NousResearch/hermes-agent
Delegate cascade deleting parent session bug fix
Cluster 49148 · agent. Data as of
Nothing open on GitHub. Fix merged in #50329 on 21 Jun 2026. Check it covers your case.
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0open PRs
3items grouped
- Known?
- Yes. 3 related items grouped here, 1 issue already closed.
- Fix event
- A fix was merged to main in PR #50329. Check it covers your case. No release data is tracked.
- Tracker
- The maintainers' tracker marks this
unresolved. That is separate from the fix event. - Still open
- Nothing open on GitHub.
A critical bug in _collect_delegate_child_ids lacks a guard for parent_ids, causing delegate session cleanup to cascade and delete the parent session. The members describe the problem and a corresponding fix.
Open issues0
Open PRs0
Fixes on record
-
#50329 fix(agent): stop delegate cascade from deleting the parent session
files:
hermes_state.py,tests/test_delegate_cascade_49148.pyShow the diff
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hermes_state.py@@ -75,8 +75,16 @@ def _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, parent_ids: List[str]) -> List[str]: orchestrator subagent's own delegate children go too (FK safety). """ df = _delegate_from_json() - found: set[str] = set() - frontier = [sid for sid in parent_ids if sid] + seeds = {sid for sid in parent_ids if sid} + # Seed the visited set with the parents themselves. A delegation marker + # chain can loop back onto a parent — a cycle, or a parent that is also + # another parent's delegate child when several ids are deleted at once — + # and without this guard that parent would be collected as one of its own + # descendants and cascade-deleted along with all of its messages. Callers + # delete the parents separately, so parents must never appear in the + # returned child set. (#49148) + found: set[str] = set(seeds) + frontier = list(seeds) while frontier: ph = ",".join("?" * len(frontier)) cursor = conn.execute( @@ -86,7 +94,8 @@ def _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, parent_ids: List[str]) -> List[str]: ) frontier = [row["id"] for row in cursor.fetchall() if row["id"] not in found] found.update(frontier) - return list(found) + # Return only the discovered children — never the parents themselves. + return [sid for sid in found if sid not in seeds] def _delete_delegate_children(conn, parent_ids: List[str]) -> List[str]: -
tests/test_delegate_cascade_49148.py@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +"""Regression tests for delegate-child cascade collection (#49148). + +`_collect_delegate_child_ids` walks the ``_delegate_from`` marker chain to +find delegate subagents that should be cascade-deleted with their parent. +The parents themselves are deleted separately by the callers, so they must +never appear in the collected child set. A delegation cycle (or a parent +that is also another parent's delegate child) used to leak the parent into +the deletion set, permanently deleting the parent session and its messages. +""" + +import json +import sqlite3 + +from hermes_state import _collect_delegate_child_ids, _delete_delegate_children + + +def _make_conn(): + conn = sqlite3.connect(":memory:") + conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row + conn.execute( + "CREATE TABLE sessions (" + " id TEXT PRIMARY KEY," + " parent_session_id TEXT," + " model_config TEXT)" + ) + conn.execute("CREATE TABLE messages (session_id TEXT)") + return conn + + +def _add_session(conn, sid, *, delegate_from=None, parent_session_id=None, messages=0): + model_config = json.dumps({"_delegate_from": delegate_from}) if delegate_from else None + conn.execute( + "INSERT INTO sessions (id, parent_session_id, model_config) VALUES (?, ?, ?)", + (sid, parent_session_id, model_config), + ) + for _ in range(messages): + conn.execute("INSERT INTO messages (session_id) VALUES (?)", (sid,)) + + +class TestCollectDelegateChildIds: + def test_collects_delegate_child_excludes_parent(self): + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "P") + _add_session(conn, "C", delegate_from="P") + + result = _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, ["P"]) + + assert "C" in result + assert "P" not in result + + def test_multilevel_chain_collects_all_descendants(self): + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "O") + _add_session(conn, "A", delegate_from="O") + _add_session(conn, "B", delegate_from="A") + + result = set(_collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, ["O"])) + + assert result == {"A", "B"} # parent O excluded, both descendants in + + def test_parent_session_id_branch_with_marker_collected(self): + # Second OR clause: parent_session_id match AND _delegate_from present. + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "P") + _add_session(conn, "C", parent_session_id="P", delegate_from="something") + + assert _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, ["P"]) == ["C"] + + def test_untagged_child_not_collected(self): + # No _delegate_from marker -> orphan-don't-delete contract. + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "P") + _add_session(conn, "C", parent_session_id="P") + + assert _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, ["P"]) == [] + + def test_cycle_terminates_and_excludes_parent(self): + # The #49148 bug: A and B reference each other via _delegate_from. + # Collection must terminate and never return the seed parent A. + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "A", delegate_from="B") + _add_session(conn, "B", delegate_from="A") + + result = _collect_delegate_child_ids(conn, ["A"]) + + assert "A" not in result # parent never collected as its own child + assert result == ["B"] + + +class TestDeleteDelegateChildrenPreservesParent: + def test_cycle_does_not_delete_parent_or_its_messages(self): + conn = _make_conn() + _add_session(conn, "A", delegate_from="B", messages=3) + _add_session(conn, "B", delegate_from="A", messages=2) + + removed = _delete_delegate_children(conn, ["A"]) + + assert "A" not in removed + # Parent A and its messages survive; only delegate child B is gone. + assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sessions WHERE id='A'").fetchone()[0] == 1 + assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages WHERE session_id='A'").fetchone()[0] == 3 + assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sessions WHERE id='B'").fetchone()[0] == 0 + assert conn.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages WHERE session_id='B'").fetchone()[0] == 0
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1 PR closed without merging
From the close comments: merged via another change 1
-
#49178 fix(agent): stop delegate cascade from deleting the parent session · merged via another change →
#50329,#49148
Closed issues · 1
- Closed#49148[Critical Bug] `_collect_delegate_child_ids` missing `parent_ids` guard causes parent session cascade deletion and permanent data loss
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Open the LabAt a glance
- Subsystem
- agent
- Merged PRs
- #50329
- Closed issues
- 1
- Attempts
- 1 PR closed without merging
- Fix link checked
- 21 Jun 2026