# Rapidan AI — intelligent automation strategy for small businesses

> Rapidan AI helps small businesses understand, adopt, and operate AI tools — without the hype, the jargon, or the vendor lock-in. We offer fixed-scope consulting engagements, self-paced courses, and ongoing advisory support.

## Getting started

- [Homepage](https://rapidanai.com/): Rapidan AI — learn how AI fits into the work you already do
- [Free 30-minute consultation](https://booking.rapidanai.com/jon/30min): No-pressure conversation about where AI fits your business
- [Store](https://rapidanai.com/store): Self-paced courses on self-hosted AI infrastructure

## Services

All services are explored through a free consultation:
- [Free 30-minute consultation](https://booking.rapidanai.com/jon/30min): No-pitch conversation about where AI fits your business — covers strategy, agent builds, infrastructure, design, and training

## Courses

- [Agentic Foundations](https://rapidanai.com/store) (free): The five components of an agentic AI system — Skills, MCP, Plugins, Prompts, and Context
- [Heart of Gold Ecosystem Tour](https://rapidanai.com/store) (free): A guided tour of a working self-hosted AI setup
- [Deep Dive: Hermes Agent](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Deploy, configure, and harden your own Hermes AI agent — Docker setup through production hardening
- [Deep Dive: Making Memories with Honcho](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Persistent memory for AI agents — end to end
- [Deep Dive: Project Management with Plane](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Agent-driven project management with Plane
- [Deep Dive: Seafile and Obsidian](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Self-hosted file sync meets your second brain

## Blog

Latest posts on AI for small businesses:

- [How a Real Estate Agent Got 10 Hours Back Per Week With AI](https://rapidanai.com/blog/how-real-estate-agent-got-10-hours-back) (2026-11-03): AI email triage gave a real estate agent back his mornings — and 10 hours a week.
- [Agents, Skills, and Tools: What's the Difference?](https://rapidanai.com/blog/agents-skills-and-tools-whats-the-difference) (2026-09-20): A prompt travels through distinct layers. Each has one job — agent, harness, skill, tool.
- [Heart of Gold Tour: Course Intro](https://rapidanai.com/blog/hog-course-intro) (2026-09-13): A tour of the Heart of Gold home lab and the story behind Rapidan Intelligent Automation
- [The Least Capable Model That Does the Job](https://rapidanai.com/blog/least-capable-model-that-does-the-job) (2026-09-11): Use the cheapest model that gets the work done and save expensive ones for when they matter
- [YAGNI: You Aren't Gonna Need It](https://rapidanai.com/blog/yagni-you-arent-gonna-need-it) (2026-09-11): Pick tools when you need them, not before — the story behind the Rapidan AI site architecture
- [The Five-Minute Intro to AI Agents](https://rapidanai.com/blog/five-minute-intro-to-ai-agents) (2026-09-09): What an AI agent actually is and one concrete example

For agents and automated consumers:
- [Blog Index (JSON)](https://rapidanai.com/blog/index.json): Machine-readable post listing (metadata only)
- [Full Post Content (JSON)](https://rapidanai.com/blog/posts/content.json): Machine-readable full body text for every published post
- [RSS Feed](https://rapidanai.com/blog/feed.xml)

## Store

> Rapidan AI Store — self-paced courses on self-hosted AI infrastructure. All courses are recorded walkthroughs you can follow on your own schedule.

- [Agentic Foundations](https://rapidanai.com/store) (free): An introduction to the five components of an agentic AI system
- [Heart of Gold Ecosystem Tour](https://rapidanai.com/store) (free): A guided tour of a working self-hosted AI ecosystem — Hermes Agent, Honcho Memory, Plane PM, Docker, Tailscale, and more
- [Deep Dive: Hermes Agent](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Deploy, configure, harden, and extend your own Hermes AI agent with skills, gateways, cron, and MCP tools
- [Deep Dive: Making Memories with Honcho](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Persistent memory for AI agents — encoding, storing, and retrieving structured profiles
- [Deep Dive: Project Management with Plane](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Agent-driven project management — ticket queues, state transitions, cycles, and backlog grooming
- [Deep Dive: Seafile and Obsidian](https://rapidanai.com/store) ($19): Self-hosted file sync and encrypted storage paired with a private knowledge management system

## Other

- [Free 30-minute consultation](https://booking.rapidanai.com/jon/30min): No-cost first conversation — no pitch, no pressure

## Contact

- Email: jondeavers@rapidanai.com
- Booking: https://booking.rapidanai.com/jon/30min