[Bug]: Kanban dispatcher cannot spawn workers for named (non-default) profiles — all crash with 'pid not alive' / exit code 1

[ipecxx]

Bug Summary

The Hermes Kanban dispatcher cannot spawn workers for any named (non-default) profile. All tested named profiles (reviewer, coder, analyst-fast) exhibit identical crash patterns at dispatch time, while the default profile spawns and completes successfully.

Reproduction

Step 1: Confirm profiles exist and interactive chat works

hermes chat --profile default      -q "ping" -Q --max-turns 1  # -> pong ✅
hermes chat --profile reviewer     -q "ping" -Q --max-turns 1  # -> pong ✅
hermes chat --profile coder        -q "ping" -Q --max-turns 1  # -> pong ✅
hermes chat --profile analyst-fast -q "ping" -Q --max-turns 1  # -> pong ✅

Step 2: Create Kanban task for default profile (CONTROL)

hermes kanban create "Smoke Test Default" --assignee default --body "ping" --json
# Result: t_3640bef0 -> status done, outcome completed ✅

Step 3: Create Kanban tasks for named profiles (FAILING)

All 4 tested named-profile tasks crash identically within ~60 seconds of spawn:

Task	Assignee	Run 1	Run 2	Final
t_dbf7bb52	reviewer (glm-5.1)	"pid 275698 exited with code 1"	"pid 275722 not alive"	gave_up
t_946bbe65	reviewer (glm-5.1)	"pid 272322 not alive"	"pid ... not alive"	gave_up
t_3ba0abba	coder (qwen3-coder-next)	"pid 277411 not alive"	"pid 277462 not alive"	gave_up
t_a7b9c537	analyst-fast (deepseek-v4-flash)	"pid 277463 exited with code 1"	"pid 277502 not alive"	gave_up
t_4acc3921	reviewer (post-update v0.15.1)	"pid 280026 not alive"	"pid 280046 not alive"	gave_up

Environment

• Hermes Agent v0.15.1 (2026.5.29)
• Python 3.11.15
• Platform: ARM64 / aarch64, Ubuntu 6.8.0-117-generic
• Provider: Ollama Cloud Pro
• Profiles tested: default, reviewer, coder, analyst-fast (all configs structurally identical)
• Models verified available on ollama.com

Key Observations

1. Interactive chat works for ALL profiles — the profiles themselves are not broken
2. Configs are structurally identical — only model name differs
3. Pre-logging crash — no errors.log or agent.log entries for Kanban runs
4. Identical crash pattern across 3 different models — rules out model-specific issues
5. NOT fixed by update — updated from 56 commits behind to current; bug persists

Workarounds

• CLI wrappers (hermes -p <profile> chat)
• delegate_task for short in-process subtasks

Hypothesis

The _default_spawn() function in kanban_db.py correctly injects HERMES_HOME for profile resolution, but may have a missing TERMINAL_CWD or PATH resolution issue when spawning named profiles. Possibly related to issue #34626 (fix(cli): pin worker TERMINAL_CWD to profile dir in kanban spawn).

Related Issues

• _default_spawn injects HERMES_HOME but not TERMINAL_CWD — kanban workers load the dispatching gateway's AGENTS.md under multi-profile dispatch #34619: _default_spawn injects HERMES_HOME but not TERMINAL_CWD
• fix(cli): pin worker TERMINAL_CWD to profile dir in kanban spawn #34626: fix(cli): pin worker TERMINAL_CWD to profile dir in kanban spawn
• fix(kanban): gate task.skills on resolvability to prevent worker crash loops #30025: gate task.skills on resolvability to prevent worker crash loops

Full Diagnostic Report

Complete bug report with all evidence (run histories, config comparisons, model verifications):
/home/hermes-a/projects/hermes-multi-agent-migration/bugs/BUG-2026-0601-named-profile-kanban-dispatch.md

[teknium1]

Thanks for the detailed reproduction. This is an automated hermes-sweeper review; the named-profile Kanban worker dispatch path and the related inherited-CWD failure mode are implemented on current main.

• 9630ec6c19e6b060ad16e5cc6ae00c4f3ecba776 — fix(kanban): pin worker TERMINAL_CWD to the task workspace (PR fix(kanban): pin worker TERMINAL_CWD to the task workspace #50348; released in v2026.7.1) — fixes the inherited dispatcher CWD problem identified in the report's related issue _default_spawn injects HERMES_HOME but not TERMINAL_CWD — kanban workers load the dispatching gateway's AGENTS.md under multi-profile dispatch #34619.
• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:7933-7944 resolves and exports the assigned profile's HERMES_HOME; hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:8021-8024 launches the worker as hermes -p <assignee>.
• hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:7955-7968 now pins TERMINAL_CWD to the task workspace rather than retaining the dispatching gateway's cwd.
• tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_worker_terminal_cwd.py:59-101 covers the workspace pin and safe fallback behavior.

This closes the stale dispatch behavior reported against the June 2026 build.