Summary

Implements adaptive model escalation for the kanban dispatcher when tasks fail repeatedly, plus fixes the crash-loop stickiness bug (#30417).

What changed

1. Config key: kanban.retry_model_escalation (hermes_cli/config.py)

• New dict key, empty default -- fully backward compatible
• Maps model names to escalation targets; applies when consecutive_failures > 0
• Example:

  retry_model_escalation:
    sonnet4.6-off: sonnet4.6-low
    sonnet4.6-low: opus4.6-high

2. Dispatch logic (hermes_cli/kanban_db.py)

• dispatch_once() gains a model_escalation: Optional[dict] parameter
• Before spawn, resolves the task's current model (from model_override or empty string for profile default), looks it up in the map, and persists the escalated model back to the task row so each retry uses the upgraded model
• No-op on first spawn (consecutive_failures == 0), empty map, or when already at the top of the chain

3. Crash-loop stickiness fix (#30417) (hermes_cli/kanban_db.py)

• Root cause: recompute_ready promotes blocked tasks when all parents are done; for parentless tasks all([]) == True (vacuous truth), so a circuit-breaker-blocked task re-promoted every tick
• Fix: in recompute_ready, when a parentless blocked task has a gave_up event with no subsequent unblocked event, skip promotion -- requires explicit hermes kanban unblock to re-queue
• Tasks WITH parents still auto-recover when their parents complete (original design preserved)

4. Gateway wiring (gateway/run.py)

• Reads kanban.retry_model_escalation from config and passes it to dispatch_once on every tick

Tests

8 new tests in tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py:

• Model escalation: empty map, first-spawn no-op, already-at-top-of-chain, escalation from None override, escalation from set override
• Crash loop: parentless gave_up stays blocked, explicit unblock re-queues, gave_up with done parents still promotes

All 332 existing tests continue to pass.

How to verify

source venv/bin/activate
python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py -k 'escalat or gave_up' -v
python -m pytest tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_db.py tests/hermes_cli/test_kanban_core_functionality.py -q

Closes #30587
Fixes #30417