the sender for this pipeline. The free plan described on camera allowed up to 100 emails per day. Do not copy this workflow onto an ungated send. Review contacts and copy yourself.
4. Read the delivery numbers
The Mailgun view in the recording showed a delivery rate of about 78%, with about 100 emails per day going out on that account. That is a past snapshot from 29 July 2026. It is not inbox placement, open-rate proof, or a ranking result.
Author lookup did not always return the correct email. Firecrawl was added to improve that scrape. The recording still treated Hunter.io as the dedicated finder. No backlink count or search ranking was shown.
Watch the walkthrough
FAQ
Did this recording send outreach with no gates?
No. Mailgun sends in the 29 July 2026 recording were gated: risky domains were blocked, bounced addresses were skipped, follow-ups were capped at three, and warmup started at about five emails per day.
What delivery rate did the recording show?
About 78% on Mailgun, as shown on 29 July 2026. That is a past snapshot from the recording. This page does not claim inbox placement or ranking results.
Why add Hunter.io if Firecrawl already crawls pages?
The recording said most major sites hide emails, and Firecrawl’s free tier was limited to 10 requests per minute. Hunter.io was added to look up addresses, with 50 credits per month on the free start described on camera.
Can Firecrawl submit contact forms in this build?
The recording kept Playwright for contact forms. Firecrawl was used to search, scrape, map, and crawl. He said he did not know Firecrawl could submit forms.
Sources
- Video: This Hermes AI Agent Automates Your Outreach! (29 July 2026)
- Firecrawl: https://www.firecrawl.dev
- Hunter.io: https://hunter.io
- Mailgun: https://www.mailgun.com
- VisiScan: https://www.visiscan.app
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