Running any state-writing `hermes cron` CLI command as root (the
default for `docker exec`) rewrote jobs.json via mkstemp +
atomic_replace, leaving it root:root mode 600. The gateway's ticker
(uid 1000 via PUID/PGID) was then locked out of every tick with
PermissionError — silently: the liveness heartbeat stayed fresh,
`hermes cron status` opened with 'Gateway is running — cron jobs will
fire automatically', and in the field ~14h of scheduled jobs were
skipped before a human noticed the absence of messages.
Fixes, per the issue's suggested items 1 and 3:
1. Ownership preservation on save (cron/jobs.py): snapshot the owner
before the atomic replace; when the writer is privileged (euid 0)
and the previous owner differs, chown the rewritten file back.
First-time creation inherits the cron dir's owner. Unprivileged
writers never call chown. POSIX-only (guarded via os.name/getattr),
best-effort — a chown failure logs a warning but never breaks the
save. 0600 hardening is unchanged.
2. Zombie-ticker surfacing: the ticker loop (both single-profile and
multiplex paths) now persists the failure reason to a
ticker_last_error marker next to the heartbeat files on every
failed tick, and clears it on the next clean tick. `hermes cron
status` shows the recorded reason in its 'ticks may be failing'
branch, plus an actionable ownership hint when the error is a
PermissionError (recommend `docker exec -u <uid>:<gid>`).
Fixes#68483
The multiplex cron path only used use_cron_store() to scope storage paths
(jobs.json, heartbeat files), but _get_lock_paths() and the agent execution
path in cron/scheduler.py resolve via _get_hermes_home() → get_hermes_home()
which checks _HERMES_HOME_OVERRIDE, a separate ContextVar. Without
set_hermes_home_override(), the .tick.lock, config.yaml, .env, and secrets
all resolved to the default profile instead of the per-profile home.
This matches the web_server.py pattern (line 11994) which sets both
set_hermes_home_override(home) AND use_cron_store(home), and the
_profile_runtime_scope pattern used for the multiplexed inbound path.
Found via 3-agent parallel review of salvaged PR #69529.
Under multiplex_profiles, the gateway starts a single InProcessCronScheduler
bound to the process-global HERMES_HOME (the default profile's home), so
only that profile's cron/jobs.json is ticked. A job registered from a
secondary-profile session lands in <profile>/cron/jobs.json, reports a valid
next_run_at — and never fires.
Changes:
1. cron/scheduler_provider.py — InProcessCronScheduler.start() now accepts
an optional profile_homes kwarg (list of (name, Path) tuples). When set,
_start_multiplex() iterates tick() over each profile home using
use_cron_store(), so every served profile's cron store is ticked on
every tick cycle. Heartbeats and interrupted-execution recovery are also
scoped per profile via use_cron_store().
2. gateway/run.py — start_gateway() now resolves profiles_to_serve(multiplex=True)
when multiplex_profiles is on and passes them to the cron scheduler as
profile_homes. Only applies to InProcessCronScheduler (the built-in);
external providers are unchanged.
3. cron/jobs.py — record_ticker_heartbeat(), get_ticker_heartbeat_age(), and
get_ticker_success_age() now resolve paths via _current_cron_store()
instead of module-level TICKER_HEARTBEAT_FILE / TICKER_SUCCESS_FILE
constants. This makes heartbeats correctly scoped per profile, so
'hermes cron status' reflects liveness for every profile independently
under multiplex_profiles.
4. tests/cron/test_scheduler_provider.py — two new tests:
- test_multiplex_ticker_ticks_each_profile_once: verifies tick() is called
once per profile per tick cycle.
- test_multiplex_heartbeat_scoped_per_profile: verifies heartbeat files
are written to each profile's cron store.
Reserve API requests before their first await, include every drain-owned work type in runtime status, and pause local cron dispatch while a gateway drain is active.
The in-process cron ticker (cron/scheduler_provider.py) caught only
`Exception` and logged at DEBUG, so a `SystemExit`/`KeyboardInterrupt`
raised from a misbehaving provider SDK or agent retry path killed the
ticker thread silently. The gateway PROCESS stayed up, so `hermes cron
status` — which only checks `find_gateway_pids()` — kept reporting
"✓ jobs will fire automatically" while no jobs ever fired (#32612,
#32895).
This makes ticker death survivable and detectable:
- The ticker loop now catches `BaseException` and logs at ERROR with a
traceback, so a single bad tick no longer tears the thread down and
the failure is visible in the gateway log.
- The loop records a heartbeat (`cron/ticker_heartbeat`, epoch seconds)
on startup and after every tick — best-effort, never raised into the
loop. Both ticker entry points (the gateway and the desktop fallback
in web_server.py) funnel through `InProcessCronScheduler.start`, so one
heartbeat site covers both.
- `hermes cron status` now reads the heartbeat age: if the gateway is
running but the heartbeat is stale (> 200s, i.e. several missed ~60s
ticks), it reports the ticker as STALLED and suggests a restart instead
of falsely claiming jobs will fire. A missing heartbeat (older build /
never ran) is treated as "unknown", not "dead".
Adds tests for BaseException survival, per-iteration heartbeat recording,
heartbeat round-trip/age, staleness detection, and silent-write-failure.
Salvaged from #49660 (BaseException survival on current structure),
extended with the heartbeat + honest-status reporting that the earlier
(pre-refactor) watchdog PRs #35616 and #33849 proposed.
Fixes#32612Fixes#32895
Co-authored-by: banditburai <promptsiren@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: sweetcornna <96944678+sweetcornna@users.noreply.github.com>
Phase 4B. Three NON-abstract hooks on the CronScheduler ABC, all with
built-in-safe defaults so the built-in inherits them without overriding and
test_abc_growth_stays_additive stays green (required surface still {name,
start}):
- on_jobs_changed(): post-mutation reconcile hook. Built-in no-op.
- fire_due(job_id): claim the job via the store CAS (claim_job_for_fire,
Phase 4C) then run it through the shared run_one_job (Phase 4A). Returns
False if the claim is lost or the job vanished (repeat-N exhausted between
arm and fire). The inbound webhook (Phase 4E) routes here.
- reconcile(): converge the external registry toward jobs.json. Built-in no-op.
fire_due imports claim_job_for_fire/get_job/run_one_job INSIDE the method, so
this commits cleanly before Phase 4C lands claim_job_for_fire (import-time is
unaffected; tests monkeypatch it with raising=False).
Tests: required-surface-unchanged guard, built-in inherits no-op defaults, and
fire_due's three paths (claim+run, lost-claim→no-run, missing-job→no-run).
tests/cron/ green (20 in test_scheduler_provider.py).
Phase 2 of the pluggable cron-scheduler refactor. Still no call-site changes;
this wires up provider SELECTION with a hard safety net.
Task 2.1: cron.provider config key (hermes_cli/config.py), empty = built-in.
Additive key — deep-merge picks it up into existing configs with no version
bump (verified: load_config() yields the key on a pre-existing config.yaml).
Task 2.2: plugins/cron/__init__.py — discovery machinery cloned near-verbatim
from plugins/memory/__init__.py, retargeted at CronScheduler /
register_cron_scheduler. Bundled (plugins/cron/<name>/) + user
(/plugins/<name>/) dirs, bundled wins collisions. The built-in is
NOT discovered here — it's core, so the fallback can't be removed.
Task 2.3: resolve_cron_scheduler() in cron/scheduler_provider.py — reads
cron.provider and ALWAYS degrades to built-in (missing / unavailable / load
error / typo all fall back with a warning). cron can never be left without a
trigger.
Deviation from plan: the plan's resolver snippet used cfg_get("cron.provider")
(dotted-string form). The real cfg_get signature is cfg_get(cfg, *keys,
default=) — corrected to cfg_get(load_config(), "cron", "provider", default=""),
matching plugins/memory/__init__.py:349. Tests monkeypatch load_config (not
cfg_get) so the real traversal runs.
Tests: default key empty, discovery returns list, unknown load returns None,
and the four resolver paths (empty→builtin, no-section→builtin,
unknown→builtin, unavailable→builtin, available→used). Full tests/cron/: 453
passed; config suite green (additive key, no migration break).
Phase 1 of the pluggable cron-scheduler refactor (Axis B — the trigger).
No call-site changes; this phase only makes the abstraction exist + tested
in isolation.
Task 1.1: cron/scheduler_provider.py — the EXPERIMENTAL CronScheduler ABC.
Required surface is name + start; is_available()/stop() carry safe defaults.
is_available has a no-network invariant. Docstring marks it experimental
until the Chronos provider (Phase 4) validates the shape.
Task 1.2: InProcessCronScheduler wraps the historical 60s ticker loop, calling
cron.scheduler.tick(sync=False) exactly as the raw ticker does. Uses
stop_event.wait(interval) for responsive stop (both raw tickers already do).
Tests: ABC-is-abstract, default-is_available, the InProcess loop drives tick
and stops, stop() no-op, and test_abc_growth_stays_additive (the forward-compat
guard: required abstractmethods must stay exactly {name, start}, so the three
Phase-4 hooks land as NON-abstract additions).
tick() internals in cron/scheduler.py are byte-unchanged (only new file added).
Phase 0 characterization tests still green. Full tests/cron/: 445 passed.
