# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Kanban dispatcher approval gate fail-closed fix

## Open now

- 1 issue, 2 PRs open on GitHub.
- #129818: Kanban dispatcher workers silently auto-approve dangerous commands (gate fails open, not closed)
- PR #129828: fix(approval): fail closed for dangerous commands without a human
- PR #129847: fix(approvals): fail closed for kanban dispatcher workers (#129818)

These items address a security behavior where the kanban dispatcher worker approval gate fails open, silently auto-approving dangerous commands instead of failing closed when no human approval is present. The work involves changing this default behavior to deny dangerous commands when the approval check cannot be satisfied.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 1 open issue(s), 0 closed issue(s), 2 open PR(s), 0 merged PR(s), 0 PR(s) closed without merging.
- No fix has been merged to main; one or more PRs were attempted (see below).
- **Recommended:** review the prior/competing PR(s) below. A fix was attempted but not merged; your case may extend or revive that work.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `unresolved`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.
- Pairwise link density `0.67`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Open related issues

- #129818: Kanban dispatcher workers silently auto-approve dangerous commands (gate fails open, not closed)

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#129828: fix(approval): fail closed for dangerous commands without a human**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `silent_close`; implication `active`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_approval.py`, `tools/approval.py`
- **#129847: fix(approvals): fail closed for kanban dispatcher workers (#129818)**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `uncategorized`; implication `needs_llm`; refs `#129828`, `#129828`
  - files: `agent/vault_backends/unlock.py`, `hermes_cli/config_defaults.py`, `tests/tools/test_kanban_approval_mode.py`, `tools/approval.py`, `tools/approval_context.py`, `website/docs/user-guide/security.md`

## Fix status

- No merged fix on record.
- Subsystem: `agent`