hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: kanban_complete hallucinated-card gate blocks completion with no recovery — worker must crash or abandon task

Summary

When a worker calls kanban_complete(created_cards=[...]) with card IDs that don't exist or weren't created by that worker's profile, the gate rejects the completion and records it as an audit event. However, the worker is left in a state where it cannot complete the task — every subsequent kanban_complete attempt with the same (or different) IDs will also fail.

The only recovery path is for the worker to crash (incrementing consecutive_failures) or for an operator to manually intervene. There is no kanban_complete(created_cards=[]) escape hatch that lets the worker say "I made a mistake on the card claims, but the actual work is done."

Steps to Reproduce

1. A worker creates subtasks via kanban_create, but one of the create calls fails (exception, tool_error)
2. The worker incorrectly includes the failed card's ID in created_cards
3. kanban_complete rejects with: "Card t_deadbeef was not created by this profile"
4. The worker has no way to retract the bad claim and complete with only the valid cards
5. Worker is stuck — must crash or block

Expected Behavior

1. kanban_complete should allow a second attempt with corrected created_cards (removing the phantom IDs)
2. Or provide a kanban_complete(created_cards=None) option that means "no card claims, just complete with summary"
3. The gate rejection should include guidance: "Remove t_deadbeef from created_cards and retry"

Suggested Fix

• On gate rejection, do NOT mark the task as failed — leave the worker running and return a clear error message listing which card IDs failed validation
• Allow the worker to retry kanban_complete with a corrected created_cards list
• If created_cards is explicitly set to [], skip the card-claim gate entirely (the advisory prose scan still runs)

Environment

• Hermes Agent v2.x
• Documented in kanban-worker skill under "Claiming cards you actually created"