hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix Kanban approval comments do not resume work; completed status does not satisfy dependencies

Summary

A dashboard approval comment on a planning/blocked Kanban task was recorded, but it did not create or promote runnable implementation work. When a follow-up implementation task was created manually, it could not be promoted because its parent was stored with status completed, while dependency resolution expected done.

This leaves the user-visible workflow in a confusing state: the user approves the task, but nothing happens, and child/continuation work can remain stuck even though the parent appears complete in the dashboard.

Observed behavior

On a local board (youtube-monitor-prefect):

1. A parent planning task was created for a YouTube-to-Slack Prefect workflow.
2. The task explicitly said planning only; wait for Alvi approval before implementation.
3. The worker completed the planning/spec task.
4. The user approved via dashboard comment: yes please go aheand and create it.
5. The approval was recorded only as a task_comments row and commented event.
6. No implementation task was created or promoted as a continuation.
7. After creating an implementation task manually with the planning task as parent, hermes kanban promote <task> failed with:

cannot promote <task>: unsatisfied parent dependencies: <parent> (use --force to override)

1. Inspecting the database showed the parent/design cards had status completed, while the CLI/dashboard status vocabulary and dependency resolver appear to expect done for satisfied parents.

Manual local recovery was:

UPDATE tasks SET status='done' WHERE status='completed';

After that, the implementation task could be promoted and dispatched.

Expected behavior

At minimum:

• Completed parent work should satisfy child dependencies consistently, regardless of whether the row was written as completed or done by a tool/UI/worker path.
• Kanban should not let one surface write a terminal status that another surface does not treat as terminal.

For the approval flow specifically:

• If a task is explicitly waiting for approval and the user comments approval in the dashboard/chat, there should be a clear supported continuation path.
• This might be a first-class approval state/policy, an approve action, or at least dashboard/CLI UX that makes clear that comments are passive and do not resume work.

Why this matters

From the user's perspective, they used the workflow correctly: they approved the planning task in the dashboard. The system accepted the comment but did not act on it, and the board later showed stale/runnable-looking tasks in the wrong state.

This is especially confusing for multi-step Kanban workflows where a planning task is intentionally gated before implementation.

Related issues

Related but broader:

• #29171 - first-class waiting states for human, approval, and review gates
• #29457 - Kanban task request for approval
• #31392 - agent-native task relay with async human approval gates

This issue is narrower: status vocabulary drift (completed vs done) caused dependency resolution failure, and dashboard approval comments did not trigger or clearly support continuation.

Environment

Local Hermes checkout using the Kanban dashboard and CLI on 2026-05-24.