Get told when a Hermes Kanban task finishes or blocks

When a Hermes Kanban task finishes or gets stuck, Hermes tells whoever is subscribed to that task. In practice that is the agent session the task was created from, because Hermes subscribes it for you. That works when a person made the task in a chat they are still watching. It does nothing for a task a script created, and it will not tell the person who actually owns the work if they were not the one who asked for it. This plugin sends a short message to the people you choose, on every finish and every block, no subscription needed.

Code and install: github.com/Smshd-Avo/hermes-kanban-owner-fallback

Is this your problem?

• A script or a cron job created the task, so nothing was subscribed and nobody heard.
• The person who asked for the task is not the person who needs to know it blocked.
• You want one channel to carry every finish and block on a board that matters.
• You want different assignees to report to different places, set once.

What we built

When a task completes or blocks, the plugin sends a short message to the targets you set, using the same send_message tool the agent uses. Targets look like slack:#delivery or telegram:-1001234567890. If a send fails it tries again a few times, then stops. The wording is a template. You can drop in the task ID, the board, the assignee and a one line detail. That detail is the task summary when a task finishes, and the reason when it blocks.

We built it on the public Kanban hooks, so it keeps working after hermes update. It says nothing at all until you set a target, since messaging by default would double up on the tasks Hermes already reports. Upstream is working on owner delivery in PR #97408.

How to install

hermes plugins install Smshd-Avo/hermes-kanban-owner-fallback
hermes plugins enable hermes-kanban-owner-fallback

plugins:
  entries:
    hermes-kanban-owner-fallback:
      settings:
        targets:
          - "slack:#delivery"
        assignee_targets:
          research-worker: ["telegram:-1001234567890"]
        events: [completed, blocked]

Good to know

• This is a second path, not a fallback. The plugin runs in the Kanban worker. The built-in notifier runs in the gateway. The hooks tell the plugin nothing about whether that notifier delivered, so the plugin cannot hold back and wait. When both paths work, you get two messages. Point it at a board where a missed task costs you real money, rather than at every board you own.
• assignee_targets replaces targets for that person. It does not add to it. If you want the delivery channel told as well, list both under that name.
• It does not fix notifications reaching the wrong bot, and it does not retry the built-in notifier. Both of those live in the gateway, where a plugin cannot reach. The plugin retries its own sends and nothing else.

The code is on GitHub at Smshd-Avo/hermes-kanban-owner-fallback. MIT licensed, free to use.