Reference

Quoted from the repository, for when you are looking something up rather than learning it.

Columns · who moves the card

triage: Raw ideas. In Auto mode the decomposer splits the card into child cards routed to specialist profiles, capped at 3 cards per pass.
todo: Created, but waiting on a parent card or not assigned yet.
scheduled: Waiting for a time-based follow-up. A first-class waiting column, not a variant of todo.
ready: Assigned and waiting for the dispatcher to claim it.
running: Claimed by a worker, in flight. With lanes on, this column groups by profile.
blocked: A worker asked for human input, or the circuit breaker tripped.
review: Waiting on a check before it counts as finished.
done: Completed. archived exists too, behind the Show archived toggle.

What the agent calls · not commands you type

kanban_show: Read my card: title, body, prior attempts, parent handoffs, comments.
kanban_heartbeat: Still alive. Long jobs must call this at least hourly or the card is reclaimed.
kanban_complete: Done, with a summary and structured metadata the next agent will read.
kanban_block: Stuck, and here is why. Dependency blocks wait quietly; the rest surface to you.
kanban_comment: Leave a durable note on the card's thread.
kanban_create · kanban_link · kanban_unblock · kanban_list: Orchestrator side: fan work out into child cards, wire dependencies, route.

Commands you type

hermes kanban list · show · runs · stats: Look at the board from a terminal. runs is the attempt history.
hermes kanban watch: Live stream of events. Add --kinds completed,gave_up,timed_out for the endings only.
hermes kanban unblock · block · complete · archive: Move cards by hand. Several ids at once is allowed.
hermes kanban decompose · specify: Split a triage card into a graph of child cards, or rewrite one card into a proper spec.
hermes kanban boards list · create · switch · show: One board per project. Workers on one board cannot see another.
hermes kanban notify-subscribe: Get a message on Telegram, Discord or Slack when a card finishes.

Settings · under kanban: in config.yaml

dispatch_in_gateway: true. Exactly one gateway may keep this on, or two dispatchers fight over the same claims.
failure_limit: 2. Consecutive spawn failures before the circuit breaker blocks the card.
auto_decompose: true. Whether Triage cards are split automatically.
auto_decompose_per_tick: 3. The cap that stops one vague card flooding the board.
dispatch_stale_timeout_seconds: 4 h. How long a claim survives without a heartbeat.
orchestrator_profile · default_assignee: unset. Both are opt-in.

Where things live

~/.hermes/kanban.db: The default board. One SQLite file.
~/.hermes/kanban/boards/<slug>/kanban.db: Any board you create later.
~/.hermes/kanban/workspaces/<id>/: Scratch space for one card. Deleted when the card completes, except files the agent declared as artifacts.

Source

Written from website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban.md, kanban-tutorial.md and plugins/kanban/dashboard/plugin_api.py in the hermes-agent repository. Defaults are quoted from the kanban config table.