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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Yes. 3 related items grouped here, 1 issue already closed.
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A fix was merged to main in PR #50329. Check it covers your case. No release data is tracked.
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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.

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Fixes on record

Merged to main. A stamp counts the issues a fix is linked to.

  • #50329 fix(agent): stop delegate cascade from deleting the parent session

    merged to main

    files: hermes_state.py, tests/test_delegate_cascade_49148.py

    Show the diff
    • 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

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
How this cluster was grouped
  • Link evidence (structural links throughout): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.
  • Pairwise link density 0.67: the share of item 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.

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Subsystem
agent
Merged PRs
#50329
Closed issues
1
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1 PR closed without merging
Fix link checked
21 Jun 2026

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