hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Kanban auto-unblock is too eager [1 comments, 2 participants]

Bug Description

Currently blocked Kanban tasks get auto-unblocked back to Ready if they don't have a running parent dependency (PR #28377). However, this doesn't just trigger when a dependency is completed - rather it merely checks that there are no running/pending dependencies at dispatch time. Thus, whenever dispatcher runs, it always moves any Blocked task without current dependencies back to Ready, including:

• Tasks that never had a dependency
• Tasks whose dependencies were already completed before the blocking run
• Even tasks that were just created with --initial-status blocked if they don't have links yet
• Potentially tasks that were put to Blocked but dispatcher ran before dependencies were created, etc.

This is notably harmful for any workflow that uses Blocked for "waiting for external unlock" (e.g. human review or approval).

Steps to Reproduce

Easiest demo:

hermes kanban create --initial-status blocked --json 'TEST' --body 'this is a test'
hermes kanban dispatch
hermes kanban show t_xxxxx // ready !!

Or the fancy way:

hermes kanban create --json 'TEST' --body 'block yourself'
hermes kanban assign t_xxxxx default
hermes kanban dispatch
// wait
hermes kanban show t_xxxxx // blocked
hermes kanban dispatch
hermes kanban show t_xxxxx // running !!

Expected Behavior

Task is blocked

Actual Behavior

Task is ready / running

Affected Component

Other

Messaging Platform (if gateway-related)

No response

Debug Report

Report       https://paste.rs/SrxB5
agent.log    https://paste.rs/Y6HC6
gateway.log  https://paste.rs/M97R2

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04

Python Version

No response

Hermes Version

No response

Additional Logs / Traceback (optional)

Root Cause Analysis (optional)

PR #28377

Proposed Fix (optional)

Fix depends on the intended vision/semantics of "Blocked" column, as it seems to have moved away from meaning "unfinished stuff that won't move until some human touches it" - if so maybe such column needs to be added?

Are you willing to submit a PR for this?

• I'd like to fix this myself and submit a PR