I've been using Hermes to orchestrate Opencode instead of running Claude Code for entire builds.

Hermes handles orchestration. it writes the PRD and spec, breaks the work into phases, generates the subtask list, then invokes Opencode via terminal to do the actual build. Opencode finishes, Hermes reviews the output, issues the next task. I show up at the end for QA.

The reason is context hygiene. When a single agent holds the full build history, it starts drawing relationships between components that don't exist. By phase 4 of anything non-trivial, you're chasing hallucinated dependencies. Rotating Opencode in fresh for each phase means it only sees what it needs for that task.

Worth being honest: When it comes to development, I'm a hobbyist building personal tools. My main domain is Desktop Support and Network Administration. I don't know how this holds up under real deadlines or at a larger scale. That's a gap.

If anyone is curious let me know and I'll post how I did the setup. Has anyone here run a setup where the orchestrator and builder are different tools? Curious if the spec quality becomes the real bottleneck at higher complexity.

13 comments