Four fix-forwards from the adversarial post-merge audit of the Aug 7
unreviewed merge batch:
- estop (#81148): is_engaged() now fails SAFE (engaged) on stat errors;
the gateway estop gate lets recognized slash commands and replies owned
by in-flight work (update prompts, clarify, slash-confirm, tool
approvals, running sessions) through instead of consuming them; new
gateway /pause [reason|off] command gives messaging-only operators an
in-band engage/resume path (busy_policy=dispatch so it works mid-run).
- cron monitor mode (#81138): execution-mode invariants (monitor x
no_agent, monitor_script x monitor_url, no_agent-requires-script) now
have ONE owner (_validate_job_mode_invariants) called from BOTH
create_job and update_job, so the create-time invariant can no longer
be silently violated through the update door.
- cron notepad (#81139): remove_job now clears the job's notepad rows
(clear_notepad was dead code -> orphaned KV state forever); clear is
best-effort and no-ops without creating notepad.db.
- delegation batch gate (#81141): template-marker regex narrowed to
multi-word placeholder shapes only (<feature name>, {file_path}) so
generics (Vec<T>), HTML tags, JSON snippets, glob braces and f-string
style no longer reject legitimate batches; duplicate-goal rejection
removed (best-of-N fan-outs are legitimate).
Resumable ESTOP sentinel at $HERMES_HOME/ESTOP that halts NEW work only:
- agent/estop.py: sentinel engage/disengage/is_engaged (single stat, no
caching), optional reason + timestamp stored as JSON, paused_reply()
notice, check_paused() log-once-per-engagement helper. Corrupt/empty
sentinel still pauses (fail safe); a `touch ~/.hermes/ESTOP` works.
- cron/scheduler.py: tick() skips dispatch while engaged (logged once per
engagement, not per tick). Due jobs simply wait for the next tick after
resume — in-flight runs are never touched.
- gateway/kanban_watchers.py: dispatcher skips auto-decompose and worker
spawning while engaged; zombie reaping still runs and running workers
finish naturally.
- gateway/run.py: new gateway turns (post-auth, non-internal) get a brief
"Hermes is paused" reply instead of an agent run. Internal events
(in-flight background completions) bypass the gate.
- hermes_cli/subcommands/pause.py: `hermes pause [--reason]` and
`hermes resume`, wired into main() and _BUILTIN_SUBCOMMANDS.
- hermes_cli/status.py: `hermes status` shows a PAUSED banner (one stat).
- tests/test_estop.py: 20 tests — sentinel lifecycle, reason surfacing,
log-once, cron skip + resume, kanban gate, gateway paused reply +
internal bypass, CLI idempotence, builtin-set parity, status line.
Never kills in-flight work; resumable with no restart. Footprint ladder:
CLI command only, no new model tool, no new env vars.
Ported from: gastownhall/gastown estop.go (MIT); related prior art:
#26778 (/panic — kill/exit semantics, deliberately different: ours is a
resumable pause), #44617 (interrupt in-flight cron — out of scope here).
Teknium