Have an agent predict and book your weekly grocery restock from email receipts
He built an app in Codex that pulls receipts from his email into SQLite. Hermes uses that purchase history to predict what needs restocking, then logs into his supermarket every week, books a delivery slot and fills the cart. He can photo a barcode to add an item.
Source
sksksk on Hacker News · 2026-10-21
Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-23.
What they did
He built an app in Codex that pulls receipts from his email into SQLite. Hermes uses that purchase history to predict what needs restocking, then logs into his supermarket every week, books a delivery slot and fills the cart. He can photo a barcode to add an item.
Result (as claimed)
The weekly grocery order now books itself.
Tools they used
Cost: OpenAI Codex: free plan, paid from $8/mo; Hermes Agent: free plan, paid from $20/mo. Checked 2026-10-14.
Set it up
Map the task
Write the trigger, the inputs, the decisions and the output. Note which steps need a human yes.
Connect the tools
Set up OpenAI Codex, Hermes Agent, SQLite, Gmail with the narrowest permissions that work. Use a test account or sandbox first.
Build the workflow
Create the steps in order. Add an approval step before anything sends, pays or deletes.
Run it on real but low-stakes data
Run a few times, read every output, and fix prompts or rules that misfire.
Schedule and monitor
Turn on the schedule or trigger, and add a daily summary or alert so you notice failures.
Copy the full setup prompt
Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code. Goal: Have an agent predict and book your weekly grocery restock from email receipts What the original author did: He built an app in Codex that pulls receipts from his email into SQLite. Hermes uses that purchase history to predict what needs restocking, then logs into his supermarket every week, books a delivery slot and fills the cart. He can photo a barcode to add an item. Reported result (as claimed by the author): The weekly grocery order now books itself. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188102 Tools they used: OpenAI Codex, Hermes Agent, SQLite, Gmail Category: Automation & business Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Codex. Goal: Have an agent predict and book your weekly grocery restock from email receipts What the original author did: He built an app in Codex that pulls receipts from his email into SQLite. Hermes uses that purchase history to predict what needs restocking, then logs into his supermarket every week, books a delivery slot and fills the cart. He can photo a barcode to add an item. Reported result (as claimed by the author): The weekly grocery order now books itself. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188102 Tools they used: OpenAI Codex, Hermes Agent, SQLite, Gmail Category: Automation & business Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Grok Bot. Goal: Have an agent predict and book your weekly grocery restock from email receipts What the original author did: He built an app in Codex that pulls receipts from his email into SQLite. Hermes uses that purchase history to predict what needs restocking, then logs into his supermarket every week, books a delivery slot and fills the cart. He can photo a barcode to add an item. Reported result (as claimed by the author): The weekly grocery order now books itself. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188102 Tools they used: OpenAI Codex, Hermes Agent, SQLite, Gmail Category: Automation & business Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
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Guides for this use case
How to automate email and your inbox with AI agents · How to plan meals and groceries with AI agents · How to set up Hermes Agent workflows · How to run multiple coding agents together
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