* feat(kanban): add `specify` — auxiliary LLM fleshes out triage tasks
The Triage column shipped with a placeholder 'a specifier will flesh
out the spec', but the specifier itself was never built. This wires
it up as a dedicated CLI verb.
`hermes kanban specify <id>` calls the auxiliary LLM (configured under
`auxiliary.triage_specifier`) to expand a rough one-liner into a
concrete spec — tightened title plus a body with Goal / Approach /
Acceptance criteria / Out-of-scope sections — then atomically flips
`status: triage -> todo` and recomputes ready so parent-free tasks
go straight to the dispatcher on the same tick.
Surface:
hermes kanban specify <task_id> # single task
hermes kanban specify --all [--tenant T] # sweep triage column
hermes kanban specify ... --author NAME # audit-comment author
hermes kanban specify ... --json # one JSON line per task
Design choices:
- Parent gating is preserved. specify_triage_task flips to 'todo',
then recompute_ready promotes to 'ready' only when parents are
done — same rule as a normal parent-gated todo.
- No daemon, no background watcher. Every invocation is explicit —
keeps cost predictable and doesn't fight the dispatcher loop.
- Response parse is lenient: strict JSON preferred, markdown-fence
tolerated, raw-body fallback on malformed JSON so the LLM can't
strand a task in triage.
- All failure modes (no aux client, API error, task moved out of
triage mid-call) return SpecifyOutcome(ok=False, reason=...) so
--all continues past individual failures.
Changes:
hermes_cli/kanban_db.py + specify_triage_task()
hermes_cli/kanban_specify.py NEW (~220 LOC — prompt, parse, call)
hermes_cli/kanban.py + specify subcommand + _cmd_specify
hermes_cli/config.py + auxiliary.triage_specifier task slot
website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban.md specify + config notes
website/docs/reference/cli-commands.md CLI reference entry
tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_specify_db.py NEW (10 tests)
tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_specify.py NEW (20 tests)
Validation: 30/30 targeted tests pass. E2E: triage task -> specify ->
ends in 'ready' with events [created, specified, promoted] and the
audit comment recorded under the configured author.
* feat(kanban): wire specifier into dashboard and gateway slash
Follow-ups to the initial PR #21435 — closes the two gaps I'd left as
post-merge: dashboard button and first-class gateway surface.
Dashboard (plugins/kanban/dashboard/)
- POST /tasks/:id/specify NEW endpoint. Thin wrapper around
kanban_specify.specify_task(). Returns the CLI outcome shape
({ok, task_id, reason, new_title}); ok=false with a human reason
is a 200, not a 4xx, so the UI can render it inline without
treating 'no aux client configured' as a crash.
- Runs sync in FastAPI's threadpool because the LLM call can take
tens of seconds on reasoning models.
- Pins HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD around the specify call so the module's
argless kb.connect() lands on the right board.
- dist/index.js: doSpecify callback threaded through the drawer →
TaskDetail → StatusActions prop chain. ✨ Specify button appears
ONLY when task.status === 'triage' (elsewhere the backend would
reject anyway — hide the button to keep the action row clean).
Busy state (Specifying…) + inline success/error banner under the
button using the response.reason text.
- dist/style.css: tiny hermes-kanban-msg-ok / -err classes using
existing --color vars so themes reskin cleanly.
Gateway slash (/kanban specify)
- Already works via the existing run_slash → build_parser →
kanban_command pipeline. No code change needed — slash commands
inherit the argparse tree automatically. Added coverage:
test_run_slash_specify_end_to_end (create --triage, specify, verify
promotion + retitle) and test_run_slash_specify_help_is_reachable.
Tests
- tests/plugins/test_kanban_dashboard_plugin.py: 3 new tests for the
REST endpoint — happy path, non-triage rejection as ok=false 200,
missing aux client as ok=false 200.
- tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_cli.py: 2 new slash-surface tests.
Docs
- website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban.md: dashboard action row
description mentions ✨ Specify + all three surfaces. REST table
gains /tasks/:id/specify. Slash examples include /kanban specify.
Validation: 340/340 targeted tests pass. E2E via TestClient: create a
triage task over REST → POST /specify with mocked aux client → task
moves to 'ready' column on /board with new title and body applied.
Drives stream_events directly and cancels the task while it is sleeping
in the poll loop, asserting the coroutine returns cleanly instead of
letting CancelledError bubble. Regression coverage for the Uvicorn
application traceback on dashboard Ctrl-C fixed by the preceding commit.
Add parent dependency guard to _set_status_direct so dragging
a task to the ready column is rejected (409) when its parents
are not all done. Previously the guard only existed in
recompute_ready, allowing direct status writes via the
dashboard API to bypass the dependency engine.
Root cause: after reclaiming stale workers, both T3 and T4
were set to ready via dashboard status writes in quick
succession, causing the writer to be spawned while the analyst
was blocked — upstream work wasn't done yet.
The dispatcher's circuit breaker only protected against spawn-side
failures (profile missing, workspace mount error, exec failure).
Workers that successfully spawned but then timed out or crashed
re-queued to ``ready`` with no counter increment, so the next tick
re-spawned them — loops forever until someone noticed. Reported
externally on Twitter (Forbidden Seeds) and confirmed by walking the
kernel: ``enforce_max_runtime`` flipped the task back to ready, emitted
a ``timed_out`` event, and never touched ``spawn_failures``; same for
``detect_crashed_workers``.
Fix: unify the counter across all non-success outcomes.
Schema
------
* ``tasks.spawn_failures`` → ``tasks.consecutive_failures``
* ``tasks.last_spawn_error`` → ``tasks.last_failure_error``
* Migration renames the columns in-place on existing DBs (``ALTER
TABLE RENAME COLUMN`` — SQLite >= 3.25) so historical counter
values are preserved. Row mappers fall through to the legacy names
if both column renames and a migration somehow got out of sync.
Counter lifecycle
-----------------
New helper ``_record_task_failure(conn, task_id, error, *, outcome,
release_claim, end_run, event_payload_extra)`` is the single point
every non-success outcome funnels through:
* ``spawn_failed`` → ``_record_spawn_failure`` (kept as alias)
calls it with ``release_claim=True, end_run=True`` — transitions
running→ready, clears claim, closes run.
* ``timed_out`` → ``enforce_max_runtime`` already does the status
transition + run close + event emission, then calls
``_record_task_failure`` with ``release_claim=False, end_run=False``
just to bump the counter (and trip the breaker if needed).
* ``crashed`` → ``detect_crashed_workers`` same pattern, but the
counter increment runs after the main write_txn closes (SQLite
doesn't nest write transactions).
If the counter hits the breaker threshold (``DEFAULT_FAILURE_LIMIT=5``,
same as before), the task transitions to ``blocked`` with a ``gave_up``
event on top of whatever outcome-specific event was already emitted.
Reset semantics changed: the counter now clears only on successful
``complete_task`` (and operator ``reclaim_task`` — an explicit "I've
looked at this, try again with a fresh budget"). Previously
``_clear_spawn_failures`` ran on every successful spawn, which would
have wiped the counter before a timeout could accumulate past threshold
— exactly the loop this fix prevents.
Diagnostics
-----------
* ``_rule_repeated_spawn_failures`` → ``_rule_repeated_failures``. Now
fires regardless of which outcome is at fault. Classifies the most
recent failure (spawn_failed / timed_out / crashed) from the run
history so the title ("Agent timeout x3", "Agent crash x4", "Agent
spawn x5") and suggested action (``doctor`` for spawn, ``log`` for
timeout/crash) stay outcome-specific without N duplicate rules.
* ``_rule_repeated_crashes`` kept as a narrower early-warning at
threshold 2 (vs 3 for the unified rule), but now suppresses itself
when the unified rule would also fire — avoids double-flagging.
* Diagnostic ``data`` payload now carries
``{consecutive_failures, most_recent_outcome, last_error}`` instead
of spawn-specific keys.
CLI
---
* ``Task.consecutive_failures`` / ``Task.last_failure_error`` are the
public fields now. Existing callers that referenced the old names
get migrated (tests updated in this commit).
* Backward-compat: ``DEFAULT_SPAWN_FAILURE_LIMIT``,
``_clear_spawn_failures``, ``_record_spawn_failure`` stay as aliases.
Tests
-----
* 6 new kernel tests: timeout increments counter, 3 consecutive
timeouts trip the breaker (was the reported gap), crash increments
counter, reclaim clears counter, completion clears counter, spawn
success does NOT clear counter.
* Diagnostic tests: updated ``repeated_spawn_failures`` cases to use
the new kind name and add a timeout-loop test.
* Dashboard API test: spawn_failures column update → consecutive_failures.
389/389 kanban-suite tests pass.
Live verification
-----------------
Seeded 4 tasks in an isolated HERMES_HOME: 3 timeouts, 4 crashes,
2-spawn-failed + 2-timed-out, and a task that had prior failures but
completed successfully. Board correctly shows "!! 3 tasks need
attention" (the successful one has no badge because the counter
reset). Drawer for the timeout-loop task renders "Agent timeout x3"
with most_recent_outcome=timed_out and the "Check logs" suggested
action (not the spawn-flavoured "Verify profile"). The successful
task has zero diagnostics.
Closes the Forbidden-Seeds-reported gap.
* feat(kanban): generic diagnostics engine for task distress signals
Replaces the hallucination-specific ``warnings`` / ``RecoverySection``
surface (shipped in PR #20232) with a reusable diagnostic-rule engine
that covers five distress kinds in v1 and can be extended without
touching UI code. The "something's wrong with this task" signal is
no longer limited to phantom card ids.
Closes the follow-up from #20232 discussion.
New module
----------
``hermes_cli/kanban_diagnostics.py`` — stateless, no-side-effect rule
engine. Each rule is a pure function of
``(task, events, runs, now, config) -> list[Diagnostic]``. Registry
is a simple list; adding a new distress kind is one function + one
import, no UI or API changes required.
v1 rule set
-----------
* ``hallucinated_cards`` (error) — folds the existing
``completion_blocked_hallucination`` event into the new surface.
* ``prose_phantom_refs`` (warning) — folds
``suspected_hallucinated_references``.
* ``repeated_spawn_failures`` (error → critical at 2x threshold) —
fires when ``tasks.spawn_failures >= 3``; suggests
``hermes -p <profile> doctor`` / ``auth``.
* ``repeated_crashes`` (error → critical) — fires after N consecutive
``crashed`` run outcomes with no successful completion between;
suggests ``hermes kanban log <id>``.
* ``stuck_in_blocked`` (warning) — fires after 24h in ``blocked``
state with no comments / unblock attempts; suggests commenting.
Every diagnostic carries structured ``actions`` (reclaim, reassign,
unblock, cli_hint, comment, open_docs) that render consistently in
both CLI and dashboard. Suggested actions are highlighted; generic
recovery actions (reclaim / reassign) are available on every kind as
fallbacks.
Diagnostics auto-clear when the underlying failure resolves — a
clean ``completed``/``edited`` event drops hallucination diagnostics,
a successful run drops crash diagnostics, a comment drops
stuck-blocked diagnostics. Audit events persist; the badge goes away.
API
---
``plugin_api.py``:
* ``/board`` now attaches ``diagnostics`` (full list) and
``warnings`` (compact summary with ``highest_severity``) per task.
* ``/tasks/{id}`` attaches diagnostics so the drawer's Diagnostics
section auto-opens on flagged tasks.
* NEW ``/diagnostics`` endpoint — fleet-wide listing, filterable by
severity, sorted critical-first.
CLI
---
* NEW ``hermes kanban diagnostics [--severity X] [--task id]
[--json]`` — fleet view or single-task view, matches dashboard rule
output so CLI users see the same picture.
* ``hermes kanban show <id>`` now renders a Diagnostics section near
the top with severity markers + suggested actions.
Dashboard
---------
* Card badge is severity-coloured (⚠ amber warning, !! orange error,
!!! red critical) using ``warnings.highest_severity``.
* Attention strip above the toolbar counts EVERY task with active
diagnostics (not just hallucinations), severity-coloured, lists
affected tasks with Open buttons when expanded.
* Drawer's old ``RecoverySection`` replaced with generic
``DiagnosticsSection`` rendering a card per active diagnostic:
title + detail + structured data (task-id chips when payload keys
look like id lists) + action buttons. Reassign profile picker is
inline per-diagnostic. Clipboard fallback uses ``.catch()`` for
environments where writeText rejects.
* Three-rung severity palette; amber for warning, orange for error,
red for critical. Uses CSS variables so theming is straightforward.
Tests
-----
* NEW ``tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_diagnostics.py`` — 14 unit tests
covering each rule's positive/negative/threshold paths, severity
sorting, broken-rule isolation, and sqlite3.Row integration.
* Dashboard plugin tests extended: ``/diagnostics`` endpoint (empty,
populated, severity-filtered), ``/board`` exposes both diagnostic
list and compact summary with ``highest_severity``.
* Existing hallucination-specific test (``test_board_surfaces_
warnings_field_for_hallucinated_completions``) updated to reflect
the new contract: warning summary keys by diagnostic kind
(``hallucinated_cards``) not event kind.
379 kanban-suite tests pass (+16 net from this PR).
Live verification
-----------------
Seeded all 5 diagnostic kinds + one clean + one plain-running task
(7 total) into an isolated HERMES_HOME, spun up the dashboard, and
verified:
* Attention strip: shows ``!! 5 tasks need attention`` in the
error-severity orange; Show expands to a list of 5 rows ordered
critical > error > warning.
* Card badges: error tasks render ``!!`` orange, warning tasks
render ``⚠`` amber, clean and plain-running tasks render no badge.
* Each of the 5 rules opens a correctly-coloured, correctly-styled
diagnostic card in the drawer with its specific suggested action.
* Live reassign from a diagnostic card flipped
``broken-ml-worker → alice`` and the drawer refreshed with the
new assignee + the same diagnostic still firing (correct:
spawn_failures counter hasn't reset yet).
* CLI ``hermes kanban diagnostics`` prints all 5 in severity order;
``--severity error`` narrows to 3; ``kanban show <id>`` includes
the Diagnostics block at the top with suggested action hint.
Migration note
--------------
The old ``warnings`` shape (``{count, kinds, latest_at}``) is
preserved on the API but ``kinds`` now keys by diagnostic kind
(``hallucinated_cards``) instead of event kind
(``completion_blocked_hallucination``). ``highest_severity`` is a
new required field. The dashboard was the only consumer and has
been updated in the same commit; external API consumers of the
``warnings`` field will need to update their kind-match logic.
* feat(kanban/diagnostics): lead titles with the actual error text
The generic 'Worker crashed N runs in a row' / 'Worker failed to spawn
N times' titles buried the actual cause in the data section. Operators
had to open logs or expand the diagnostic to see WHY the worker is
stuck — rate-limit vs insufficient quota vs bad auth vs context
overflow vs network blip all looked identical at a glance.
New titles:
Agent crashed 3x: openai: 429 Too Many Requests - rate limit reached
Agent crashed 3x: anthropic: 402 insufficient_quota - credit balance
Agent crashed 3x: provider auth error: 401 Unauthorized
Agent spawn failed 4x: insufficient_quota: You exceeded your current
Detail keeps the full error snippet (capped at 500 chars + ellipsis
for tracebacks). Title takes the first line capped at 160 chars.
Fallback title if no error recorded stays honest ('no error recorded').
Tests: 4 new cases covering 429/billing/spawn/truncation. 383 total
pass (+4).
Live-verified on dashboard with 6 seeded scenarios
(rate-limit, billing, auth, context, network, spawn-billing) —
each card title leads with the actionable error text.
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).
* revert: auto-subscribe gateway chat on tool-driven kanban_create (#19718)
Reverts ff3d2773e2. Teknium reviewed the merged PR and decided this
behavior isn't wanted — tool-driven kanban_create should not mirror
the slash-command path's auto-subscribe. Orchestrators that want
their originating chat notified can call kanban_notify-subscribe
explicitly; we're not going to make it implicit.
* feat(kanban-dashboard): per-platform home-channel notification toggles
Adds a "Notify home channels" section to the task drawer in the kanban
dashboard plugin. Each platform where the user has set a home channel
(/sethome, TELEGRAM_HOME_CHANNEL env var, gateway.platforms.<p>.home_channel
in config.yaml) gets a toggle pill. Toggling on writes a kanban_notify_subs
row keyed to that platform's home (chat_id + thread_id); toggling off
removes it. The existing gateway notifier watcher delivers completed /
blocked / gave_up events without any new plumbing — this is purely a GUI
surface over existing machinery.
Replaces the reverted auto-subscribe behavior from #19718 with an explicit,
per-task, per-platform, user-controlled opt-in. No implicit subscription
on tool-driven kanban_create; no CLI commands; no slash commands. Just a
toggle in the drawer.
Backend (plugins/kanban/dashboard/plugin_api.py):
- GET /api/plugins/kanban/home-channels[?task_id=X]
Returns every platform with a configured home, plus a per-entry
subscribed: bool relative to task_id (false when task_id omitted).
Reads the live GatewayConfig via load_gateway_config() so env-var
overlays stay honored.
- POST /api/plugins/kanban/tasks/:id/home-subscribe/:platform
Idempotent add_notify_sub keyed to the platform's home.
- DELETE /api/plugins/kanban/tasks/:id/home-subscribe/:platform
remove_notify_sub for the same tuple.
- 404 when the platform has no home configured, or task_id doesn't
exist (POST only).
Frontend (plugins/kanban/dashboard/dist/index.js):
- TaskDrawer fetches /home-channels on open, keyed on task_id.
- HomeSubsSection renders nothing when zero platforms have a home (so
users who haven't set one up don't see an empty UI block).
- Optimistic toggle with busy flag + revert-on-failure. One pill per
platform; ✓ prefix and --on class indicate the subscribed state.
CSS (plugins/kanban/dashboard/dist/style.css):
- .hermes-kanban-home-subs flex row + .hermes-kanban-home-sub pill
style + --on subscribed variant (subtle ring-colored background).
Live-tested against a dashboard with TELEGRAM + DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN /
HOME_CHANNEL env vars set: drawer shows both pills, toggling each
flips its visual state AND writes/removes the correct kanban_notify_subs
row (verified via direct DB read).
Tests (tests/plugins/test_kanban_dashboard_plugin.py, 11 new, 53/53
pass total):
- home-channels lists only platforms with a home (slack with a
token but no home is excluded)
- no task_id -> all subscribed=false
- subscribe creates notify_sub row with correct chat/thread/platform
- subscribed=true reflected in subsequent GET
- idempotent re-subscribe
- unknown platform -> 404
- unknown task -> 404
- unsubscribe removes the row
- telegram + discord subscribe/unsubscribe independent
- zero homes -> empty list
Reporter of #19535 explicitly asked for a regression test — covers it
here so a future refactor of _set_status_direct can't silently re-enable
the direct ready/todo -> running bypass.
Asserts both: (a) HTTP 400 with 'running' in the detail message, and
(b) the task's status is unchanged after the rejected PATCH (pre-request
status preserved, no partial mutation).
