How To Use Hermes To Watch A USPS Package Until It Arrives

I asked Hermes to watch a USPS tracking number and only ping on out for delivery or delivered. Quiet when nothing moves.

Illustration: a parcel next to a tracking timeline where the package has moved to out for delivery, and a Hermes alert that only arrives for that step and for delivered. Quiet steps stay silent.
On this page
  1. What we’re doing
  2. What you’ll need
  3. Ask Hermes first
  4. What we did
  5. What I learned

NameHero branded cover: How To Use Hermes To Watch A USPS Package Until It Arrives

I had a USPS package headed to Charlotte that I kept refreshing the tracking for. You can refresh the tracking page yourself all day, but it takes almost no setup to hand that to a Hermes agent and only get pinged when something useful actually happens.

So in this walkthrough I give Hermes a tracking number and tell it to watch USPS. You will get a simple watch that stays quiet while nothing moves, then a short alert when the package is out for delivery or better yet, delivered so it doesn’t sit on your porch for longer than it has to.

Hermes is running on a NameHero VPS for this so it’s always on, working and monitoring what I asked.

#What we’re doing

We are watching one USPS shipment until it arrives. Hermes checks the tracking page and only messages you when the status is worth a glance. Out for delivery. Delivered. Not every small update like they send text messages for.

Tracking is read-mostly. Hermes is not changing the shipment. You still decide whether to call the carrier if something looks wrong.

#What you’ll need

#Ask Hermes first

Ask Hermes: Watch this USPS tracking number for me. Tracking: 9400…9231. Package is headed to Charlotte. Check USPS and only message me when the status is out for delivery or delivered. Stay quiet when nothing useful changed.

Hermes can open USPS, read the status, and keep checking.

#What we did

In my case, I connected Telegram so I was able to get push notifications to my phone directly. This made it easier to talk to my agent on my iPhone as well.

#What I learned

You don’t need to waste a bunch of time or brain power refreshing. Even though that’s half the fun of ordering something online.

Hermes Agent Hosting comes with Hermes preinstalled on a NameHero VPS. NameHero support is available by live chat if you get stuck.

Photo of John Kirkpatrick
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John Kirkpatrick

John Kirkpatrick writes for the NameHero blog.

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