hermes-skills/skills/email/email-workflows/references/welcome-email-new-user.md

Welcome Email for a New Hermes User

Triggered when the main user asks for a welcome email to be sent to someone they provisioned a Hermes VPS for.

Drafting process

1. Write the draft and email it to the main user for review first (BCC them)
2. Iterate on corrections per the email style guide
3. After approval, send to the new user's email

Content sections

1. H2 "Welcome to Hermes, [Name]." + --- per style guide
2. H3 "What Hermes Is" — one paragraph about the personal AI agent concept
3. H3 "What We've Built" — ordered list (1., 2., 3.) of real examples from the main user's experience
4. H3 "Email" — ask about their email (e.g. Yahoo). Include "Permission required" statement: no action taken without explicit instruction.
5. H3 "Backup & Safety" — unordered list of backup layers
6. H3 "Getting Started with Telegram" — three numbered steps: create bot via BotFather, get user ID, reply with info
7. H3 "Commands" — unordered list of Telegram commands
8. H3 "Server Details" — minimal: primary model provided by main user, backup model built in. NO IP, NO SSH, NO ports.
9. Close with Sho'Nuff signature (random closing)

Formatting rules

• Headings: H2 for title + ---, H3 for sections only. No H4+.
• Bold lead-ins for every body paragraph (e.g. "Yahoo access. If you would like...")
• Ordered lists for ranked/sequential items (What We've Built examples)
• Unordered lists for grouped items (backup layers, commands)
• No em dashes (—). Hyphens (-) only.
• No contractions. I am, I will, do not, you would (not I'm, I'll, don't, you'd)
• No "e.g." Use "example:"
• No exposed URLs. Wrap as [Action Description](URL)
• Professional, scannable. Whitespace between sections. Find anything in <3 seconds.

Sending

• Send FROM: shonuff@germainebrown.com
• BCC: g@germainebrown.com
• Both text/plain (raw markdown) and text/html (rendered with real H2/H3 tags) MIME alternatives
• HTML rendering: apply regex substitutions for ## → <h2>, ### → <h3>, --- → <hr>, ** → <strong> on a COPY of the body string (keep plain text untouched)
• Random closing quote as sign-off (no "Thanks" or "Regards")
• Random title in signature
• Embedded base64 character image in signature
• Signature template at /root/.hermes/references/shonuff-email-signature.html

Security boundaries

• The new user never learns the server IP, SSH access, or local model port
• The new user never logs into the server directly
• The main user has emergency SSH access only
• The welcome email makes this explicit