Manage Apple Reminders with Hermes

The bundled Apple Reminders skill gives Hermes a structured way to inspect and manage tasks that sync through Apple Reminders. It uses remindctl on macOS and is best for personal or shared reminder lists—not for running agent cron jobs.

Official skill reference: Apple Reminders

Review before changing

Start with the smallest useful view:

remindctl today
remindctl tomorrow
remindctl week
remindctl overdue
remindctl list

A new reminder can include a title, list, and due date. A due time answers when the task is due; an alarm is an optional earlier notification. They are separate fields and should not be collapsed into one assumption.

remindctl add --title "Prepare agenda" --list Work --due "2026-08-10 09:00"

Add --alarm only when an earlier nudge is actually wanted. Use JSON output for reliable scripting and keep human-readable output for review.

Reminder checklist

Confirm the intended Apple Reminder list.
Use an unambiguous local date and time, including the correct time zone context.
Ask whether an early alarm is needed rather than inventing one.
Re-list the target period after creation or editing.
Complete by stable ID when possible.
Require deliberate confirmation before deletion or list removal.

Common pitfalls

Using Reminders as a cron scheduler. A reminder notifies a person; Hermes cron triggers an agent workflow.
Confusing due time and alarm time. The item can be due at 2:00 p.m. while notifying at 1:30 p.m.
Relying on a changing row number. Refresh the list and use the current stable identifier for completion or deletion.
Assuming notification delivery. Device settings, Focus modes, and sync state can affect whether an alert is seen.

Verification

Run remindctl today --json, another relevant date view, or the named list. Confirm title, list, due time, alarm time, and completion state match the request. If a reminder was deleted, verify only the intended identifier disappeared. Do not create a second reminder merely to prove the first one worked.