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308 lines
16 KiB
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<title>Why Backing Up an AI Agent Is So Hard — derez.ai Blog</title>
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<a class="back" href="https://derez.ai/#blog">← Back to Blog</a>
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<h1>Why Backing Up an AI Agent Is So Hard — And How Full-Disk Snapshots Fix It</h1>
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<div class="meta">
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<span>June 12, 2026</span>
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<span class="area-tag">Architecture</span>
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<span class="chip-tag">hermes</span>
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</div>
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<p>
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Ask any DevOps engineer how to back up a server, and they'll say "home directory, config files, databases." Standard playbook. Works for web apps, works for databases, works for most cloud workloads.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ask them how to back up an <strong>AI agent</strong>, and suddenly nobody has a good answer. Because an agent isn't a config file with a database attached — it's a <strong>full Linux system</strong> whose state scatters across <code>/usr</code>, <code>/var</code>, <code>/etc</code>, and <code>/root</code> in ways that standard backup tools never expect.
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</p>
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<p>
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This post walks through real filesystem data from a live Hermes agent that ran speed-runs over two weeks. The numbers may surprise you.
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</p>
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<h2>The Sprawl Problem</h2>
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<p>
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After one week of basic agent work, we measured the filesystem changes from a clean Debian 12 install:
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</p>
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<pre>
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504.6M ./usr
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43.3M ./var
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448.9M ./root
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54.0K ./etc
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996.8M total</pre>
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<p>
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A home-directory-only backup (<code>/root</code>) captures <strong>448.9 MB — 45%</strong> of what changed. Already missing over half the agent's state.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then we ran the agent through several speed-runs: Hermes Agent setup, competitor profiling, cold email configuration, Odoo integration, mobile.de research scraping. After all setups:
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</p>
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<pre>
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4.3G ./usr ← 8.5× growth
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487.0M ./var ← 11.2× growth
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2.1G ./root ← 4.7× growth
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1.9M ./etc ← 35× growth
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6.8G total ← 6.8× growth</pre>
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<p>
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Now a home-dir-only backup captures <strong class="number">2.1 GB (31%)</strong> — meaning <strong class="highlight-red">69% of the agent's state lives outside its home directory</strong>.
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</p>
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<div class="pro-tip">
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<p><strong>The 69% problem: </strong>If you back up only <code>/root</code> and restore, your agent comes back with its config files and skills — but with no Hermes runtime, no Python packages, no Node modules, no HuggingFace models, no system dependencies. It won't even start.</p>
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</div>
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<h2>Where Does All That State Live?</h2>
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<p>Here's the breakdown of what drives an agent's storage footprint and where it scatters:</p>
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<table class="data-table">
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<tr>
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<th>Location</th>
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<th>Size</th>
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<th>What It Is</th>
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<th>Trigger</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/usr/local/lib</code></td>
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<td class="number">2.3 GB</td>
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<td>Hermes runtime, node_modules, Python 3.11 libs</td>
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<td>Hermes installation</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/root/.npm/_cacache</code></td>
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<td class="number">390 MB</td>
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<td>npm package cache</td>
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<td>Node.js tooling</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/root/.hermes</code></td>
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<td class="number">412 MB</td>
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<td>19 skills, 1 plugin, cron jobs, memories, config</td>
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<td>All speed-runs</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/root/.cache/huggingface</code></td>
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<td class="number">142 MB</td>
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<td>HuggingFace model weights</td>
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<td>STT / model downloads</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/root/.cache/uv</code></td>
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<td class="number">186 MB</td>
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<td>UV Python package cache</td>
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<td>Hermes venv management</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/var/cache/apt</code></td>
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<td class="number">379 MB</td>
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<td>Debian package cache</td>
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<td>System dependencies</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/var/lib/apt</code></td>
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<td class="number">80 MB</td>
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<td>APT package state</td>
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<td>System dependencies</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/usr/local/bin</code></td>
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<td class="number">28 MB</td>
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<td>hermes CLI, other executables</td>
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<td>Hermes installation</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/root/.config</code></td>
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<td class="number">475 KB</td>
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<td>App configurations</td>
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<td>Misc tools</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><code>/etc</code></td>
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<td class="number">1.9 MB</td>
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<td>System config (hostname, apt sources, etc.)</td>
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<td>OS configuration</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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<strong>Total blog content created during this period:</strong> 5 posts (Odoo, Hermes setup guide, competitor profiling, cold email, mobile.de research) — and those 5 posts alone drove the system past 1 GB.
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</p>
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<h2>Why It Gets Worse Over Time</h2>
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<p>
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The sprawl isn't static — it <strong>compounds</strong>. Each new skill adds Python or Node dependencies in <code>/usr/local</code>. Each new cron job writes logs and state. Each new model download caches weights in <code>/root/.cache</code>. Each system package lands in <code>/var</code>.
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</p>
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<p>
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Look at the trend:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Week 1:</strong> 55% of state outside <code>/root</code></li>
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<li><strong>After 3 speed-runs:</strong> 69% outside <code>/root</code></li>
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<li><strong>Projection:</strong> As skills and integrations grow, the percentage <em>increases</em> — more <code>/usr</code> packages, more <code>/var</code> data, more scattered caches</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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A "backup your home directory" strategy doesn't just miss some data — it misses a <strong>growing majority</strong> of it. Restoring from a home-dir backup would give you your <code>.hermes</code> skills and config back, but Hermes itself, all its runtime dependencies, system packages, and model weights would be gone. Your agent would boot to a broken environment.
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</p>
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<h2>How Full-Disk Snapshots Solve It</h2>
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<p>
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The only way to guarantee an agent restores to a <strong>working state</strong> is to back up its <em>entire filesystem</em> — not just the home directory, and not just config files. Here's how it works:
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</p>
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<h3>1. Size isn't a problem — efficient snapshot compression</h3>
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<p>
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Our 6.8 GB agent compresses down to roughly 1–2 GB for daily snapshots. Only what changed between snapshots is stored — so a daily backup after the initial snapshot is often just <strong>50–200 MB</strong> of deltas.
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</p>
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<h3>2. Full-disk means full recovery</h3>
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<p>
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When you restore, you get back <em>everything</em>: the Hermes runtime, all Python packages, model weights, cron schedules, system config, apt state, and your agent's custom skills. The agent boots and <strong>works immediately</strong> — no reinstallation, no rebuilding.
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</p>
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<h3>3. Compression reduces storage cost</h3>
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<p>
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Our snapshot compression brings the 6.8 GB down to about 4.2 GB on disk. With 7 daily snapshots retaining the full machine state, you're looking at ~6–10 GB total — negligible for any modern VPS provider.
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</p>
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<h2>What derez.ai Does Differently</h2>
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<p>
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Every derez.ai agent instance comes with <strong>automatic full-disk snapshots</strong> — not home-directory backups, not config exports, but full filesystem snapshots.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Daily automatic backups</strong> — every 24 hours, we snapshot the entire agent filesystem</li>
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<li><strong>7-day retention</strong> — you can restore to any of the last 7 snapshots</li>
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<li><strong>One-click restore</strong> — from the dashboard, pick a backup and restore. Your agent is back to its working state in minutes</li>
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<li><strong>Encrypted at rest and in transit</strong> — your data never leaves encrypted</li>
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</ul>
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<div class="pro-tip">
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<p><strong>Real talk: </strong>Most agent hosting services back up your config and call it a day. They don't tell you that restoring won't work because the runtime is missing. We built full-disk snapshots into derez.ai from day one because "it works after restore" is the only standard that matters.</p>
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</div>
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<h2>Better Safe Than Sorry</h2>
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<p>
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The 69% problem isn't a theoretical edge case — it's what happens to every agent that runs real workloads. Every skill, every integration, every model download pushes more state outside the home directory.
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</p>
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<p>
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If your agent hosting service backs up only <code>/home</code> or <code>/root</code>, test this: delete a major runtime dependency (say, <code>/usr/local/lib/python3.11</code>), then restore from their backup. If the agent doesn't work, you're paying for a false sense of security, not actual backup.
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</p>
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<p>
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At derez.ai, your agent's full disk gets backed up every day. No gaps, no missing runtimes, no surprises on restore.
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</p>
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<div class="cta-box">
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<h3>Try it yourself — first month free</h3>
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<p>Deploy a Hermes agent with automatic full-disk backups. Use code <strong>blog950</strong> for your first month free.</p>
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<a class="btn" href="https://derez.ai/#pricing">Get Your Agent</a>
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</div>
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<p style="margin-top:48px;padding-top:24px;border-top:1px solid #1a1a24;font-size:0.85rem;color:#666;">
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<a href="https://derez.ai" style="color:#00f5ff">derez.ai</a> — Work with your AI agent in 10 minutes. Full-disk backups, SSH access, managed dashboard included.
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