fix(kanban): don't strand babysit/review tasks on the active_pr respawn guard

[exiao]

Problem

Kanban babysit / re-verify tasks were stranding in ready for hours. Diagnostics flagged them as stranded_in_ready "no worker" even though the embedded dispatcher was healthy and ticking every 5s. The dispatcher was deliberately deferring them each tick with respawn_guarded {"reason":"active_pr"}.

Root cause

check_respawn_guard (added in 264e85b, "add respawn guard to block repeat worker storms") returns active_pr when a GitHub PR URL appears in any recent task comment. Its purpose is to stop an implementation task from re-spawning and opening a duplicate PR.

That signal misfires on babysit / review / re-verify tasks. Their entire job is to operate on a PR that already exists, so they legitimately post that PR's URL in their own comments AND must re-spawn to keep working it. The guard saw the URL, assumed duplicate-PR risk, and stranded them for the full 24h _RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_WINDOW. The guard couldn't distinguish "worker created a new PR" from "task is about an existing PR."

Fix

The discriminator is where the PR reference lives:

• An implementation task at risk of a duplicate PR has the URL only in its comments (its own output).
• A babysit task names the PR up front in its title/body (e.g. "Babysit PR fix(ruff): reword prose comment so inner # noqa: isn't parsed as a directive #48", "cpe-research/research-agent#801").

check_respawn_guard now also reads the task title and body; if either contains a PR reference (full URL via _RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_URL_RE, or a bare PR #N / owner/repo#N ref via the new _RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_REF_RE), the task is anchored to a pre-existing PR and the comment-based active_pr guard is skipped. The duplicate-PR protection for implementation tasks (no PR ref in title/body) is unchanged. The bare-ref regex requires the PR keyword or an owner/repo prefix so a plain #42 issue mention doesn't exempt a task.

Verification

Fail-before/pass-after, proven by stashing the source change:

• test_respawn_guard_babysit_task_not_stranded_by_own_pr_comment and test_respawn_guard_babysit_task_owner_repo_ref_not_stranded fail with assert 'active_pr' is None on old code, pass with the fix.
• test_respawn_guard_impl_task_still_guarded_by_pr_comment passes both ways (duplicate-PR protection intact).
• Full respawn-guard suite: 20 passed.

Patch note: ~/.hermes/plans/hermes-patches/respawn-guard-babysit-anchored-pr.md

[github-actions]

🔎 Lint report: fix/respawn-guard-babysit-anchored-pr vs origin/live-config

ruff

Total: 0 on HEAD, 0 on base (➖ 0)

🆕 New issues: none

✅ Fixed issues: none

Unchanged: 0 pre-existing issues carried over.

ty (type checker)

Total: 11585 on HEAD, 11583 on base (🆕 +2)

🆕 New issues (2):

Rule	Count
unresolved-attribute	2

First entries

run_agent.py:3026: [unresolved-attribute] unresolved-attribute: Object of type `Self@get_credits_spent_micros` has no attribute `_credits_session_start_micros`
tests/run_agent/test_credits_notices_toggle.py:76: [unresolved-attribute] unresolved-attribute: Unresolved attribute `_credits_session_start_micros` on type `AIAgent`

✅ Fixed issues (1):

Rule	Count
invalid-assignment	1

First entries

tests/run_agent/test_credits_notices_toggle.py:76: [invalid-assignment] invalid-assignment: Object of type `None` is not assignable to attribute `_credits_session_start_micros` of type `int`

Unchanged: 6093 pre-existing issues carried over.

Diagnostics are surfaced as warnings — this check never fails the build.

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces a mechanism to prevent babysit, review, or re-verify tasks anchored to pre-existing PRs from being incorrectly stranded by the active PR respawn guard. It does this by checking if the task's title or body contains a PR reference, skipping the guard if a reference is found. The review feedback highlights a potential issue where the new regular expression could match file paths with line numbers (e.g., src/main.py#10), which would bypass the guard for implementation tasks. The reviewer suggests refining the regex to exclude common file extensions and adding a test case to verify this behavior.

Important

The consumer version of Gemini Code Assist on GitHub is being sunset. Starting June 18, 2026, new organization installations will be blocked, and all code review activity will officially cease on July 17, 2026.
For more details on the timeline and next steps, please review the Help Documentation.

[gemini-code-assist]

The regular expression _RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_REF_RE matches any string of the form owner/repo#number. However, this pattern also matches common file paths with line numbers or anchors, such as src/main.py#10 or utils/helper.js#42. If an implementation task's body contains such a file path, it will be incorrectly identified as anchored_to_pr, bypassing the active_pr guard and risking duplicate PR creation or worker storms.

To prevent this, we can use a negative lookahead to exclude common file extensions (like .py, .js, .ts, .go, .java, etc.) before the # character.

Suggested change

	_RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_REF_RE = re.compile(
	r"(?:\bPR\s*#\d+|[A-Za-z0-9._-]+/[A-Za-z0-9._-]+#\d+)",
	re.IGNORECASE,
	_RESPAWN_GUARD_PR_REF_RE = re.compile(
	r"(?:\\bPR\\s*#\\d+|[A-Za-z0-9._-]+/(?![A-Za-z0-9._-]*\\.(?:py|js|ts|go|rb|sh|h|c|cpp|java|cs|rs|php|kt|swift|html|css|yml|yaml|json|md|txt|sql)#)[A-Za-z0-9._-]+#\\d+)",
	re.IGNORECASE,
	)

[gemini-code-assist]

Let's add a test case to verify that an implementation task containing a file path with a line number (e.g., src/main.py#42) in its body is still correctly guarded by active_pr and not incorrectly treated as anchored to a PR.

def test_respawn_guard_impl_task_still_guarded_by_pr_comment(kanban_home):
    """An IMPLEMENTATION task (no PR reference in title/body) is STILL guarded
    by active_pr when a PR URL appears in its comments — the duplicate-PR
    protection the guard was built for must remain intact."""
    with kb.connect() as conn:
        t = kb.create_task(
            conn, title="Implement rate limiter", assignee="alice",
        )
        kb.add_comment(
            conn, t, "worker",
            "PR created: https://github.com/totemx-AI/subsidysmart/pull/42",
        )
        reason = kb.check_respawn_guard(conn, t)
    assert reason == "active_pr"


def test_respawn_guard_impl_task_with_file_path_still_guarded(kanban_home):
    """An implementation task with a file path and line number in its body
    (e.g., 'src/main.py#42') is STILL guarded by active_pr when a PR URL
    appears in its comments."""
    with kb.connect() as conn:
        t = kb.create_task(
            conn,
            title="Fix bug in rate limiter",
            body="See src/main.py#42 for details",
            assignee="alice",
        )
        kb.add_comment(
            conn, t, "worker",
            "PR created: https://github.com/totemx-AI/subsidysmart/pull/42",
        )
        reason = kb.check_respawn_guard(conn, t)
    assert reason == "active_pr"