Pi Ducky

What Pi Ducky does

Pi Ducky turns a Raspberry Pi Zero W into a USB gadget that acts as a keyboard. When it is plugged into a computer, it types the commands that install a stack of remote management tools: Tailscale for an encrypted network between your devices, Hermes Agent to run commands, build projects and send files, and RustDesk for full remote desktop. The README says the whole deployment takes under two minutes, with about 20 seconds of auto-typing.

Afterwards you message the Hermes agent through Telegram, for example to build a project and send back a zip, check disk usage or start Docker containers. The Pi runs a USB HID keyboard engine over configfs and a DuckyScript interpreter, and it detects the target operating system. A web dashboard on a PiDucky-Setup Wi-Fi network is an alternative to editing config.yaml for entering API keys. Supported LLM providers include OpenRouter, Google Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI and Kimi/Moonshot. The README puts the hardware cost at about $18.

Key features

• Raspberry Pi Zero W acting as a USB HID keyboard that types install commands
• Installs Tailscale, Hermes Agent and RustDesk on the target computer
• Control of the Hermes agent through Telegram
• DuckyScript interpreter and target operating system detection
• Web dashboard on a PiDucky-Setup Wi-Fi network for configuration
• Choice of OpenRouter, Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI or Kimi as the LLM provider

When to use it

• Setting up Hermes Agent on a home or office PC you own without sitting at it
• Asking the agent over Telegram to run builds, send files or check disk usage
• Switching to RustDesk when a task needs a view of the screen

Who it is for: Tinkerers who manage their own computers and want a hardware shortcut for deploying Hermes Agent with remote access.

How it fits with Hermes Agent

It deploys Hermes Agent as the AI layer on the target machine, controlled through Telegram.

How to install Pi Ducky

These commands are copied from the project's README. Check the repository for the latest steps before you run them.

sudo bash /opt/pi-ducky/setup/first-boot.sh

Requirements: Raspberry Pi Zero W 1.1 with Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit) on an 8GB+ microSD card, a micro-USB data cable, a Tailscale auth key, an LLM provider API key, and a Telegram bot token and user ID

Note: It types commands into the target computer as a USB keyboard to install remote-access software, so use it only on systems you are authorized to manage.

FAQ