Two live cron bugs, both surfaced by @banditburai in #35616 (whose larger
watchdog/supervisor work is already superseded by the CronScheduler provider
refactor on main):
- #32896: `cron list` crashed on a present-but-null `deliver` field —
`job.get("deliver", ["local"])` returns None for an explicit null, which
then hit `", ".join(None)`. Coalesce with `or ["local"]` (same pitfall
the sibling `repeat` line already guards against).
- #33465: cron jobs 401'd on Bitwarden/BSM-backed secrets. The per-run env
reload used a bare `load_dotenv(override=True)`, which re-applied only the
.env placeholder — startup had already recorded this HERMES_HOME in
env_loader._APPLIED_HOMES, so the external-secret re-pull no-oped. Route the
reload through load_hermes_dotenv() and call reset_secret_source_cache()
first to force the re-pull (Bitwarden's 300s value-cache keeps it off the
network; override honours secrets.bitwarden.override_existing, mirroring
startup).
Tests: null-deliver regression guard in test_cron.py; reset-before-reload
ordering guard in test_scheduler.py. Migrated 31 scheduler-reload test seams
from patching dotenv.load_dotenv to the new load_hermes_dotenv /
reset_secret_source_cache seam.
An unpinned cron job follows the global default provider (config.yaml
model.default + resolve_runtime_provider). If that global state is changed
after the job is created — e.g. a temporary switch to a paid provider like
nous/claude-fable-5 — the job silently inherits it on its next tick and spends
real money. This is the reported $7.73 incident: a job created under a
free/default provider later inherited a temporary paid switch.
Fix (ask #1 only) preserves the legitimate "unpinned job should follow
model.default" use case by detecting *drift* rather than freezing the model:
- create_job (cron/jobs.py): for UNPINNED, agent-backed jobs (no explicit
provider, not no_agent), snapshot the provider that resolution WOULD pick
right now into a new optional `provider_snapshot` field, resolved via the
same resolve_runtime_provider() path the ticker uses. Fail-open to None on
any resolution error so job creation never breaks.
- run_job (cron/scheduler.py): right after runtime resolution, if the job has
a provider_snapshot AND is unpinned AND the currently-resolved provider
DIFFERS from the snapshot, fail closed for that run — make no paid call and
deliver a loud, actionable alert naming both providers and telling the user
to pin explicitly (`cronjob action=update job_id=.. provider=..`).
Back-compat: jobs with no snapshot (pre-existing jobs, no_agent jobs, or any
job whose creation-time resolution failed) behave exactly as before — the
guard only engages when a snapshot exists. Explicitly-pinned jobs (job.provider
set) are unaffected since they don't drift with global state.
Tests: tests/cron/test_cron_provider_pin.py covers snapshot-matches (runs),
snapshot-differs (fail closed, no agent constructed), no-snapshot back-compat,
None-snapshot back-compat, explicitly-pinned (runs regardless), plus create_job
snapshot capture/skip/fail-open. The fail-closed case is load-bearing (fails
without the guard).
Issue #44585 asks #2-4 (hard-stop a running job, gateway-stop containment,
fail-closed on provider mutation) are out of scope for this change.
