AI-first dev stack — agent frameworks, hosting, and the tools that ship production agents.
The full stack I use to design, build, and run production AI agents. Three open-source frameworks — Hermes (Nous Research), OpenClaw, and OpenHuman. Self-hosted on Hetzner, Hostinger, and DigitalOcean, wired together with Tailscale, Cloudflare, Supabase, and Postgres. Every choice on this page is something I'm running in production today — not a wishlist.
Looking for the agent-services version of this? See the Hermes & OpenClaw agent stack →
Agent frameworks
The three open-source AI agent frameworks I build production agents on. All self-hosted, all model-agnostic, all yours after the build.
Hermes Agent (Nous Research)
My primary agent framework. Self-improving, persistent memory, scheduled crons, subagent spawning, single gateway across Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI. Model-agnostic — OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Nous Portal, or self-hosted weights.
OpenClaw
Self-hosted, messaging-first agent framework with markdown-based memory (SOUL.md) and a plugin pipeline. The simplest mental model when a Hermes setup is more than the project needs.
OpenHuman
Open-source human-in-the-loop AI agent framework I use when an agent needs explicit approval gates, audit trails, and policy-controlled tool calls before it acts on production systems.
Hindsight (Hermes memory)
Cloud memory layer that pairs with Hermes for cross-session recall — semantic vector store plus structured episodic memory.
Hosting & infrastructure
Where the agents actually run. I default to self-hosted on European VPS providers — Hetzner is my primary, Hostinger is the budget tier, DigitalOcean for clients who already use it. Vercel for the web layer. Tailscale for private networking, ngrok for local-dev tunnels, Cloudflare in front of everything public.
Hetzner
Primary VPS provider for self-hosted Hermes and OpenClaw deployments. Best price-to-performance for agents that need 24/7 uptime in Europe. CX/CCX line for general agents, dedicated for heavier workloads.
Hostinger
The budget VPS tier. Where I put smaller, single-purpose agents and prototypes. KVM VPS plans are surprisingly capable for a $5–10/mo Hermes or OpenClaw node.
DigitalOcean
Used when clients already standardize on DO Droplets. Solid for AI agents, easy team access, predictable pricing.
Vercel
Hosts every Next.js front end I ship — including the site you're reading. The agents live on the VPS; the web layer lives here.
Cloudflare
DNS, CDN, WAF, and Workers in front of every public surface. R2 for object storage on agent builds that need it.
Tailscale
Private mesh VPN that ties my laptop, phone, and every agent VPS into one zero-trust network. No public ports on agent boxes — SSH and admin dashboards are Tailscale-only.
ngrok
Instant secure tunnels for local development and webhook testing while building agents.
AI code assistants
The four AI coders I rotate between depending on context size, latency, and the kind of work I'm doing.
OpenCode
Primary AI code assistant — terminal-native, Hermes-friendly.
Claude (Code)
Secondary AI assistant — long context, agentic edits, paired with Hermes for scoped tasks.
GitHub Copilot
Tertiary inline completions while typing.
Cursor
AI-native editor for high-context multi-file refactors.
AI memory & MCP servers
Persistent memory and Model Context Protocol servers — what makes an agent stop forgetting and start compounding.
NotebookLM
Deep context and RAG for long documents.
Supermemory
Persistent knowledge layer across sessions and tools.
Ruflo (custom MCP)
My MCP server for agent orchestration — the layer that lets one agent delegate to specialists.
fullstackskills (custom MCP)
Custom 21-agent scaffolding system exposed as an MCP server.
Context7 (MCP)
Live documentation retrieval inside chat — the agent reads the actual docs, not 2024 training data.
Languages & runtimes
What I actually write code in.
Node.js / pnpm
Primary JS runtime and package manager.
Rust / cargo
Systems programming and CLI tooling.
Bun
Fast JS runtime for edge-ready scripts.
Python / uv
AI/ML scripts, fast dependency management.
Java / SDKMAN
Enterprise integrations and JVM tooling.
TypeScript
Strict typing across the entire stack.
Editors
What I open every morning.
VS Code
Primary editor with full extension ecosystem.
Zed
Fast, GPU-accelerated editor for focused sessions.
Neovim
Terminal-native editing and scripting.
Cursor
AI-native editor for high-context sessions.
DevOps & databases
Containers, queues, and stores that keep agents running 24/7.
Podman
Rootless container runtime — primary choice over Docker for agent isolation.
PostgreSQL
OLTP workhorse for agent state, kanban tables, and audit trails.
Supabase
Backend-as-a-service with Postgres, auth, and realtime — the SaaS layer for client work.
Redis
Caching, pub/sub, and session store.
NeonDB
Serverless Postgres for edge workloads.
SOPS / age
Encrypted secrets in Git, decrypted only on the agent host.
Terminal & power tools
The shell tools I'd refuse to live without.
zsh + Starship
Shell and prompt for maximum clarity.
RTK
Custom token killer — 60–90% token savings on dev ops.
lazygit
Terminal UI for git — fast and visual.
eza
Modern ls replacement with icons.
rclone
Cloud storage sync and backup automation.