Optimize images and alt text with Hermes Agent
Optimizing your Shopify images with Hermes Agent means asking Nous Research's agent, from a terminal or a chat app, to find heavy or unlabelled images through StoreSEO and optimize them one at a time, remembering your scope between sessions.
Last updated: October 2026
Set up Hermes Agent for StoreSEO
Skip this if Hermes Agent is already connected. The full guide, with the alternatives, is on the Hermes Agent page.
- 1
Add StoreSEO to config.yaml
Add this under mcp_servers in ~/.hermes/config.yaml. If the file already has an mcp_servers block, add only the storeseo entry. Then start a new Hermes session, or run /reload-mcp in the one that is open.
YAMLmcp_servers: storeseo: url: "https://mcp.storeseo.com/mcp" auth: oauth - 2
Sign in to your store
On first connect Hermes prints an authorize URL and waits for the sign-in. Run this command to start it yourself or to re-authorize later. Pick your Shopify store and approve. Hermes caches the tokens in ~/.hermes/mcp-tokens/storeseo.json.
Terminalhermes mcp login storeseo
How does this work in Hermes Agent?
You reach Hermes from a terminal or from Telegram, Discord or Slack, and the storeseo entry in ~/.hermes/config.yaml gives it the StoreSEO tools. Ask for the product images with no alt text, heaviest first, and Hermes calls storeseo_start and then storeseo_list_images. The listing carries a compression, alt text and file name block for each image plus how many of the three axes are done, so Hermes can group the answer by product and tell you which images are fully done and which are not.
Hermes keeps memory across sessions, which suits a job that takes several sittings. Tell it you are working through the Linen Apron range this week, and in the next session you can say carry on with the next product without restating the scope. StoreSEO still opens its own session each time for the store snapshot. Before any run, ask Hermes to state the number of images and the spend: compression uses the Image Optimizer add-on quota, while alt text and file names use AI Content Optimizer credit, and asking for both text axes together is billed as one generation.
storeseo_optimize_image takes one image per call with the axes you list, and Hermes reports applied, already applied, skipped or refused for each. If you dislike the wording or the new file name, ask it to restore that axis and it calls storeseo_restore_image. A rename changes the image's storefront URL, so ask Hermes to include the new address in its reply, and note that collection and article images take a couple of minutes because the rename re-uploads them.
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You: Show me product images with no alt text, heaviest first.
- storeseo_start read-only
- storeseo_list_images read-only
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Hermes Agent: Nine images lack alt text, four on Linen Apron. Alt text uses AI credit and I would run one call per image. Should I write alt text for the four Linen Apron images and remember the other five for next time?
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You: Yes, do those four.
- storeseo_optimize_image needs approval
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Hermes Agent: First image done with new alt text. Three more to go. I have noted the other five for our next session.
What to ask Hermes Agent
Use StoreSEO to list my product images with no alt text, heaviest first, and show the list before writing anything.
We are doing the Linen Apron range this week. Optimize its images one at a time and remember where we stopped.
Every Friday, count my product images with no alt text and report it to Telegram. Read only: do not optimize or restore anything.
- Find my ten heaviest unoptimized product images and compress them. Tell me the quota it will use first.
- Which product images have no alt text at all? Write alt text for the ones on my best seller.
- Optimize every image on the product Canvas Tote: compression, alt text and file name.
- Restore the original alt text on the last image you changed.
- Give my collection images descriptive file names, and warn me which URLs will change.
What StoreSEO does: image seo and alt text
StoreSEO tracks three things per image: file-size compression, alt text and file name. The agent finds the heaviest or unlabelled images, optimizes them one call per image, and can restore any of the three if you do not like the result.
Requires: Compression needs the Image Optimizer add-on and counts against its monthly quota; alt text and file names spend AI Content Optimizer credit.
- 1
Find the images
The agent lists product, collection or article images, heaviest unoptimized first by default. It can filter to images with no alt text, or scope the list to one product by title.
- 2
Check what it found
A title search can also match image file names from other resources, so the agent checks each row belongs to the product you meant.
- 3
Agree the scope and cost
Compression uses image quota and alt text and file names use AI credit, so the agent confirms before working through many images.
- 4
Optimize one image per call
Each call takes the axes you want: compression, alt text, file name or all three. The axes always run compression, then file name, then alt text, and the response reports each one separately.
- 5
Report or restore
The agent reports what applied, what was already done and what was refused. If a result is wrong, the restore tool brings back the original file, alt text or name.
Image SEO and alt text reference
| Axes per image | Compression, alt text, file name |
|---|---|
| Image sources | Products, collections and articles (pages have no images) |
| Batching | One image per call; never two calls on the same image at once |
| Compression | Image Optimizer add-on and its monthly quota; an already compressed image is reported as already applied |
| Alt text and file name | AI Content Optimizer credit; both together are billed as one generation |
| File name change | Renames the file on Shopify and changes the image's storefront URL |
| Collection and article renames | Re-upload the image, so the call can take a couple of minutes |
| Restore | Reverts compression, alt text or file name per axis |
| Score impact | Alt text and file names count on products, collections and articles; compression counts on products |
Rules Hermes Agent follows
- The agent confirms the number of images and the kind of spend before a bulk run.
- One image per call, all wanted axes together; never parallel calls on the same image.
- A renamed image has a new URL, so the agent tells you, because anything that hard-coded the old URL keeps serving the old file.
- If a response is lost, the agent re-lists the image instead of retrying, because a retry regenerates and spends again.
- A refused axis, for example compression without the add-on, is reported as such while the other axes still apply.
In Hermes Agent
After you edit config.yaml, start a new session or run /reload-mcp, or the open session will not see the storeseo server and its image tools. A hermes cron job for this work has nobody to say yes, so keep it to storeseo_list_images and a report, and put optimizing and restoring in a chat you can answer. If you want an agent that can only look, use the tools include list to expose just the StoreSEO list tools, since Hermes' own approval controls are not described in the page this record was checked against.
What runs without asking. Reads such as SEO scores, store listings, settings and Google reports run straight away. Generating a preview spends AI credit but writes nothing, and StoreSEO tells the agent to say what a generation will cost before it runs one. Applying content, optimizing images, changing settings, publishing llms.txt or agents.md, writing a product description and deleting anything wait for your yes in the conversation. That yes is an instruction the agent follows, not a lock on the server, so your client's own tool-approval setting is the hard stop.
Questions
Does Hermes remember which images it already optimized?
It remembers what you told it in earlier sessions, but the real state is in StoreSEO. Ask it to list the images again and it reads the three axes on each one, so a half-finished range is easy to pick up.
Can I limit Hermes to reading my images and never optimizing them?
Yes. Set a tools include list for the storeseo server so it exposes only the start and list tools. Then Hermes can report on images but has no optimize or restore tool to call.
Can the agent compress images without the Image Optimizer add-on?
No. Compression needs the Image Optimizer add-on and counts against its monthly quota. Alt text and file names work without it and spend AI Content Optimizer credit instead.
Can I undo an image optimization?
Yes. The restore tool reverts compression, alt text or file name for one image, per axis. Restoring compression brings back the original file.
Why did my image URL change?
Giving an image a new file name renames the file on Shopify and re-points its storefront URL. Pages that use the image through Shopify keep working, but anything that hard-coded the old URL keeps the old file.
Can I write my own file name or alt text through the agent?
No. StoreSEO writes the alt text and file name from the resource's own context. You can steer the language, and you can always edit alt text yourself in Shopify admin.
Keep going
Image SEO and alt text with other agents
More Hermes Agent guides