Demo Setup

Pre-stage checklist for the 3-minute live demo. Do this on all 3 laptops before walking on stage.

Before demo day

demo-pod room created in LiveKit Cloud dashboard
Hermes deployed on DO (or confirmed running locally as fallback)
MongoDB Atlas cluster running, MONGODB_URI set in Hermes env
All .env vars populated and verified via GET /health returning { ok: true }
Record a backup video of the full demo working end-to-end
Rehearse the demo script 3× with real audio

Laptop setup (all 3 machines)

Editor settings

Font size: 18pt or larger — Gemini Vision must read file names and code
Single editor window — no split panes, no overlapping terminals
File tab visible with full file name shown (not truncated)
Light or dark theme is fine — avoid low-contrast themes

Browser

Chrome (best getDisplayMedia support)
PWA tab open and joined to demo-pod
Earbuds / headphones plugged in and tested
Volume: medium — PodMan voice should be clearly audible but not startle

Screen layout

Editor takes 2/3 of screen
Terminal takes bottom 1/3 (always visible)
No other windows on top

Demo file setup

Pre-create these files in the demo repo before the demo:

Alice's machine:

Open auth/middleware.ts — has visible function stubs
Terminal shows nothing running initially, then Server running on :3001 at the right moment

Bob's machine:

Open frontend/login.tsx — has visible form component code
Terminal idle

Carol's machine:

Open frontend/integration.ts or similar
Terminal shows: curl http://localhost:3001/auth → curl: (7) Failed to connect

Demo script timing

Time	Action	Who
0:00	All three join `demo-pod`	All
0:05	PodMan greets by voice	Hermes auto
0:20	Alice opens `auth/middleware.ts`, starts typing	Alice
0:45	Bob opens `frontend/login.tsx`	Bob
0:50	Carol runs `curl` command, sees error	Carol
~1:20	BLOCKER_DETECTED intervention fires	Hermes auto
1:50	Alice starts her server (`node server.js`)	Alice
~2:00	DEPENDENCY_READY intervention fires	Hermes auto
2:20	Optional: show session 2 ownership warm-start	Presenter
2:45	Close	Presenter

Gemini Vision reliability tips

Keep font at 18pt+ throughout the demo — do not zoom out
Avoid opening file picker dialogs or overlapping modals during the demo
File names in editor tabs must be fully visible (not auth/middle...)
If Hermes logs show confidence < 0.6 frames: bump font size, ensure file tab is clear
Terminal output must be on a single line — avoid long stack traces during demo

Cooldown note

Hermes has a 3-minute cooldown between urgent voice cues per pod. For the demo, if you need to trigger a second urgent voice event quickly:

Option 1: restart Hermes between the two demo scenarios (resets cooldown state) Option 2: set NUDGE_COOLDOWN_MS=0 via env var during demo (add this override to Hermes)

Fallback plan

If any system fails on stage:

Hermes unreachable: switch to local (pnpm --filter backend dev) — PWA auto-falls back to localhost:8787
Gemini Vision low confidence: presenter narrates what PodMan "saw" while playing the backup video
LiveKit audio not working: play backup video — show the intervention cards on screen instead
Full system failure: play the backup recording, narrate the demo live

Always have the backup video on a separate device, not the same laptop running Hermes.

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