Play Pokemon games autonomously via headless emulation. Starts a game server, reads structured game state from RAM, makes strategic decisions, and sends button inputs — all from the terminal.
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Play Pokemon games via headless emulation using the
pokemon-agentThe repo is NousResearch/pokemon-agent on GitHub. Clone it, then set up a Python 3.10+ virtual environment. Use uv (preferred for speed) to create the venv and install the package in editable mode with the pyboy extra. If uv is not available, fall back to python3 -m venv + pip.
On this machine it is already set up at /home/teknium/pokemon-agent with a venv ready — just cd there and source .venv/bin/activate.
You also need a ROM file. Ask the user for theirs. On this machine one exists at roms/pokemon_red.gb inside that directory. NEVER download or provide ROM files — always ask the user.
From inside the pokemon-agent directory with the venv activated, run pokemon-agent serve with --rom pointing to the ROM and --port 9876. Run it in the background with &. To resume from a saved game, add --load-state with the save name. Wait 4 seconds for startup, then verify with GET /health.
Use an SSH reverse tunnel via localhost.run so the user can view the dashboard in their browser. Connect with ssh, forwarding local port 9876 to remote port 80 on nokey@localhost.run. Redirect output to a log file, wait 10 seconds, then grep the log for the .lhr.life URL. Give the user the URL with /dashboard/ appended. The tunnel URL changes each time — give the user the new one if restarted.
POST /save with a descriptive name. Good examples: before_brock, route1_start, mt_moon_entrance, got_cut
POST /load with the save name.
GET /saves returns all saved states.
Use --load-state flag when starting the server to auto-load a save. This is faster than loading via the API after startup.
GET /state for position, HP, battle, dialog. GET /screenshot and save to /tmp/pokemon.png, then use vision_analyze. Always do BOTH — RAM state gives numbers, vision gives spatial awareness.
Priority: dialog > battle > heal > story objective > training > explore
POST /action with a SHORT action list (2-4 actions, not 10-15).
Take a screenshot and use vision_analyze to confirm you moved where intended. This is the MOST IMPORTANT step. Without vision you WILL get lost.
When walking through a door or stairs, the screen fades to black during the map transition. You MUST wait for it to complete. Add 2-3 wait_60 actions after any door/stair warp. Without waiting, the position reads as stale and you will think you are still in the old map.
When you exit a building, you appear directly IN FRONT of the door. If you walk north, you go right back inside. ALWAYS sidestep first by walking left or right 2 tiles, then proceed in your intended direction.
Gen 1 text scrolls slowly letter-by-letter. To speed through dialog, hold B for 120 frames then press A. Repeat as needed. Holding B makes text display at max speed. Then press A to advance to the next line. The a_until_dialog_end action checks the RAM dialog flag, but this flag does not catch ALL text states. If dialog seems stuck, use the manual hold_b + press_a pattern instead and verify via screenshot.
Ledges (small cliff edges) can only be jumped DOWN (south), never climbed UP (north). If blocked by a ledge going north, you must go left or right to find the gap around it. Use vision to identify which direction the gap is. Ask the vision model explicitly.
On the battle menu, RUN is bottom-right. To reach it from the default cursor position (FIGHT, top-left): press down then right to move cursor to RUN, then press A. Wrap with hold_b to speed through text/animations.
On the battle menu FIGHT is top-left (default cursor position). Press A to enter move selection, A again to use the first move. Then hold B to speed through attack animations and text.
| Prefix | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| PKM:OBJECTIVE | Current goal | Get Parcel from Viridian Mart |
| PKM:MAP | Navigation knowledge | Viridian: mart is northeast |
| PKM:STRATEGY | Battle/team plans | Need Grass type before Misty |
| PKM:PROGRESS | Milestone tracker | Beat rival, heading to Viridian |
| PKM:STUCK | Stuck situations | Ledge at y=28 go right to bypass |
| PKM:TEAM | Team notes | Squirtle Lv6, Tackle + Tail Whip |
MIT
mkdir -p ~/.hermes/skills/gaming/pokemon-player && curl -o ~/.hermes/skills/gaming/pokemon-player/SKILL.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/skills/gaming/pokemon-player/SKILL.md
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