fix(kanban): skip dispatch for tasks assigned to non-profile lanes (salvages #20105, #20134)#20165
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…l profile
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>
…ly non-spawnable assignees 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>
This was referenced May 5, 2026
alt-glitch
added
type/bug
1 task
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Kanban dispatcher no longer crash-loops on tasks assigned to names that aren't real Hermes profiles, and the stuck-queue warning only fires when there's genuine spawnable work sitting idle.
Root cause:
dispatch_once()claimed any ready+assigned task and shelled outhermes -p <assignee> chat -q .... When<assignee>named a control-plane terminal lane (e.g.orion-cc) rather than a profile on disk, the subprocess died with "Profile 'X' does not exist", was reaped as a zombie, the TTL detector released the claim back toready, and the next tick re-spawned the same failing worker — forever.Salvaged from #20105 + #20134 (@Brecht-H).
Changes
hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:dispatch_once()pre-checksprofile_exists(assignee)before claiming; non-matches route into a newDispatchResult.skipped_nonspawnablebucket (separate fromskipped_unassigned).hermes_cli/kanban_db.py: newhas_spawnable_ready(conn)helper returns True only if ≥1 ready+assigned+unclaimed task has an assignee that resolves to a real profile.gateway/run.py+hermes_cli/kanban.py: both dispatchers swap theirready_nonemptyprobe tohas_spawnable_ready, so "dispatcher stuck" WARN no longer fires on multi-lane hosts where the queue is healthy but none of the ready tasks target a spawnable profile.tests/hermes_cli/conftest.py: newall_assignees_spawnablefixture monkeypatchesprofile_exists → Truefor tests that use synthetic assignees. Threaded through 8 dispatcher tests that the profile-exists guard would otherwise have silently broken.Defensive import: both
profile_existslookups fall back to legacy "any ready+assigned" behavior ifhermes_cli.profilesis unimportable, so degraded installs still surface the original warn.Validation
orion-cc(not a profile)spawned=1 crashed=1every minuteskipped_nonspawnable=1, no claim, no zombiedispatcher stuckWARN every 5 minhas_spawnable_ready=Falsedispatcher stuckWARN still fires after 6 tickstest_kanban_{db,cli,boards,core_functionality})Live-verified by @Brecht-H on his Orion multi-lane host: 2-hour crash loop on
t_a14dc1d5+t_646c96f2terminated on gateway restart; dispatcher silent on every subsequent tick; stalerunningclaims reclaimed cleanly toready.Closes #20054
Closes #20105
Closes #20134
Supersedes #20065 (readiness check lives at a tighter call site — before claim, not before spawn)
Co-authored-by: Brecht-H 73849650+Brecht-H@users.noreply.github.com