On Windows, Python's ``os.kill(pid, 0)`` is NOT a no-op. CPython's
implementation (``Modules/posixmodule.c::os_kill_impl``) treats sig=0
as ``CTRL_C_EVENT`` because the two integer values collide at the C
layer, and routes it through ``GenerateConsoleCtrlEvent(0, pid)`` —
which sends a Ctrl+C to the ENTIRE console process group containing
the target PID, not just the PID itself. Any caller that wanted to
check "is PID X alive" via the classic POSIX ``os.kill(pid, 0)``
idiom was silently killing that process (and often unrelated
processes in the same console group) on Windows. Long-standing
Python Windows quirk; see bpo-14484 (open since 2012).
This manifested in Hermes as: every ``hermes gateway status``
invocation would read the gateway's PID from the PID file, call
``os.kill(pid, 0)`` via ``gateway.status.get_running_pid()`` as a
"liveness check", and instantly terminate the gateway it was trying
to report on. No shutdown log, no traceback, no atexit hook fire,
no exit-diag entry — just silent termination of the detached pythonw
process. "Bot answered one message then stopped typing" was the
characteristic end-user symptom because `os.kill(pid, 0)` fires
mid-response-send and kills the gateway between logs.
Reproduction (verified in this branch before the fix):
$ hermes gateway start # gateway alive, PID 37520
$ hermes gateway status # reports "No gateway process detected"
$ tasklist /FI "PID eq 37520" # INFO: No tasks are running
# — gateway terminated silently
Root-cause fix is a new ``gateway.status._pid_exists(pid)`` helper:
- On Windows: Win32 ``OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION |
SYNCHRONIZE, False, pid)`` + ``WaitForSingleObject(handle, 0)``
via ctypes. Zero signal delivery, zero console-group side effects.
Pins ctypes return types to avoid DWORD-vs-signed-int parse bugs
on WAIT_TIMEOUT (0x102). Distinguishes ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER
(PID gone) from ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED (alive but another user).
- On POSIX: the canonical ``os.kill(pid, 0)`` idiom that actually is
a no-op there.
Then patch every ``os.kill(pid, 0)`` liveness-check callsite to
route through ``_pid_exists`` instead. Total 14 callsites across
11 files; every single one was a latent silent-kill on Windows:
gateway/run.py:2810 — /restart watcher (inline subprocess)
gateway/run.py:15195 — --replace wait loop
gateway/status.py:572 — acquire_gateway_runtime_lock stale check
gateway/status.py:828 — get_running_pid (THE killer for status)
gateway/platforms/whatsapp.py:111
hermes_cli/gateway.py:228, 522, 1012 — gateway-related drain loops
hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:2826 — _pid_alive was claiming to
be cross-platform but used
os.kill(pid, 0) on Windows
hermes_cli/main.py:5792 — CLI process-kill polling
hermes_cli/profiles.py:782 — profile stop wait loop
plugins/google_meet/process_manager.py:74
tools/browser_tool.py:1215, 1255 — browser daemon ownership probes
tools/mcp_tool.py:1255, 3374 — MCP stdio orphan tracking
The watcher source in gateway/run.py:2810 is a multi-line string
that gets spawned as an inline ``python -c "..."`` subprocess, so
it can't import gateway.status. The fix for that callsite inlines
the same ctypes probe directly into the watcher source.
Tested on Windows 10 with the hermes gateway + Telegram bot:
- gateway start → alive
- 5 consecutive ``hermes gateway status`` invocations → gateway
alive after every one, same PID reported each time (37520, 21952)
- gateway.log shows uninterrupted operation; no spurious shutdown
entries; cron ticker and kanban dispatcher still running on
their 60-second cadence
- bot continues answering Telegram messages throughout
Ships alongside an exit-path diagnostic wrapper in
``hermes_cli/gateway.py::run_gateway()`` that captures every way
``asyncio.run(start_gateway(...))`` can return (success, SystemExit,
KeyboardInterrupt, BaseException, atexit) with full traceback to
``logs/gateway-exit-diag.log``. This was used to prove the gateway
was being hard-killed externally (no exit event fired) and should
be kept for future Windows debugging.
Refs: https://bugs.python.org/issue14484
See also: references/windows-subprocess-sigint-storm.md in
the hermes-agent skill.
Closes the last Python-on-Windows UTF-8 exposure by making every
text-mode open() call explicit about its encoding.
Before: on Windows, bare open(path, 'r') defaults to the system
locale encoding (cp1252 on US-locale installs). That means reading
any config/yaml/markdown/json file with non-ASCII content either
crashes with UnicodeDecodeError or silently mis-decodes bytes.
After: all 89 affected call sites in production code now pass
encoding='utf-8' explicitly. Works identically on every platform
and every locale, no surprise behavior.
Mechanical sweep via:
ruff check --preview --extend-select PLW1514 --unsafe-fixes --fix --exclude 'tests,venv,.venv,node_modules,website,optional-skills, skills,tinker-atropos,plugins' .
All 89 fixes have the same shape: open(x) or open(x, mode) became
open(x, encoding='utf-8') or open(x, mode, encoding='utf-8'). Nothing
else changed. Every modified file still parses and the Windows/sandbox
test suite is still green (85 passed, 14 skipped, 0 failed across
tests/tools/test_code_execution_windows_env.py +
tests/tools/test_code_execution_modes.py + tests/tools/test_env_passthrough.py +
tests/test_hermes_bootstrap.py).
Scope notes:
- tests/ excluded: test fixtures can use locale encoding intentionally
(exercising edge cases). If we want to tighten tests later that's
a separate PR.
- plugins/ excluded: plugin-specific conventions may differ; plugin
authors own their code.
- optional-skills/ and skills/ excluded: skill scripts are user-authored
and we don't want to mass-edit them.
- website/ and tinker-atropos/ excluded: vendored / generated content.
46 files touched, 89 +/- lines (symmetric replacement). No behavior
change on POSIX or on Windows when the file is ASCII; bug fix on
Windows when the file contains non-ASCII.
Second pass on native Windows support, driven by a systematic audit across
five areas: POSIX-only primitives (signal.SIGKILL/SIGHUP/SIGPIPE, os.WNOHANG,
os.setsid), path translation bugs (/c/Users → C:\Users), subprocess patterns
(npm.cmd batch shims, start_new_session no-op on Windows), subsystem health
(cron, gateway daemon, update flow), and module-level import guards.
Every change is platform-gated — POSIX (Linux/macOS) behaviour is preserved
bit-identical. Explicit "do no harm" test: test_posix_path_preserved_on_linux,
test_posix_noop, test_windows_detach_popen_kwargs_is_posix_equivalent_on_posix.
## New module
- hermes_cli/_subprocess_compat.py — shared helpers (resolve_node_command,
windows_detach_flags, windows_hide_flags, windows_detach_popen_kwargs).
All no-ops on non-Windows.
## CRITICAL fixes (would crash or silently break on Windows)
- tui_gateway/entry.py: SIGPIPE/SIGHUP referenced at module top level would
AttributeError on import on Windows, breaking `hermes --tui` entirely (it
spawns this module as a subprocess). Guard each signal.signal() call with
hasattr() and add SIGBREAK as Windows' SIGHUP equivalent.
- hermes_cli/kanban_db.py: os.waitpid(-1, os.WNOHANG) in dispatcher tick was
unguarded. os.WNOHANG doesn't exist on Windows. Gate the whole reap loop
behind `os.name != "nt"` — Windows has no zombies anyway.
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: AF_UNIX socket for execute_code RPC fails on
most Windows builds. Fall back to loopback TCP (AF_INET on 127.0.0.1:0
ephemeral port) when _IS_WINDOWS. HERMES_RPC_SOCKET env var now accepts
either a filesystem path (POSIX) or `tcp://127.0.0.1:<port>` (Windows).
Generated sandbox client parses both.
- cron/scheduler.py: `argv = ["/bin/bash", str(path)]` hardcoded. Use
shutil.which("bash") so Windows (Git Bash via MinGit) works, with a
readable error when bash is genuinely absent.
- 6 bare npm/npx spawn sites: tools_config.py x2, doctor.py, whatsapp.py
(npm install + node version probe), browser_tool.py x2. On Windows npm
is npm.cmd / npx is npx.cmd (batch shims); subprocess.Popen(["npm", ...])
fails with WinError 193. shutil.which(...) returns the absolute .cmd
path which CreateProcessW accepts because the extension routes through
cmd.exe /c. POSIX behaviour unchanged (shutil.which still returns the
same path subprocess would resolve itself).
## HIGH fixes (silent misbehaviour on Windows)
- tools/environments/local.py get_temp_dir: hardcoded /tmp returned on
Windows meant `_cwd_file = "/tmp/hermes-cwd-*.txt"`, which bash wrote
via MSYS2's virtual /tmp but native Python couldn't open. Result: cwd
tracking silently broken — `cd` in terminal tool did nothing. Windows
branch now returns `%HERMES_HOME%/cache/terminal` with forward slashes
(works in both bash and Python, guaranteed no spaces).
- tools/environments/local.py _make_run_env PATH injection: `/usr/bin not
in split(":")` heuristic mangles Windows PATH (";" separator). Gate
the injection behind `not _IS_WINDOWS`.
- hermes_cli/gateway.py launch_detached_profile_gateway_restart: outer
Popen + watcher-script Popen both used start_new_session=True, which
Windows silently ignores. Watcher stayed attached to CLI's console,
died when user closed terminal after `hermes update`, left gateway
stale. Now branches through windows_detach_popen_kwargs() helper
(CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP | DETACHED_PROCESS | CREATE_NO_WINDOW on
Windows, start_new_session=True on POSIX — identical to main).
## MEDIUM fixes
- gateway/run.py /restart and /update handlers: hardcoded bash/setsid
chain crashes on Windows when user triggers /update in-gateway. Now
has sys.platform=="win32" branch using sys.executable + a tiny
Python watcher with proper detach flags. POSIX path is unchanged.
- cli.py _git_repo_root: Git on Windows sometimes returns /c/Users/...
style paths that break subprocess.Popen(cwd=...) and Path().resolve().
Added _normalize_git_bash_path() helper that translates /c/Users,
/cygdrive/c, /mnt/c variants to native C:\Users form. POSIX no-op.
_git_repo_root() now routes every result through it.
- cli.py worktree .worktreeinclude: os.symlink on directories failed
hard on Windows (requires admin or Developer Mode). Falls back to
shutil.copytree with a warning log.
## Tests
- 29 new tests in tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py covering:
subprocess_compat helpers, TUI entry signal guards, kanban waitpid
guard, code_execution TCP fallback source-level invariants, cron bash
resolution, npm/npx bare-spawn lint per-file, local env Windows temp
dir, PATH injection gating, git bash path normalization, symlink
fallback, gateway detached watcher flags.
- One existing test assertion adjusted in test_browser_homebrew_paths:
it compared captured Popen argv to the BARE `"npx"` literal; after the
shutil.which() change argv[0] is the absolute path. New assertion
checks the shape (two items, second is `agent-browser`) rather than
the exact first-item string. Behaviour unchanged; test was too strict.
All 56 tests pass on Linux (30 from previous commits + 26 new).
267 tests from the affected files/dirs (browser, code_exec, local_env,
process_registry, kanban_db, windows_compat) all pass — zero regressions.
tests/hermes_cli/ (3909 pass) and tests/gateway/ (5021 pass) unchanged;
all pre-existing test failures confirmed unrelated via `git stash` re-run.
## What's still deferred (LOW priority)
- Visible cmd-window flashes on short-lived console apps (~14 sites) —
cosmetic, needs a follow-up pass once we have user reports.
- agent/file_safety.py POSIX-only security deny patterns — separate
hardening task.
- tools/process_registry.py returning "/tmp" as fallback — theoretical;
reachable only when all env-var candidates fail.
Native Windows (with Git for Windows installed) can now run the Hermes CLI
and gateway end-to-end without crashing. install.ps1 already existed and
the Git Bash terminal backend was already wired up — this PR fills the
remaining gaps discovered by auditing every Windows-unsafe primitive
(`signal.SIGKILL`, `os.kill(pid, 0)` probes, bare `fcntl`/`termios`
imports) and by comparing hermes against how Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex,
and Cline handle native Windows.
## What changed
### UTF-8 stdio (new module)
- `hermes_cli/stdio.py` — single `configure_windows_stdio()` entry point.
Flips the console code page to CP_UTF8 (65001), reconfigures
`sys.stdout`/`stderr`/`stdin` to UTF-8, sets `PYTHONIOENCODING` + `PYTHONUTF8`
for subprocesses. No-op on non-Windows. Opt out via `HERMES_DISABLE_WINDOWS_UTF8=1`.
- Called early in `cli.py::main`, `hermes_cli/main.py::main`, and
`gateway/run.py::main` so Unicode banners (box-drawing, geometric
symbols, non-Latin chat text) don't `UnicodeEncodeError` on cp1252
consoles.
### Crash sites fixed
- `hermes_cli/main.py:7970` (hermes update → stuck gateway sweep): raw
`os.kill(pid, _signal.SIGKILL)` → `gateway.status.terminate_pid(pid, force=True)`
which routes through `taskkill /T /F` on Windows.
- `hermes_cli/profiles.py::_stop_gateway_process`: same fix — also
converted SIGTERM path to `terminate_pid()` and widened OSError catch
on the intermediate `os.kill(pid, 0)` probe.
- `hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:2914, 3041`: raw `signal.SIGKILL` →
`getattr(signal, "SIGKILL", signal.SIGTERM)` fallback (matches the
pattern already used in `gateway/status.py`).
### OSError widening on `os.kill(pid, 0)` probes
Windows raises `OSError` (WinError 87) for a gone PID instead of
`ProcessLookupError`. Widened the catch at:
- `gateway/run.py:15101` (`--replace` wait-for-exit loop — without this,
the loop busy-spins the full 10s every Windows gateway start)
- `hermes_cli/gateway.py:228, 460, 940`
- `hermes_cli/profiles.py:777`
- `tools/process_registry.py::_is_host_pid_alive`
- `tools/browser_tool.py:1170, 1206`
### Dashboard PTY graceful degradation
`hermes_cli/pty_bridge.py` depends on `fcntl`/`termios`/`ptyprocess`,
none of which exist on native Windows. Previously a Windows dashboard
would crash on `import hermes_cli.web_server` because of a top-level
import. Now:
- `hermes_cli/web_server.py` wraps the pty_bridge import in
`try/except ImportError` and sets `_PTY_BRIDGE_AVAILABLE=False`.
- The `/api/pty` WebSocket handler returns a friendly "use WSL2 for
this tab" message instead of exploding.
- Every other dashboard feature (sessions, jobs, metrics, config
editor) runs natively on Windows.
### Dependency
- `pyproject.toml`: add `tzdata>=2023.3; sys_platform == 'win32'` so
Python's `zoneinfo` works on Windows (which has no IANA tzdata
shipped with the OS). Credits @sprmn24 (PR #13182).
### Docs
- README.md: removed "Native Windows is not supported"; added
PowerShell one-liner and Git-for-Windows prerequisite note.
- `website/docs/getting-started/installation.md`: new Windows section
with capability matrix (everything native except the dashboard
`/chat` PTY tab, which is WSL2-only).
- `website/docs/user-guide/windows-wsl-quickstart.md`: reframed as
"WSL2 as an alternative to native" rather than "the only way".
- `website/docs/developer-guide/contributing.md`: updated
cross-platform guidance with the `signal.SIGKILL` / `OSError`
rules we enforce now.
- `website/docs/user-guide/features/web-dashboard.md`: acknowledged
native Windows works for everything except the embedded PTY pane.
## Why this shape
Pulled from a survey of how other agent codebases handle native
Windows (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Cline):
- All four treat Git Bash as the canonical shell on Windows, same as
hermes already does in `tools/environments/local.py::_find_bash()`.
- None of them force `SetConsoleOutputCP` — but they don't have to,
Node/Rust write UTF-16 to the Win32 console API. Python does not get
that for free, so we flip CP_UTF8 via ctypes.
- None of them ship PowerShell-as-primary-shell (Claude Code exposes
PS as a secondary tool; scope creep for this PR).
- All of them use `taskkill /T /F` for force-kill on Windows, which
is exactly what `gateway.status.terminate_pid(force=True)` does.
## Non-goals (deliberate scope limits)
- No PowerShell-as-a-second-shell tool — worth designing separately.
- No terminal routing rewrite (#12317, #15461, #19800 cluster) — that's
the hardest design call and needs a separate doc.
- No wholesale `open()` → `open(..., encoding="utf-8")` sweep (Tianworld
cluster) — will do as follow-up if users hit actual breakage; most
modern code already specifies it.
## Validation
- 28 new tests in `tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py` — all
platform-mocked, pass on Linux CI. Cover:
- `configure_windows_stdio` idempotency, opt-out, env-preservation
- `terminate_pid` taskkill routing, failure → OSError, FileNotFoundError fallback
- `getattr(signal, "SIGKILL", …)` fallback shape
- `_is_host_pid_alive` OSError widening (Windows-gone-PID behavior)
- Source-level checks that all entry points call `configure_windows_stdio`
- pty_bridge import-guard present in `web_server.py`
- README no longer says "not supported"
- 12 pre-existing tests in `tests/tools/test_windows_compat.py` still pass.
- `tests/hermes_cli/` ran fully (3909 passed, 9 failures — all confirmed
pre-existing on main by stash-test).
- `tests/gateway/` ran fully (5021 passed, 1 pre-existing failure).
- `tests/tools/test_process_registry.py` + `test_browser_*` pass.
- Manual smoke: `import hermes_cli.stdio; import gateway.run;
import hermes_cli.web_server` — all clean, `_PTY_BRIDGE_AVAILABLE=True`
on Linux (as expected).
## Files
- New: `hermes_cli/stdio.py`, `tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py`
- Modified: `cli.py`, `gateway/run.py`, `hermes_cli/main.py`,
`hermes_cli/profiles.py`, `hermes_cli/gateway.py`,
`hermes_cli/kanban_db.py`, `hermes_cli/pty_bridge.py`,
`hermes_cli/web_server.py`, `tools/browser_tool.py`,
`tools/process_registry.py`, `pyproject.toml`, `README.md`, and 4
docs pages.
Credits to everyone whose prior PR work informed these fixes — see
the co-author trailers. All of the PRs listed in
`~/.hermes/plans/windows-support-prs.md` fixing `os.kill` / `signal.SIGKILL`
/ UTF-8 stdio / tzdata / README patterns found the same issues; this PR
consolidates them.
Co-authored-by: Philip D'Souza <9472774+PhilipAD@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Arecanon <42595053+ArecaNon@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: XiaoXiao0221 <263113677+XiaoXiao0221@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Lars Hagen <1360677+lars-hagen@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Luan Dias <65574834+luandiasrj@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Ruzzgar <ruzzgarcn@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: sprmn24 <oncuevtv@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: adybag14-cyber <252811164+adybag14-cyber@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Prasanna28Devadiga <54196612+Prasanna28Devadiga@users.noreply.github.com>
* 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.
Adds a per-task override for the consecutive-failure circuit breaker,
so individual tasks can opt out of the global ``kanban.failure_limit``
without dragging everyone else with them.
Resolution order (now three tiers):
1. per-task ``max_retries`` (new, this commit)
2. caller-supplied ``failure_limit`` — the gateway threads
``kanban.failure_limit`` from config here
3. ``DEFAULT_FAILURE_LIMIT`` (2)
Changes:
- ``tasks.max_retries INTEGER`` column + migration for existing DBs
(NULL = no override, matches pre-column behavior).
- ``Task.max_retries`` field + ``from_row`` plumbing.
- ``create_task(..., max_retries=N)`` kwarg.
- ``_record_task_failure`` reads the per-task value first and records
``limit_source`` + ``effective_limit`` on the ``gave_up`` event so
operators can see which tier won.
- CLI: ``hermes kanban create --max-retries N`` (rejects ``< 1``).
- CLI: ``hermes kanban show`` surfaces the effective threshold +
source (``(task)``, ``(config kanban.failure_limit)``, ``(default)``).
- CLI: ``_task_to_dict`` includes ``max_retries`` in ``--json`` output.
Key design choice vs. the earlier #20972 attempt:
- No new config key. The existing ``kanban.failure_limit`` (landed in
#21183) is the dispatcher-tier source — no silent break for users
who already tuned it.
- No ``!=`` sentinel for "is config set" (which would misfire when
config equals the default). The tier-winner is determined purely
by "is per-task override set" — the dispatcher always wins when
per-task is NULL, regardless of whether the caller passed the
default or a configured value.
E2E verified across four scenarios: default-only (trips at 2),
config-only (trips at caller's value), per-task-only beats default
(trips at task value), per-task beats larger config (trips at task
value). ``gave_up`` event metadata correctly records ``limit_source``
and ``effective_limit`` in all cases.
Tests:
- ``test_per_task_max_retries_overrides_dispatcher_limit`` — task=1
beats caller=10.
- ``test_per_task_max_retries_allows_more_than_default`` — task=5
does not trip at caller=default of 2.
- ``test_max_retries_none_falls_through_to_dispatcher_limit`` — None
honors caller's config value (4), records ``limit_source=dispatcher``.
Full kanban trio (db + core + cli + tools + dashboard-plugin): 342
passed, no regressions.
Supersedes: #20972 (@jelrod27) — credit in PR close comment.
Ref: #20263 (tangentially — the reporter asked about adapter API
drift, not retry caps, but the CLI discussion there is what
surfaced the original ask).
When a kanban worker subprocess exits rc=0 but its task is still in
status='running', the agent almost certainly answered the task
conversationally without calling kanban_complete or kanban_block. The
dispatcher used to classify this as a generic crash and respawn, which
loops forever on small local models (gemma4-e2b q4 etc.) that keep
returning clean but unproductive output.
Dispatcher changes:
- The waitpid reap loop at the top of dispatch_once now records each
reaped child's raw exit status in a bounded module registry
(_recent_worker_exits, TTL 600s, size cap 4096).
- _classify_worker_exit distinguishes clean_exit / nonzero_exit /
signaled / unknown using os.WIFEXITED / WIFSIGNALED.
- detect_crashed_workers consults the classification when a worker
is found dead. clean_exit → protocol_violation event + immediate
circuit-breaker trip (failure_limit=1). Everything else keeps the
existing crashed-event + counter behavior.
- DispatchResult.auto_blocked now includes protocol-violation trips.
Gateway fix (Bug A in #20894):
- gateway.run._notify_active_sessions_of_shutdown snapshots
self.adapters with list(...) before iterating. adapter.send() can
hit a fatal-error path that pops the adapter from the dict, which
was raising 'RuntimeError: dictionary changed size during iteration'
during shutdown.
Regression tests:
- test_detect_crashed_workers_protocol_violation_auto_blocks verifies
rc=0 + still-running → status=blocked on first occurrence with
protocol_violation + gave_up events and NO crashed event.
- test_detect_crashed_workers_nonzero_exit_uses_default_limit verifies
non-zero exits keep the existing 2-strike behavior.
Closes#20894.
The gateway-embedded dispatcher (default since `kanban.dispatch_in_gateway
= true`) is the parent of every spawned kanban worker. `_default_spawn`
calls `subprocess.Popen(..., start_new_session=True)` and returns the
pid — `start_new_session` detaches the controlling tty but does not
reparent to init, so the gateway keeps each worker as a child until it
`wait()`s for them.
Nothing in the dispatch loop ever calls `waitpid`. Result: every
completed worker becomes a `<defunct>` zombie that lingers until the
gateway exits. We hit ~430 zombies on a single hermes-agent container
after ~40 days of steady kanban traffic, approaching process-table
exhaustion on the host.
Fix: add a non-blocking reap loop at the top of `dispatch_once`, so
every dispatcher tick (default 60s) drains zombies that accumulated
since the last tick. WNOHANG keeps the call non-blocking; ChildProcessError
means no children to reap.
Why here, not a SIGCHLD handler:
- signal.signal requires the main thread; gateway threading model makes
that placement non-trivial.
- Bounded staleness: at default interval=60s the maximum live zombie
count is one tick's worth of worker completions.
- No interaction with detect_crashed_workers: that function only inspects
rows where status='running', and rows reach 'done' (and stop being
inspected) before their workers exit.
- Expand migration comment to name the primary failure mode (missing
column OperationalError from #20842) ahead of the secondary SQLite
schema-reparse concern; also document the stale-cols-snapshot invariant
- Add clarifying comments on from_row() legacy fallback branches noting
they are belt-and-suspenders dead code post-migration
- Add task_events comment in existing test explaining why the table is
required by the migrator
- Add test_legacy_migration_no_legacy_columns_at_all: Scenario A —
explicitly asserts the exact #20842 crash no longer occurs and that
consecutive_failures defaults to 0 on a DB that never had spawn_failures
- Add test_legacy_migration_both_columns_already_present: Scenario D —
asserts the migration is a no-op when both columns already exist,
preserving the existing counter value
The kanban-worker skill (built into the gateway dispatcher's spawn
prompt) instructs every worker to hand off via
``kanban_complete(summary=..., metadata=...)``. That writes the summary
onto the closing ``task_runs`` row, NOT onto ``tasks.result`` — the
latter is left NULL unless the caller passes ``result=`` explicitly.
Result: a glance at the dashboard or ``hermes kanban show <id>`` shows
a blank "Result:" section even when the worker did real work, which
on 2026-05-05 caused a Mac false-alarm ("Hermes did nothing") on a
task that had a 10-line completion summary on its run.
This patch surfaces the latest non-null run summary as
``latest_summary`` so the worker's actual handoff lands in front of
operators.
* New helpers ``kanban_db.latest_summary(conn, task_id)`` and
``kanban_db.latest_summaries(conn, task_ids)``. The batch variant
uses a single window-function SELECT so the dashboard board endpoint
doesn't pay an N+1 cost on multi-hundred-task boards.
* CLI ``hermes kanban show <id>`` prints a "Latest summary:" block
when ``tasks.result`` is empty but a run has produced a summary
(the existing "Result:" section still wins when populated, so the
back-compat path for hand-edited results is untouched). JSON output
gains a top-level ``latest_summary`` field.
* Dashboard ``/board`` and ``/tasks/{id}`` now include a
``latest_summary`` field on every task. Cards on /board carry a
200-character preview (cheap to render, plenty for "what did this
worker do?" at a glance); the drawer/detail endpoint returns the
full summary.
* Five new tests cover: empty-runs case, post-complete surface,
newest-of-multiple selection, empty-string skip, batch with
missing tasks + empty input.
Smoke-tested locally against the live profile DB on the three
acceptance-criterion targets (t_f08fef91 cron-hygiene-audit,
t_007b7f1c EMA-analysis, t_05746fa4 self-assessment) — all three now
return their populated summaries via both ``latest_summary`` and
``latest_summaries``.
Test plan: 255/255 kanban tests pass + 91/91 dashboard plugin tests
pass. No regression on tasks where ``tasks.result`` is explicitly
populated (the existing "Result:" branch is preserved).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Widens _verify_created_cards to also accept ids that are children of the
completing task in task_links. Previously we only accepted cards where
created_by matched the completing task's assignee, which was too strict
for legitimate orchestrator flows: a specifier creates a card (so
created_by=specifier, not worker), then a worker picks it up and passes
parents=[current_task] to kanban_create. The explicit link proves the
relationship and should be trusted.
Salvaged from #20022 @LeonSGP43 (full PR superseded by #20232 +
this patch; the linked-children relaxation was the portable
improvement).
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.
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.
