From 7c8c68dae3f8e3664004ae9c57cafb8833b38bf1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pal <pal@openclaw>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2026 18:02:46 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix(kanban): pass skills from decomposer to child tasks

The decomposer LLM was never able to pass skill bundles to
child tasks because:

1. kanban_decompose.py did not extract `skills` from the LLM
   response and did not include it in the children dict
2. kanban_db.py `decompose_triage_task()` INSERT omitted the
   `skills` column entirely

This commit:
- Adds `skills` to the decomposer system prompt schema so the
  LLM knows it can include skill bundles in its response
- Extracts and validates `skills` from the decomposer JSON
- Inserts `skills` into the child task row (JSON-serialized)

All 167 kanban tests pass (9 decompose + 158 DB).
---
 hermes_cli/kanban_db.py        | 13 +++++++++++--
 hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py | 13 ++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py b/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
index 9cbc010ac64af..74d445d3b6404 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/kanban_db.py
@@ -3146,6 +3146,7 @@ def decompose_triage_task(
             "body": "...",                     # optional
             "assignee": "profile-name",        # optional, None -> default fallback
             "parents": [0, 2],                 # indices into this same children list
+            "skills": ["skill-name"],          # optional list of skill names
         }
 
     Returns the list of created child task ids (in input order) on
@@ -3233,11 +3234,18 @@ def decompose_triage_task(
             title = child["title"].strip()
             body = child.get("body")
             assignee = _canonical_assignee(child.get("assignee"))
+            # Extract optional skills from the child dict.
+            raw_skills = child.get("skills")
+            skills_val = None
+            if isinstance(raw_skills, list) and raw_skills:
+                cleaned = [s for s in raw_skills if isinstance(s, str) and s.strip()]
+                if cleaned:
+                    skills_val = json.dumps(cleaned)
             conn.execute(
                 "INSERT INTO tasks "
                 "(id, title, body, assignee, status, workspace_kind, "
-                " tenant, created_at, created_by) "
-                "VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, 'todo', 'scratch', ?, ?, ?)",
+                " tenant, created_at, created_by, skills) "
+                "VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, 'todo', 'scratch', ?, ?, ?, ?)",
                 (
                     new_id,
                     title,
@@ -3246,6 +3254,7 @@ def decompose_triage_task(
                     tenant,
                     now,
                     (author or "decomposer"),
+                    skills_val,
                 ),
             )
             _append_event(
diff --git a/hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py b/hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py
index 063abcf7b513b..9ee0d75445ad3 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py
@@ -70,7 +70,8 @@
         "title": "<concrete task title, imperative voice, <= 80 chars>",
         "body":  "<detailed spec for the worker on this child task>",
         "assignee": "<profile name from the roster, or null for default>",
-        "parents": [<int>, ...]
+        "parents": [<int>, ...],
+        "skills": ["<skill-name>", ...]  # optional — skill bundles to force-load
       },
       ...
     ]
@@ -89,6 +90,9 @@
     and the system will route to the default_assignee.
   - Each child task body is what a fresh worker will read with no other
     context — be specific about goal, approach, and acceptance criteria.
+  - Use "skills" to specify skill bundles the worker should force-load
+    (e.g. ["github-workflow", "test-driven-development"]). Omit if no
+    special skills are needed.
 
 When the task is genuinely a single unit of work (no useful decomposition),
 return:
@@ -431,11 +435,18 @@ def decompose_task(
             parents = []
         # Clean parent indices: drop non-int and out-of-range.
         clean_parents = [p for p in parents if isinstance(p, int) and 0 <= p < len(raw_tasks) and p != idx]
+        # Extract optional skills list from the decomposer response.
+        raw_skills = entry.get("skills")
+        if isinstance(raw_skills, list):
+            skills_list = [s for s in raw_skills if isinstance(s, str) and s.strip()]
+        else:
+            skills_list = []
         children.append({
             "title": title.strip()[:200],
             "body": body.strip(),
             "assignee": chosen,
             "parents": clean_parents,
+            "skills": skills_list,
         })
 
     try: