What this meansFinished cards keep their summary forever, which is what makes the board searchable after the fact.
Transcribe Q3 customer call #4 t_6f4e
ready content-ops@transcriber
BodyOne of five independent transcription cards for the same profile.
Run history
-no runs yet@transcriber
The dispatcher has not started an agent on this card.
What this meansAssigned, nothing depends on it, so it only waits for the next pass of the dispatcher.
Write the Q4 recap post t_9b21
triage content-ops@unassigned
BodyOne line, no spec yet. Nobody has decided what the pieces are.
Run history
-no runs yet@unassigned
The dispatcher has not started an agent on this card.
What this meansA one-line idea with no assignee. With orchestration on, the decomposer reads it, writes child cards, and routes each to the closest profile you actually have. Turn orchestration off and it sits here until you split it yourself.
Draft the outline t_a1c2
ready content-ops@writer
BodyChild card written by the decomposer.
Run history
-no runs yet@writer
The dispatcher has not started an agent on this card.
What this meansThe decomposer read your profile list and routed this child to the closest match.
Check the numbers t_b3d4
ready content-ops@researcher
BodyChild card written by the decomposer.
Run history
-no runs yet@researcher
The dispatcher has not started an agent on this card.
What this meansThe parent card stays alive until every child is done, then wakes up to judge the result.
Design auth schema t_d460
done auth-project@backend-dev
BodyDesign the user/session/token schema for the auth module.
Run history
1 completed @backend-dev
users(id, email, pw_hash), sessions(id, user_id, jti, expires_at); refresh tokens stored as sessions with type='refresh'
What this meansThis is the handoff in action. The next agent reads this summary instead of re-reading a design document.
Deploy to staging (missing creds) t_ef5d
blocked ops@deploy-bot
BodyDeploy the current build to staging.
Run history
1 spawn_failed @deploy-bot
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID not set in deploy-bot env
2 spawn_failed @deploy-bot
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID not set in deploy-bot env
3 gave_up @deploy-bot
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID not set in deploy-bot env
What this meansThe circuit breaker tripped. The agent never started, so there is nothing to debug in the work itself. The environment is wrong.
Vocabulary that is kanban-only
The words that do not mean what they mean elsewhere in Hermes.
Tick
One pass of the dispatcher. Default 60 seconds. Nudge dispatcher forces one now instead of waiting for the timer.
In Hermes kanban dispatch · 60 s
Claim
The atomic step that moves a card to running and pins it to one worker. Two dispatchers cannot claim the same card.
In Hermes claimed event
Worker
A full OS process running the assigned profile, spawned for one card. Not a subagent: its own identity, its own memory, its own tools.
In Hermes HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD pinned in the child env
Run
One attempt. Outcome, summary, metadata, error. Retry history is the primary representation, not a latest-state field on the card.
In Hermes task_runs
Worker context
What the worker is handed when it calls kanban_show: the card, its own prior attempts, each parent's most recent completed summary and metadata, the comment thread, attachment paths.
In Hermes build_worker_context
Link
A parent to child dependency. The dispatcher promotes todo to ready once every parent is done. You do not move it yourself.
In Hermes task_links
Triage
Where a one-line idea lands. With auto-decompose on, the decomposer splits it into assigned children, at most 3 cards per tick.
In Hermes kanban.auto_decompose_per_tick: 3
Workspace
Where the worker works. scratch is deleted on completion; dir: must be an absolute path and is preserved; worktree is preserved.
In Hermes ~/.hermes/kanban/workspaces/<id>/
Artifacts
Files the worker declares when it completes. They are copied into per-task attachment storage before the scratch directory is removed.
In Hermes kanban_complete(artifacts=[...])
Heartbeat
A long-running worker reporting in, so the dispatcher does not reclaim its card as a stale claim.
In Hermes dispatch_stale_timeout_seconds · 4 h
Tenant
A soft label inside one board. Boards are the hard boundary. A worker cannot see another board, and links across boards are refused.
In Hermes --tenant auth-project
Comment
The inter-agent protocol. A re-spawned worker reads the whole thread as part of its context, so notes you leave are instructions.