User Authentication
with Hermes, pay per use.
Your agents autonomously verify users via SMS, handle one-time passwords, and manage transactional messaging — without you touching a vendor account. Billed per verification.
Real Hermes flows that rely on this skill.
Each pattern below is a single Hermes Agent flow with user authentication via Locus registered as one skill. The math works because the flow only spends when it actually sends a verification.
Verify new users before granting access.
An onboarding Hermes flow sends an OTP to the user's phone during signup, waits for the code, and only creates the account on verified:true. No Twilio subscription tied to a billing entity, no shared API key in flow logs — the flow self-onboards via MCP and pays per verification from a connected wallet.
Step-up auth before sensitive operations.
A payment or transfer Hermes flow requires OTP confirmation before executing high-value or flagged transactions. The skill is declared once in the registry; the flow calls it whenever a transaction crosses a risk threshold. Per-verification billing keeps the cost proportional to actual risk events.
Restore access via verified phone identity.
A Hermes account recovery flow sends an OTP to the phone on file, verifies the code, and issues a new credential only on success. The flow handles the full identity confirmation loop — no human-managed vendor account in the pipeline, no persistent SMS key to compromise.
Challenge suspicious sessions automatically.
A fraud-monitoring Hermes flow flags anomalous activity and automatically triggers a phone verification challenge. The flow suspends the session, sends an OTP, and either clears or escalates the account based on whether the user can verify. Per-call billing means quiet periods cost nothing.
Stop managing SMS vendor accounts inside your flows.
Register one skill, connect a wallet, and your Hermes Agent flow can verify any user's phone on every relevant call. Idle flows cost zero. Vendor migrations cost zero. That's the entire deal.
- Single Hermes skill
- Global SMS coverage
- Flow caps honored
- MCP + pay-per-call native
Hermes Agent specific questions.
If something below doesn't cover your case, ping us — we work directly with Hermes Agent builders, no SDR funnel.
How does this register as a Hermes Agent skill?
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It's a standard POST endpoint with a typed body. You register it in Hermes the same way you'd register any HTTP skill — endpoint, schema, per-call price. Hermes Agent uses the price to plan flow budgets and to show the user what each verification will cost before the flow fires.
Does Hermes Agent need a Twilio or Vonage account?
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No. The gateway manages the SMS infrastructure entirely. Hermes pays per verification via pay-per-call from a wallet you connect — no vendor account is created, and there's no SMS API key to rotate or leak in flow logs.
What happens when a Hermes flow hits its budget cap mid-verification?
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If the budget cap is reached before a verification completes, the skill returns the current state — typically unverified — and Hermes stops issuing new calls. The flow can decide whether to request more budget from the user or halt with an incomplete result.
Can Hermes run multiple verification flows concurrently?
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Yes. Per-key rate limits apply with concurrency-fair queueing — a high-volume flow never starves another flow on the same key. Practical limits scale with the underlying SMS infrastructure.
How is this different from giving Hermes a Twilio account?
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Twilio subscriptions don't fit Hermes Agent's skill model. The skill can't report a true per-verification cost, so Hermes can't do real budget planning. This gateway reports an honest per-call cost up front — verified or not — which is what Hermes was designed to consume.
Does the skill handle the full OTP cycle or just dispatch?
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The full cycle. One skill declaration covers both the send step (dispatching the OTP to the user's phone) and the verify step (confirming the code the user entered). Hermes flows call two endpoints under the same skill; both are billed at the per-verification rate.