Summary

guess_category() in disk_cleanup.py classifies every file under $HERMES_HOME/cron/ and cronjobs/ as cron-output, which gets pruned after 14 days:

if top == "cron" or top == "cronjobs":
    return "cron-output"   # ← catches jobs.json too

cron/jobs.json is the live cron registry — losing it silently deletes all scheduled jobs. It is a persistent config file, not ephemeral output.

Fix: Exempt jobs.json when it sits at depth 2 (direct child of cron/). All other files under cron/ remain classified as ephemeral output.

if top == "cron" or top == "cronjobs":
    if path.name == "jobs.json" and len(rel.parts) == 2:
        return None   # protected registry
    return "cron-output"

Test plan

• Create $HERMES_HOME/cron/jobs.json and a dummy $HERMES_HOME/cron/run_12345.log
• Run cleanup with age > 14 days simulated
• jobs.json is not deleted; run_12345.log is deleted

Closes #32164

🤖 Contributed via Claude Code