PR #20063: fix(kanban): ignore stale current board pointers

• Repository: NousResearch/hermes-agent
• Author: steezkelly
• State: closed | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/20063

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

• Ignore stale <root>/kanban/current board pointers when resolving the active board
• Fall back to default instead of treating a missing board slug as active
• Add regression coverage so read/list flows do not synthesize a missing board from a stale pointer

Fixes #20055

Test Plan

• venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py::TestCurrentBoard::test_stale_file_pointer_falls_back_to_default -q -o 'addopts='
• venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py -q -o 'addopts='
• venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_cli.py tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_core_functionality.py tests/tools/test_kanban_tools.py tests/plugins/test_kanban_dashboard_plugin.py -q -o 'addopts='
• venv/bin/python -m py_compile hermes_cli/kanban_db.py tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py

Changed files

• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py (modified, +5/-5)
• tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py (modified, +9/-0)

---

PR #20069: fix(cli): validate kanban current-board pointer to stop silent synth/create

• Repository: NousResearch/hermes-agent
• Author: konsisumer
• State: closed | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/20069

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Stop kanban from silently synthesizing/creating a board when <root>/kanban/current points at a missing slug.

What changed and why

• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py::get_current_board() now validates the on-disk pointer via board_exists() and falls back to default (with a deduped stderr warning) when the slug doesn't resolve. Previously the slug was returned unchecked, so downstream kb.connect() calls would mkdir the board directory and sqlite3.connect() would create the DB file — making the missing slug appear in boards list as a real, active workspace and hiding the user's real boards behind a synthetic empty one.
• The pointer file itself is left in place. Users can recover their selection by running hermes kanban boards create <slug> and the next read honours the pointer again.
• HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD env-var resolution is intentionally not validated: it's written by the dispatcher on worker spawn (which already knows the board exists), so a runtime existence check there would only mask dispatcher bugs.
• Added five unit tests in tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py::TestStaleCurrentBoardPointer covering: fallback to default, warning dedupe within a process, no implicit board-directory creation through kb.connect(), recovery via boards create, and absence from list_boards().

How to test

• Reproduce the issue's exact scenario:

  tmp=$(mktemp -d)
  mkdir -p "$tmp/kanban"
  printf 'missing-board\n' > "$tmp/kanban/current"
  HERMES_HOME="$tmp" hermes kanban boards show
  HERMES_HOME="$tmp" hermes kanban stats
  HERMES_HOME="$tmp" hermes kanban list
  HERMES_HOME="$tmp" hermes kanban boards list
  find "$tmp/kanban" -mindepth 1

  After the fix, every command emits the stale-pointer warning and reports default. kanban/boards/missing-board/ is never created.
• Run the kanban suite: pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py -q (54 passed locally).

What platforms tested on

• macOS on darwin-arm64 (local)

Fixes #20055

<!-- autocontrib:worker-id=issue-new-e9c1271a kind=pr-open -->

Changed files

• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py (modified, +29/-1)
• tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py (modified, +62/-0)

---

PR #20183: fix(kanban): ignore stale current board pointers (salvages #20063)

• Repository: NousResearch/hermes-agent
• Author: teknium1
• State: closed | merged: True
• Link: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/20183

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Stale <root>/kanban/current pointers no longer make hermes kanban boards show / stats / list silently synthesize and create a phantom board directory for a slug that was never created.

Salvaged from #20063 (@steezkelly).

Root cause: get_current_board() read the <root>/kanban/current file and returned its slug without checking whether that board actually existed on disk. Downstream callers (read_board_metadata, connect) happily synthesized metadata and created the DB directory for the missing slug, so a hand-edited or leftover pointer made it look like a real active board.

Changes

• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py: get_current_board() now gates the file-pointer branch on board_exists(normed). Stale slugs fall through to DEFAULT_BOARD. Env var (HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD) still wins as before, even against a stale file.
• tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py: new test_stale_file_pointer_falls_back_to_default covers the regression.
• scripts/release.py: AUTHOR_MAP entry for @steezkelly.

Validation

Closes #20055

Co-authored-by: Steve Kelly [email protected]

Changed files

• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py (modified, +5/-5)
• scripts/release.py (modified, +1/-0)
• tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_boards.py (modified, +9/-0)