Workers completing a kanban task can now claim the ids of cards they
created via an optional ``created_cards`` field on ``kanban_complete``.
The kernel verifies each id exists and was created by the completing
worker's profile; any phantom id blocks the completion with a
``HallucinatedCardsError`` and records a
``completion_blocked_hallucination`` event on the task so the rejected
attempt is auditable. Successful completions also get a non-blocking
prose-scan pass over their ``summary`` + ``result`` that emits a
``suspected_hallucinated_references`` event for any ``t_<hex>``
reference that doesn't resolve.
Closes#20017.
Recovery UX (kernel + CLI + dashboard)
--------------------------------------
A structural gate alone isn't enough — operators also need to see and
act on stuck workers, especially when a profile's model is the root
cause. This PR ships the full loop:
* ``kanban_db.reclaim_task(task_id)`` — operator-driven reclaim that
releases an active worker claim immediately (unlike
``release_stale_claims`` which only acts after claim_expires has
passed). Emits a ``reclaimed`` event with ``manual: True`` payload.
* ``kanban_db.reassign_task(task_id, profile, reclaim_first=...)`` —
switch a task to a different profile, optionally reclaiming a stuck
running worker in the same call.
* ``hermes kanban reclaim <id> [--reason ...]`` and
``hermes kanban reassign <id> <profile> [--reclaim] [--reason ...]``
CLI subcommands wired through to the same helpers.
* ``POST /api/plugins/kanban/tasks/{id}/reclaim`` and
``POST /api/plugins/kanban/tasks/{id}/reassign`` endpoints on the
dashboard plugin.
Dashboard surfacing
-------------------
* ⚠ **warning badge** on cards with active hallucination events.
* **attention strip** at the top of the board listing all flagged
tasks; dismissible per session.
* **events callout** in the task drawer — hallucination events render
with a red left border, amber icon, and phantom ids as styled chips.
* **recovery section** in the task drawer with three actions: Reclaim,
Reassign (with profile picker + reclaim-first checkbox), and a
copy-to-clipboard hint for ``hermes -p <profile> model`` since
profile config lives on disk and can't be edited from the browser.
Auto-opens when the task has warnings, collapsed otherwise.
Keyed by task id so state doesn't leak between drawers.
Active-vs-stale rule: warnings clear when a clean ``completed`` or
``edited`` event supersedes the hallucination, so recovery is never
permanently stigmatising — the audit events persist for debugging but
the badge goes away once the worker succeeds.
Skill updates
-------------
* ``skills/devops/kanban-worker/SKILL.md`` documents the
``created_cards`` contract with good/bad examples.
* ``skills/devops/kanban-orchestrator/SKILL.md`` gains a "Recovering
stuck workers" section with the three actions and when to use each.
Tests
-----
* Kernel gate: verified-cards manifest, phantom rejection + audit
event, cross-worker rejection, prose scan positive + negative.
* Recovery helpers: reclaim on running task, reclaim on non-running
returns False, reassign refuses running without reclaim_first,
reassign with reclaim_first succeeds on running.
* API endpoints: warnings field present on /board and /tasks/:id,
warnings cleared after clean completion, reclaim 200 + 409 paths,
reassign 200 + 409 + reclaim_first paths.
* CLI smoke: reclaim + reassign subcommands.
Live-verified end-to-end on a dashboard with seeded scenarios:
attention strip renders, badges land on the right cards, drawer
callout shows phantom chips, Reclaim on a running task flips status to
ready + emits manual reclaimed event + refreshes the drawer,
Reassign swaps the assignee and triggers board refresh.
359/359 kanban-suite tests pass
(test_kanban_{db,cli,boards,core_functionality} + dashboard + tools).
After PR #20105 (dispatcher skips ready tasks whose assignee fails
``profile_exists()`` to prevent the orion-cc/orion-research crash
loop), the gateway and CLI emit a spurious "kanban dispatcher stuck:
ready queue non-empty for N consecutive ticks but 0 workers spawned"
warning every 5 minutes on multi-lane setups where the queue is
steadily full of human-pulled work assigned to terminal lanes.
The warn is intended to catch real failure modes (broken PATH,
missing venv, credential loss for a real Hermes profile). On a
multi-lane host it fires forever even though everything is healthy:
the dispatcher correctly chose not to spawn, and there is nothing
for the operator to fix.
Changes:
* ``DispatchResult`` gains a ``skipped_nonspawnable`` field
(separate from ``skipped_unassigned``) so callers can distinguish
"task missing an owner — operator should route it" from "task
owned by a control-plane lane — terminal will pull it".
* ``dispatch_once`` routes the ``not profile_exists(assignee)`` skip
into the new bucket (was lumped into ``skipped_unassigned``).
* New helper ``has_spawnable_ready(conn)`` returns True iff at least
one ready+assigned+unclaimed task in the DB has an assignee that
maps to a real Hermes profile. Falls back to legacy "any
ready+assigned" when ``profile_exists`` is unimportable so degraded
installs still surface the original warn.
* The gateway dispatcher (``gateway/run.py``) and the CLI standalone
daemon (``hermes_cli/kanban.py``) both swap their cheap
``ready_nonempty`` probe to use ``has_spawnable_ready``. Stuck-warn
now fires only when there is genuine spawnable work the dispatcher
failed to start.
* CLI dispatch output prints ``Skipped (non-spawnable assignee —
terminal lane, OK)`` for visibility without alarm.
Tests:
* New ``has_spawnable_ready`` cases (empty queue, terminal-lane
only, mixed real+terminal).
* New ``test_dispatch_skips_nonspawnable_into_separate_bucket``
verifies the bucketing change.
* Updated ``test_dispatch_skips_unassigned`` to assert no
cross-leak.
* Added ``all_assignees_spawnable`` fixture in
``tests/hermes_cli/conftest.py`` and threaded it through dispatcher
tests that use synthetic assignees ("alice", "bob"). PR #20105
(the parent commit) silently broke 8 such tests by routing those
assignees into ``skipped_nonspawnable`` instead of spawning; this
PR repairs them as part of the same code area.
Verified locally: 246/246 kanban-suite tests pass.
Stacks on top of fix/kanban-dispatcher-skip-missing-profile-2026-05-05
(PR #20105). Reviewer: this PR is meant to merge AFTER #20105.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The kanban dispatcher's `_default_spawn` invokes
``hermes -p <task.assignee> chat -q ...``. When ``assignee``
names a control-plane lane (e.g. an interactive Claude Code
terminal like ``orion-cc`` / ``orion-research``) instead of a
real Hermes profile, the subprocess fails on startup with
"Profile 'X' does not exist", gets reaped as a zombie, the
TTL/crash detector marks the task back to ``ready``, and the
next tick re-spawns the same crashing worker. Result: a
permanent crash loop emitting ``spawned=2 crashed=2 every tick``
in the gateway log and burning CPU forever.
Reproduce on a fresh Hermes-agent install:
# 1. Create a kanban task whose assignee names a non-profile.
hermes kanban create --assignee orion-cc --status ready \
--title "Review PR #N" --body "..."
# 2. Start the gateway with the embedded dispatcher.
hermes gateway run
# gateway.log lines every minute:
# kanban dispatcher: tick spawned=1 reclaimed=0 crashed=1 ...
# 3. ps -ef | grep '[h]ermes.*defunct' shows zombies.
Fix
---
``dispatch_once()`` now pre-checks ``hermes_cli.profiles.
profile_exists(assignee)`` before claiming. If False, the row
is added to ``skipped_unassigned`` (it's effectively
"unassigned-to-an-executable-profile") and the dispatcher
moves on without claiming, spawning, or counting a crash.
The check is opt-in safe: if the import fails (e.g. test
isolation, profile module restructured), ``profile_exists``
falls back to ``None`` and the original behaviour is preserved
unchanged.
This addresses the explicit hint in the kanban task body
(``t_2bab06e3``):
"Should ready-state tasks auto-spawn at all, or only on
explicit orion-cc claim? If spurious, gate the auto-spawn
behind a config flag (e.g. only assignee=hermes or
assignee=auto)."
Profile-existence is a tighter gate than a config flag — it
self-documents (the user already knows whether they have an
``orion-cc`` profile), and it doesn't require Mac to maintain
an allowlist as new lane names appear. New lanes that ARE
real profiles (created via ``hermes profile create``) auto-
qualify the moment the profile dir is created.
Validated live
--------------
On Orion's hermes-agent install, two ``orion-research``-
assigned tasks (Bug A and Bug C investigations) had been
crash-looping since 2026-05-05 06:58 local. After applying
the patch + restarting the gateway:
- Stale ``running`` claims released to ``ready`` cleanly.
- New gateway emitted ``kanban dispatcher: embedded`` and
has ticked silently for 2+ minutes — no spawned=,
crashed=, or stuck= log lines (all spawn skips are quiet).
- Tasks remain ``ready`` with ``claim_lock=None``,
``worker_pid=None``, ``spawn_failures=0``.
- Dashboard + telegram + freqtrade unaffected.
Confidence: high (live verified on Orion).
Scope-risk: narrow (additive guard inside one function).
Not-tested: behaviour when a profile is renamed mid-tick —
current code re-imports ``profile_exists`` per row so a
freshly created profile auto-qualifies on the next tick.
Machine: orion-terminal
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add normalize_profile_name() for lowercase canonical IDs and Default alias
- Use canonical names in create/delete/rename/export/import/set_active paths
- Canonicalize Kanban assignee on create/assign, list filter, and worker spawn
- Tests for mixed-case assignees and profile resolution (fixes#18498)
Adds first-class board support to kanban so users can separate unrelated
streams of work (projects, repos, domains) into isolated queues. Single-
project users stay on the 'default' board and see no UI change.
Isolation model
---------------
- Each board is a directory at `~/.hermes/kanban/boards/<slug>/` with
its own `kanban.db`, `workspaces/`, and `logs/`. The 'default' board
keeps its legacy path (`~/.hermes/kanban.db`) for back-compat — fresh
installs and pre-boards users get zero migration.
- Workers spawned by the dispatcher have `HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD` pinned in
their env alongside the existing `HERMES_KANBAN_DB` /
`HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT` pins, so workers physically cannot see
other boards' tasks.
- The gateway's single dispatcher loop now sweeps every board per tick;
per-tick cost is a few extra filesystem stats.
- CAS concurrency guarantees are preserved per-board (each board is its
own SQLite DB, same WAL+IMMEDIATE machinery as before).
CLI
---
hermes kanban boards list|create|switch|show|rename|rm
hermes kanban --board <slug> <any-subcommand>
Board resolution order: `--board` flag → `HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD` env →
`~/.hermes/kanban/current` file → `default`. Slug validation is strict:
lowercase alphanumerics + hyphens + underscores, 1-64 chars, starts with
alphanumeric. Uppercase is auto-downcased; slashes / dots / `..` /
control chars are rejected so boards can't name their way out of the
boards/ directory.
Passive discoverability: when more than one board exists, `hermes kanban
list` prints a one-line header ("Board: foo (2 other boards …)") so
users who stumble across multi-project never have to hunt for the
feature. Invisible for single-board installs.
Dashboard
---------
- New `BoardSwitcher` component at the top of the Kanban tab: dropdown
with all boards + task counts, `+ New board` button, `Archive`
button (non-default only). Hidden entirely when only `default` exists
and is empty — single-project users never see it.
- New `NewBoardDialog` modal: slug / display name / description / icon
+ "switch to this board after creating" checkbox.
- Selected board persists to `localStorage` so browser users don't
shift the CLI's active board out from under a terminal they left open.
- New `?board=<slug>` query param on every existing endpoint plus a
new `/boards` CRUD surface (`GET /boards`, `POST /boards`,
`PATCH /boards/<slug>`, `DELETE /boards/<slug>`,
`POST /boards/<slug>/switch`).
- Events WebSocket is pinned to a board at connection time; switching
opens a fresh WS against the new board.
Also fixes a pre-existing bug in the plugin's tenant / assignee
filters: the SDK's `Select` uses `onValueChange(value)`, not
native `onChange(event)`, so those filters silently didn't work.
New `selectChangeHandler` helper wires both signatures.
Tests
-----
49 new tests in `tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py` covering:
slug validation (valid / invalid / auto-downcase), path resolution
(default = legacy path, named = `boards/<slug>/`, env var override),
current-board resolution chain (env > file > default), board CRUD +
archive / hard-delete, per-board connection isolation (tasks don't
leak), worker spawn env injection (`HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD`,
`HERMES_KANBAN_DB`, `HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT` all point at the
right board), and end-to-end CLI surface.
Regression surface: all 264 pre-existing kanban tests continue to pass.
Live-tested via the dashboard: created 3 boards (default,
hermes-agent, atm10-server), created tasks on each via both CLI
(`--board <slug> create`) and dashboard (inline create on the Ready
column), confirmed zero cross-board leakage, confirmed `BoardSwitcher`
+ `NewBoardDialog` work end-to-end in the browser.
Path.home() / ".hermes" / "profiles" breaks custom-root deployments
(e.g. HERMES_HOME=/opt/data). Switch to get_default_hermes_root() so
profile discovery is consistent with kanban_db_path() and
workspaces_root() fixed in #18985.
Fixes#19017.
Related to #18442, #18985.
Layers defense-in-depth on top of the shared-root anchoring (base commit).
Changes in hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:
- kanban_db_path() now honours HERMES_KANBAN_DB first, then falls through
to kanban_home()/kanban.db.
- workspaces_root() now honours HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT first, then
falls through to kanban_home()/kanban/workspaces.
- All three overrides (HERMES_KANBAN_HOME, HERMES_KANBAN_DB,
HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT) now call .expanduser() for consistency.
- _default_spawn() injects HERMES_KANBAN_DB and
HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT into the worker subprocess env. Even
when the worker's get_default_hermes_root() resolution somehow
disagrees with the dispatcher's (symlinks, unusual Docker layouts),
the two processes still open the same SQLite file.
Module docstring updated to describe all three overrides and the
dispatcher env-injection contract.
Tests (tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py, TestSharedBoardPaths):
- test_hermes_kanban_db_pin_beats_kanban_home
- test_hermes_kanban_workspaces_root_pin_beats_kanban_home
- test_empty_per_path_overrides_fall_through
- test_dispatcher_spawn_injects_kanban_db_and_workspaces_root
(monkeypatches subprocess.Popen, asserts both env vars reach the
child even after HERMES_HOME is rewritten by `hermes -p <profile>`.)
Docs: website/docs/reference/environment-variables.md gets entries
for the three kanban env vars.
This fusion is built on the cleanest of the seven competing PRs that
targeted issue #18442:
* Base commit (from PR #19350 by @GodsBoy): add `kanban_home()` helper
anchored at `get_default_hermes_root()`, reroute all 5 kanban path
sites through it (including the 3 sibling log-dir sites that the
other six PRs missed), 8-test regression class.
* Dispatcher env-var injection approach drawn from PRs #18300
(@quocanh261997) and #19100 (@cg2aigc).
* Per-path env overrides drawn from PR #19100 (@cg2aigc).
* get_default_hermes_root() resolution direction first proposed in
PR #18503 (@beibi9966) and PR #18985 (@Gosuj).
Closes the duplicate/competing PRs: #18300, #18503, #18670, #18985,
#19037, #19056, #19100. Fixes#18442 and #19348.
Co-authored-by: quocanh261997 <17986614+quocanh261997@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: cg2aigc <232694053+cg2aigc@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: beibi9966 <beibei1988@proton.me>
Co-authored-by: Gosuj <123411271+Gosuj@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: LeonSGP43 <154585401+LeonSGP43@users.noreply.github.com>
The Kanban board is documented as shared across all Hermes profiles, but
`kanban_db_path()` and `workspaces_root()` resolved through `get_hermes_home()`,
which returns the active profile's HERMES_HOME. When the dispatcher spawned a
worker with `hermes -p <profile> --skills kanban-worker chat -q "work kanban
task <id>"`, the worker rewrote HERMES_HOME to the profile subdirectory before
kanban_db.py imported, opening a profile-local `kanban.db` that did not contain
the dispatcher's task. `kanban_show` and `kanban_complete` failed; the
dispatcher's row stayed `running` and was retried/crashed. The same defect
applied to `_default_spawn`'s log directory and `worker_log_path`, so
`hermes kanban tail` did not see the worker's output.
Add `kanban_home()` in `hermes_cli/kanban_db.py` that resolves through
`HERMES_KANBAN_HOME` (explicit override) then `get_default_hermes_root()`,
which already understands the `<root>/profiles/<name>` and Docker / custom
HERMES_HOME shapes. Reroute `kanban_db_path`, `workspaces_root`, the
`_default_spawn` log directory, `gc_worker_logs`, and `worker_log_path`
through it. Profile-specific config, `.env`, memory, and sessions stay
isolated as before; only the kanban surface is shared.
Add a `TestSharedBoardPaths` regression class to `tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py`
covering: default install, profile-worker convergence, Docker custom HERMES_HOME,
Docker profile layout, explicit `HERMES_KANBAN_HOME` override, and a real
SQLite round-trip across dispatcher and worker HERMES_HOME perspectives.
The dispatcher/worker convergence tests fail on origin/main and pass after
the fix.
Update the `kanban.md` user-guide page and the misleading docstrings in
`kanban_db.py` to describe the shared-root behavior.
Fixes#19348
New `hermes kanban` CLI subcommand + `/kanban` slash command + skills for
worker and orchestrator profiles. SQLite-backed task board
(~/.hermes/kanban.db) shared across all profiles on the host. Zero
changes to run_agent.py, no new core tools, no tool-schema bloat.
Motivation: delegate_task is a function call — sync fork/join, anonymous
subagent, no resumability, no human-in-the-loop. Kanban is the durable
shape needed for research triage, scheduled ops, digital twins,
engineering pipelines, and fleet work. They coexist (workers may call
delegate_task internally).
What this adds
- hermes_cli/kanban_db.py — schema, CAS claim, dependency resolution,
dispatcher, workspace resolution, worker-context builder.
- hermes_cli/kanban.py — 15-verb CLI surface and shared run_slash()
entry point used by both CLI and gateway.
- skills/devops/kanban-worker — how a profile should work a claimed task.
- skills/devops/kanban-orchestrator — "you are a dispatcher, not a
worker" template with anti-temptation rules.
- /kanban slash command wired into cli.py and gateway/run.py. Bypasses
the running-agent guard (board writes don't touch agent state), so
/kanban unblock can free a stuck worker mid-conversation.
- Design spec at docs/hermes-kanban-v1-spec.pdf — comparative analysis
vs Cline Kanban, Paperclip, NanoClaw, Gemini Enterprise; 8 patterns;
4 user stories; implementation plan; concurrency correctness.
- Docs: website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban.md, CLI reference
updated, sidebar entry added.
Architecture highlights
- Three planes: control (user + gateway), state (board + dispatcher),
execution (pool of profile processes).
- Every worker is a full OS process, spawned as `hermes -p <profile>`.
No in-process subagent swarms — solves NanoClaw's SDK-lifecycle
failure class.
- Atomic claim via SQLite CAS in a BEGIN IMMEDIATE transaction; stale
claims reclaimed 15 min after their TTL expires.
- Tenant namespacing via one nullable column — one specialist fleet
can serve many businesses with data isolation by workspace path.
Tests: 60 targeted tests (schema, CAS atomicity, dependency resolution,
dispatcher, workspace kinds, tenancy, CLI + slash surface). All pass
hermetic via scripts/run_tests.sh.
