Board defaults represent persistent project checkouts. Scratch workspaces
are auto-deleted on completion and must stay under the per-board scratch
root that resolve_workspace() creates. Inheriting default_workdir for a
scratch task pointed the cleanup path at the user's source tree — the
data-loss vector documented in #28818.
The containment guard in _cleanup_workspace (just added) is the safety
rail. This commit prevents the bad state from being created in the first
place: only persistent kinds (dir/worktree) inherit board defaults.
Tests updated to cover the new semantics: scratch with default_workdir
set keeps workspace_path=None; dir/worktree still inherits the board
default.
Salvaged from PR #31315 by @leeseoki0 — prevention layer on top of the
#28819 containment fix by @briandevans.
Co-authored-by: teknium1 <127238744+teknium1@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot review on PR #28819 flagged that `_is_managed_scratch_path` accepted
the entire `<kanban_home>/kanban` subtree as managed scratch storage. With
that, a task whose `workspace_kind='scratch'` and `workspace_path` was
mis-set to `<kanban_home>/kanban`, `.../kanban/logs`, or a board's
metadata directory (e.g. `.../kanban/boards/<slug>` without the
`workspaces/` child) would pass the containment guard and let task
completion `shutil.rmtree` Hermes' own DB, metadata, and log subtrees.
Tighten the guard:
* Allowed roots are now exclusively `workspaces/` directories — the
`HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT` override, `<kanban_home>/kanban/workspaces`,
and each `<kanban_home>/kanban/boards/<slug>/workspaces` discovered on
disk.
* Require strict descendancy: a path equal to a root itself is rejected
too, because deleting a workspaces root would wipe every task's scratch
dir at once.
Add a regression test covering the three Copilot-named attack paths
(kanban root, kanban/logs, board root without `workspaces/`) plus the
workspaces-root-itself case, and confirm the inner task-id dir still
matches.
A board's ``default_workdir`` (e.g. ``hermes kanban boards
set-default-workdir my-board /path/to/real/source``) is copied into
``tasks.workspace_path`` for tasks created without an explicit
``workspace_kind``. Those tasks default to ``workspace_kind='scratch'``,
so completion calls ``_cleanup_workspace`` and unconditionally runs
``shutil.rmtree(wp, ignore_errors=True)`` — deleting the user's real
source tree as if it were disposable scratch storage.
Add ``_is_managed_scratch_path()`` and gate ``_cleanup_workspace`` on
it: only delete paths under ``HERMES_KANBAN_WORKSPACES_ROOT`` (the
worker-side override the dispatcher injects) or under the active kanban
home's ``kanban/`` subtree (covering both the legacy default-board root
and per-board ``kanban/boards/<slug>/workspaces`` roots). Anything else
gets a warning log and is left alone, so a misconfigured
``default_workdir`` can no longer destroy user data on task completion.
Adds `hermes kanban promote <task_id>` for manual lifecycle recovery
when an auto-promote daemon misses the parent-done transition (issue
#28822). Refuses promotion unless every parent dep is done/archived
(override with --force). Emits a `promoted_manual` audit event distinct
from the automatic `promoted` kind, so audit consumers can filter
human-driven from system-driven promotions. Supports --dry-run and
--json for orchestration. Does not mutate assignee/claim state — the
dispatcher picks the card up via its normal ready polling path.
Closes#28822.
First scratch workspace creation on an install now emits a one-shot
warning log + a 'tip_scratch_workspace' event on the task. Sentinel
file at ~/.hermes/kanban/.scratch_tip_shown silences subsequent
creations across the whole install.
Behavior unchanged — scratch is still ephemeral by design. This just
makes the design visible to new users (reported in user community:
'progress files vanished, no warning anywhere').
Docs (en + ko) updated to spell out 'Deleted when the task completes'
on the scratch bullet and 'Preserved on completion' on worktree/dir.
Path.resolve() before any I/O and confine backup writes to the resolved
parent directory. Adds explicit parent-equality assertions so static
analyzers see the containment guarantee, and walks WAL/SHM sidecars
through the same resolved-parent path so accidental .. segments are
collapsed before shutil.copy2.
Functionally equivalent to the original PR; preserves the corrupt bytes
to <db>.corrupt.<ts>.bak in the same directory, still raises
KanbanDbCorruptError from connect(). E2E with Stefan's exact hex header
+ malformed pages still passes. 163/163 kanban tests still pass.
When a worker calls ``kanban_block(reason="review-required: ...")`` to
hand a task off for human review, the dispatcher's ``recompute_ready``
was treating the resulting ``blocked`` status as eligible for
auto-promotion — exactly the same as a circuit-breaker block. On the
next tick the task flipped back to ``ready``, a fresh worker spawned,
found nothing to do (work already applied, review-required comment
already posted), exited cleanly, got recorded as ``protocol_violation``
→ ``gave_up`` → ``blocked``, and the dispatcher promoted again.
Infinite loop until manual ``hermes kanban reclaim`` + ``kanban block``.
Add ``_has_sticky_block`` which distinguishes the two block sources
using the cheapest available signal: the most recent
``"blocked"``/``"unblocked"`` event in ``task_events``.
* Worker / operator ``kanban_block`` emits ``"blocked"`` →
``_has_sticky_block`` returns True → ``recompute_ready`` skips the
task entirely. ``unblock_task`` emits ``"unblocked"`` which flips
the predicate back, so the only legitimate exit is the documented
human-in-the-loop path.
* Circuit-breaker ``_record_task_failure`` emits ``"gave_up"`` (not
``"blocked"``) → predicate stays False → original
parent-completion-recovery semantics from #40c1decb3 are preserved.
* Tasks blocked purely by direct DB manipulation also recover, since
they have no ``"blocked"`` event row at all — matches the existing
``test_recompute_ready_promotes_blocked_with_done_parents`` fixture
behaviour.
Extends the previous commit to cover the remaining additive-column index
that sits on the same migration trap:
- ``task_events.run_id`` -> ``idx_events_run`` was still in SCHEMA_SQL.
A legacy ``task_events`` table predating #17805 (no ``run_id``) would
still abort ``executescript`` before ``_migrate_add_optional_columns``
could add the column. Hoisted out of SCHEMA_SQL and made unconditional
in the migration alongside the other three indexes.
- Removed the now-redundant ``CREATE INDEX idx_tasks_idempotency`` that
was nested inside the ``if "idempotency_key" not in cols`` branch.
The unconditional create lower in the function makes it idempotent
on both fresh and legacy DBs.
- Strengthened the regression test to cover all four indexes
(``idx_tasks_session_id``, ``idx_tasks_tenant``, ``idx_tasks_idempotency``,
``idx_events_run``) and to seed a pre-#17805 ``task_events`` shape that
exercises the ``run_id`` migration path.
The result: every ``CREATE INDEX`` that depends on an additive column now
runs after the migration ensures the column exists. Verified against a
realistic pre-#16081 board fixture (tasks + task_events both legacy
shape) — origin/main reproduces ``no such column: session_id``; this
branch migrates cleanly and creates all four indexes.
Follow-up to #28455. The respawn guard's blocker_auth rule (last error
matched a quota/auth/429 pattern) was auto-blocking the task on first
occurrence. That's too aggressive: transient rate limits typically
clear in seconds to minutes, but the auto-block puts the task in
'blocked' status which requires manual unblock.
Now treats blocker_auth the same as recent_success and active_pr:
defer the spawn this tick, leave the task in 'ready', let the next
tick try again. If the auth error genuinely persists, the existing
consecutive_failures counter trips the auto-block circuit breaker
after failure_limit failures via the normal path — so a persistent
401/403/quota-exhausted still ends up blocked, just not on first hit.
Also documents the respawn_guarded event in kanban.md's events table
with the three guard reasons.
Updated test_dispatch_respawn_guard_auto_blocks_auth_error → renamed
to test_dispatch_respawn_guard_defers_auth_error_without_auto_block;
asserts task stays in 'ready' and the guard reason is recorded.
Follow-up to #28452. detect_stale_running() was calling
_record_task_failure() on every reclaim, which ticked the
consecutive_failures counter. With the default failure_limit=2,
two legitimately long-running tasks (>4 h without explicit
heartbeat) would auto-block via the spawn-failure circuit
breaker — even though no worker actually failed.
Stale reclaim is dispatcher-side absence-of-heartbeat detection,
not a worker fault. Removed the _record_task_failure() call;
the 'stale' event in task_events is still the audit surface,
but the failure counter is now reserved for spawn_failed /
timed_out / crashed (real failures).
Also documents the heartbeat requirement:
- KANBAN_GUIDANCE in agent/prompt_builder.py now states the
rule ('call kanban_heartbeat at least once an hour for tasks
running longer than 1 hour') so workers learn the contract.
- kanban.md adds the stale event row to the events table and
flags the heartbeat requirement in the worker lifecycle list.
New regression test: test_detect_stale_does_not_tick_failure_counter
locks in the new behaviour.
Salvages #28125 by @Jpalmer95. Adds:
- Drag-to-delete trash zone in the kanban dashboard
- Bulk delete endpoint with cascading delete_task cleanup
- Frontend updates (drag visual + drop handler)
- Confirmation prompt before delete
Resolved end-of-file test conflict by appending both halves.
Salvages #24533 by @roycepersonalassistant. Adds a first-class
'scheduled' Kanban status for time-delay follow-ups that aren't
waiting on human input.
- hermes kanban schedule <task_id> [reason] CLI command
- Dashboard/API transitions to/from Scheduled
- unblock_task() now releases both 'blocked' AND 'scheduled' tasks
(re-checking parent dependencies before moving to ready/todo)
- i18n + docs updates
Resolved conflicts: kept HEAD's failure-counter reset on unblock
alongside the PR's scheduled state, kept HEAD's 'running' direct-set
rejection, combined both bulk-status branches. Dropped the dist/
bundle changes (months-stale; would need rebuild from source).
Salvages #26496 by @aqilaziz. Adds branch_name column + CLI flag so
tasks with workspace_kind='worktree' can pin a target branch on
create. Schema migration added to _migrate_add_optional_columns.
- Task.branch_name field + DB column + migration
- create_task accepts branch_name kwarg
- hermes kanban create --branch <name> flag
- kanban show output includes 'Branch: <name>' when set
Cherry-picked the substantive commit (a7558cf27); the PR's tip was
an unrelated service-path-dirs commit. Resolved 2 INSERT-column-list
and show-output conflicts alongside main's session_id and
max_runtime_seconds additions; kept all three.
Salvages #27484 by @fardoche6. Adds a respawn guard that skips worker
spawn for tasks where:
- a recent run already succeeded (recent_success — within guard window)
- the previous run hit a quota/auth error (blocker_auth, also auto-blocks)
- a recent task comment includes a GitHub PR URL (active_pr)
The guard prevents repeat worker storms on the same bug/task. Includes
the contributor's review-findings fixup (regex hardening, observability,
auth coverage).
Resolved a small DispatchResult conflict alongside main's 'stale' field;
kept both. Authorship preserved via rebase merge.
Salvages #26745 by @nehaaprasaad. Exposes filtering for the existing
workflow_template_id and current_step_key columns:
- list_tasks() accepts workflow_template_id and current_step_key kwargs
- 'hermes kanban list' adds matching CLI flags
- dashboard plugin_api also exposes the filters
Resolved a small conflict in list_tasks signature alongside main's
session_id and order_by additions; combined all three into the single
filter list.
Salvages #23790 by @thewillhuang. Adds detect_stale_running() to
the dispatcher cycle. Running tasks that have been started for longer
than dispatch_stale_timeout_seconds (default 14400 = 4h) without a
heartbeat in the last hour are auto-reclaimed to ready.
- New config kanban.dispatch_stale_timeout_seconds (default 14400, 0 disables)
- New 'stale' field on DispatchResult
- detect_stale_running() in kanban_db.py with heartbeat freshness check
- Records outcome='stale' on run close + 'stale' event; ticks failure counter
- Wires config through gateway embedded dispatcher
- Updates _cmd_dispatch verbose/JSON output and daemon logging
Resolved test-file end-of-file conflict by appending both halves.
Salvages #23772 by @thewillhuang. Adds 'review' as a valid kanban task
status and extends dispatch_once to monitor the review column as a
second dispatch source (in addition to the existing ready column).
- Adds 'review' to VALID_STATUSES
- Adds claim_review_task() — atomically transitions review → running
- Adds has_spawnable_review() — health telemetry mirror
- Extends dispatch_once with a review column dispatch loop
- Review agents get 'sdlc-review' skill auto-loaded
Resolved 2 conflicts (VALID_STATUSES merge with main's 'scheduled' state,
test file additions). Adapted claim_review_task to main's
ttl_seconds: Optional[int] = None convention (matches claim_task).
Salvages #23208 by @awizemann. Tracks which chat session created a
kanban task so clients can render a per-session board without falling
back to tenant + time-window heuristics.
- Schema: tasks gains nullable session_id TEXT column with index
(additive migration in _migrate_add_optional_columns).
- ACP: server.py exposes the originating session id via HERMES_SESSION_ID
with save/restore around the agent loop.
- Tool: kanban_create reads HERMES_SESSION_ID (with explicit override).
- CLI: 'hermes kanban list --session <id>' filter; JSON output exposes
session_id.
Salvages #25745 by @LizerAIDev. Adds --sort {created,created-desc,
priority,priority-desc,status,assignee,title,updated} to 'hermes kanban
list'. Validated against VALID_SORT_ORDERS map; invalid values raise
ValueError. Default behaviour (priority DESC, created ASC) is unchanged
when --sort is omitted.
Salvages #22981 by @SimbaKingjoe. Adds 'kanban.max_in_progress' config
that caps simultaneously running tasks. When the board already has N
running, dispatcher skips spawning so slow workers (local LLMs,
resource-constrained hosts) don't pile up and time out.
Threads through dispatch_once(max_in_progress=) and gateway dispatcher
config parsing with validation (warns on invalid/below-1 values).
Salvages #27369 by @LeonJS. complete_task() now calls _cleanup_workspace()
and _cleanup_worker_tmux() after marking a task complete.
Scratch workspaces (used by swarm agents) accumulate on disk — hundreds
of MB per task, never released. Stale tmux sessions from completed
agents also persist indefinitely.
Both gates are safe:
- workspace_kind == 'scratch' gate preserves user worktree/dir workspaces
- tmux #{pane_dead} == 1 gate only kills sessions where the worker has
already exited
- best-effort: cleanup failures never block task completion
Salvages #27526 by @shunsuke-hikiyama. Adds an --initial-status flag
(running|blocked, default running) to 'kanban create', threaded through
kanban_db.create_task() and the kanban_create tool schema. 'blocked'
parks the task directly in the blocked column for R3 human-ops review,
skipping the brief running-to-blocked transition.
Dropped the unrelated 'add' alias, WIFEXITED Windows compat, and
slash-handler error formatting changes that were bundled in the
original PR — those should ship as their own focused changes if still
wanted.
Salvages #27372 by @oemtalks. The dispatcher unconditionally injected
`--skills kanban-worker` into every worker spawn, but worker profiles
sometimes don't have that bundled skill in their skills dir, which is
fatal at CLI startup (`ValueError: Unknown skill(s): kanban-worker`).
Adds `_kanban_worker_skill_available(hermes_home)` and only injects the
flag when the skill resolves. The MANDATORY lifecycle still ships via
KANBAN_GUIDANCE in the system prompt, so omitting the flag is safe.
Salvages #28301 by @Ade5954. If WAL setup, PRAGMA application, or schema
init raises after sqlite3.connect() succeeds, the new connection was
leaking. Wrap the body in try/except so the connection is closed before
the exception propagates.
Prevents ValueError crash in dashboard get_board() when a task has
an ISO timestamp (e.g. "2026-05-10T15:00:00Z") instead of a unix epoch
int. Adds _to_epoch() helper that normalises both formats.
When a systemic failure (provider outage, auth expiry, OOM) crashes
multiple workers simultaneously, detect_crashed_workers increments
each task failure counter independently. The circuit breaker only
trips after N × failure_limit retries across the fleet.
Fingerprint crash errors by normalizing host-specific details (PIDs,
timestamps). When 3+ tasks crash with the same fingerprint in a
single detection cycle, immediately trip the circuit breaker
(failure_limit=1) instead of waiting for repeated failures.
Isolated crashes (unique fingerprints) retain their normal retry
budget. Protocol violations continue to trip immediately.
Includes regression tests for systemic and isolated crash paths.
When a task is manually unblocked (blocked → ready/todo), the
consecutive_failures counter and last_failure_error were left intact.
The next failure would immediately re-trip the circuit breaker because
the counter was still at or above the failure limit.
Reset both fields on unblock so the task gets a fresh retry budget.
Includes a regression test that verifies counters are zeroed.
max_runtime_seconds=0 was being silently coerced to None due to a falsy
check (if max_runtime_seconds). Zero is a valid value that causes the
dispatcher to immediately time out a task. The adjacent max_retries
parameter already used the correct 'is not None' pattern.
Fixes the inconsistency by aligning max_runtime_seconds with max_retries.
recompute_ready only scanned 'todo' tasks for promotion, ignoring
'blocked' tasks entirely. When a task was blocked (e.g. by the circuit
breaker) and its parent dependencies later completed, the task stayed
stuck in 'blocked' forever unless manually unblocked.
Now recompute_ready also scans 'blocked' tasks. When all parents are
done/archived, the blocked task is promoted to 'ready' with failure
counters reset — equivalent to an automatic unblock.
Includes a regression test for the blocked-parent-done promotion path.
Archiving or deleting a board via remove_board() leaves the path's
"schema already initialized" entry in the module-level cache. A
concurrent connect(board=<slug>) call (e.g. the dashboard event-stream
poll loop) then:
1. resolves the same kanban.db path,
2. recreates the directory + an empty sqlite file because
connect() does mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True),
3. skips the CREATE TABLE pass because the cache entry says the
schema is already in place,
4. errors on the next read with `no such table: task_events`.
Drop the cache entry before mutating the filesystem so the fresh file
gets a proper schema init on next connect(). Applies to both
archive=True (rename) and archive=False (rmtree) branches.
Fixes#23833.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add model_override field to Task class and tasks schema
- Add migration for existing databases
- Spawn worker with -m model when model_override is set
Salvages #19964 by @Beandon13. Adds `hermes kanban archive --rm` to
permanently remove already-archived tasks with cascading cleanup of
links, comments, events, runs, and notify-subs. Safety guard: only
archived tasks can be deleted; active/blocked/done must be archived
first.
Cherry-picked from #19964 onto current main (severe stale base, applied
manually to preserve substance only).
When the kanban auto-decomposer fans a triage task into child tasks,
recompute_ready() immediately promotes parent-free children to 'ready'
so the dispatcher picks them up. Some users want a manual workflow
where children stay in 'todo' for review before dispatch.
Add 'kanban.auto_promote_children' config key (default: true):
- false: children stay in 'todo' after decomposition
- true: existing behavior (auto-promote to 'ready')
Changes:
- kanban_db.py: decompose_triage_task() gains auto_promote param
- kanban_decompose.py: reads auto_promote_children from config
- kanban dashboard API: exposes the new setting in GET/PUT /orchestration
Closes#28016
decompose_triage_task inlines SQL INSERTs for atomicity and intentionally
bypasses link_tasks() — which calls _would_cycle() per edge. If the LLM
emits a cyclic parent graph (e.g. A.parents=[1], B.parents=[0]) the DB
write succeeds but every involved child deadlocks in 'todo' forever:
recompute_ready() requires all parents to be done, which is impossible
when A waits for B and B waits for A.
Add a Kahn topological sort over the sibling parent indices in the
pre-validation block, before any DB writes. Mirrors the cycle-safety
guarantee that link_tasks() provides for manually linked tasks.
The agent can now produce a chart, PDF, spreadsheet, or any other supported
file type and have it land in Slack / Discord / Telegram / WhatsApp / etc.
as a native attachment, just by mentioning the absolute path in its
response. Same primitive works for kanban-worker completions: workers
attach artifacts via kanban_complete(artifacts=[...]) and the gateway
notifier uploads them alongside the completion message.
Changes:
- gateway/platforms/base.py: extract_local_files now covers PDFs, docx,
spreadsheets (xlsx/csv/json/yaml), presentations (pptx), archives
(zip/tar/gz), audio (mp3/wav/...), and html — not just images and video.
Image/video extensions still embed inline; everything else routes to
send_document via the existing dispatch partition in gateway/run.py.
- tools/kanban_tools.py + hermes_cli/kanban_db.py: kanban_complete gains
an explicit ``artifacts`` parameter. The handler stashes it in
metadata.artifacts (for downstream workers) and the kernel promotes
it onto the completed-event payload so the notifier can find it
without a second SQL round-trip.
- gateway/run.py: _kanban_notifier_watcher now calls a new helper
_deliver_kanban_artifacts after sending the completion text. The
helper reads payload.artifacts (preferred), falls back to scanning
the payload summary and task.result with extract_local_files, then
partitions images / videos / documents and uploads each via
send_multiple_images / send_video / send_document.
- website/docs/user-guide/features/deliverable-mode.md + sidebars.ts:
user-facing docs page covering the extension list, the kanban
artifacts pattern, and the MCP-for-connector-breadth recommendation.
Tests:
- tests/gateway/test_extract_local_files.py: 7 new test cases
(documents, spreadsheets, presentations, audio, archives, html,
chart-pdf canonical case). 44 passing, 0 regressions.
- tests/tools/test_kanban_tools.py: 4 new cases covering the artifacts
arg shape (list / string / merge with existing metadata / type
rejection). 17 passing.
- tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_notify.py: 2 new cases covering full
notifier → artifact-upload path and missing-file silent-skip. 12
passing.
- E2E (real files, real kanban kernel, real BasePlatformAdapter):
worker calls kanban_complete(artifacts=[png,pdf,csv]) → metadata +
event payload land → notifier helper partitions correctly →
send_multiple_images called once with the PNG, send_document called
twice with PDF + CSV.
What's NOT in this PR (deferred to follow-ups):
- Ad-hoc "research this for two hours, ping the thread when done"
slash command — covered today by kanban subscriptions; a dedicated
slash command can ride a follow-up PR if needed.
- Setup-wizard prompt for recommended MCP servers (Notion, GitHub,
Linear, etc.) — docs page lists them; UI is a separate change.
Plan and rationale captured in ~/.hermes/docs/perplexity-computer-parity.pdf
(local doc, not shipped).
