Files
hermes-agent/tests
teknium1 832ecde4b0 feat(kanban): structured tool surface for worker + orchestrator agents
Seven new tools in `tools/kanban_tools.py` that give kanban workers a
backend-portable, schema-filtered way to interact with the board from
inside their own Python process — no shelling out to `hermes kanban`.

Motivation
  The CLI path (`hermes kanban complete \$TASK --summary ...`) breaks
  on any remote terminal backend (Docker, Modal, Singularity, SSH).
  The terminal tool runs `hermes kanban` inside the container, where
  `hermes` isn't installed and `~/.hermes/kanban.db` isn't mounted.
  Tools run in the agent's own Python process, so they always reach
  the board regardless of backend. Also skips shell-quoting fragility
  on --metadata JSON and gives structured error returns the model can
  reason about.

The seven tools
  kanban_show        read current task (defaults to HERMES_KANBAN_TASK)
  kanban_complete    structured handoff: summary + metadata
  kanban_block       ask for human input
  kanban_heartbeat   signal liveness during long operations
  kanban_comment     append to task thread
  kanban_create      fan out into child tasks (orchestrator path)
  kanban_link        add parent→child dependency after the fact

Gating
  Each tool's check_fn returns True iff HERMES_KANBAN_TASK is set in
  the process env. The dispatcher sets it when spawning a worker;
  normal `hermes chat` sessions never have it. Empirically verified:
  a baseline hermes-cli schema is 27 tools; with HERMES_KANBAN_TASK
  set it grows to exactly 34 (+7). Zero leak into normal sessions.

Also set HERMES_PROFILE in the spawn env so the kanban_comment tool's
author default works cleanly (it's what the tool reads to attribute
comments).

Skill updates
  - `skills/devops/kanban-worker/SKILL.md`: lifecycle rewritten to use
    kanban_show / kanban_heartbeat / kanban_block / kanban_complete /
    kanban_comment / kanban_create directly. CLI fallback section
    added for human operators / scripts.
  - `skills/devops/kanban-orchestrator/SKILL.md`: all examples ported
    from CLI to tool form; top-banner note explaining tools are the
    primary surface. kanban_create / kanban_link throughout.

Docs
  `website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban.md`:
  new "How workers interact with the board" section explaining the
  tool surface, gating mechanism, and why tools vs CLI. The worker
  skill / orchestrator skill subsections are now nested under it.

Tests (+25 in tests/tools/test_kanban_tools.py)
  - Schema gating: kanban_tools_hidden_without_env_var,
    kanban_tools_visible_with_env_var.
  - Happy paths: show (default + explicit task_id), complete (with
    summary+metadata, with result only), block, heartbeat (with and
    without note), comment (default + custom author), create (with
    list parents, with string parent), link.
  - Error paths: complete rejects no-handoff and non-dict metadata,
    block rejects empty reason, comment rejects empty body, create
    rejects no title / no assignee / non-list parents, link rejects
    self-reference / missing args / cycles.
  - End-to-end: full worker lifecycle driven entirely through the
    tools, verified against DB state.

214/214 kanban suite pass under scripts/run_tests.sh.
2026-04-28 04:30:22 -07:00
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