| name | hermes-kanban-readability |
| description | Reapply the Hermes Kanban dashboard readability customizations (clickable bare URLs in card descriptions + readable card-text font, a visible horizontal scrollbar so all columns are reachable) as a user-override plugin that survives hermes-agent updates. Use when the Kanban board reverts to the Mondwest display font / plain-text Source URLs after a hermes update, or when bootstrapping a machine whose ~/.hermes was wiped. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| category | devops |
| type | workflow |
| triggers | ["When the Hermes Kanban board card titles render in a hard-to-read display font (Mondwest) after a hermes update",{"When \"Source":"https://...\" lines in Kanban card descriptions show as plain text instead of clickable links"},"When ~/.hermes was wiped/reinstalled and the Kanban readability customizations are gone","When setting up Hermes on a new machine and want the Kanban readability fixes applied"] |
Hermes Kanban Readability
Reapplies two customizations to the Hermes Kanban dashboard plugin and installs
them as a user-override so they survive hermes update / git pull of the
bundled hermes-agent checkout.
The customizations
- Clickable bare URLs — the card-description markdown renderer
(
renderInline in dist/index.js) only linkified [text](url) syntax, so
GitHub-synced lines like Source: https://github.com/.../2802 stayed plain
text. The patched renderInline autolinks bare http(s):// URLs (stashing
any markdown links first so they aren't double-wrapped; trailing sentence
punctuation is kept outside the anchor).
- Readable card-text font — card titles/meta inherit
Mondwest (a Hermes
branding display face) at ~12.75px, which reads poorly for dense body text.
A CSS override pins the readable system-ui sans stack (the same face the
column headers already use) and bumps sizes: title → 0.95rem, meta → 0.8rem,
id → 0.7rem.
- Board overflow / scrollbar — the columns row lays the columns left-to-right
at a fixed width (wider than most screens) but the bundled CSS hides the
scrollbar, so off-screen columns are unreachable. The override restores a
visible horizontal scrollbar and bounds column height so that scrollbar
stays inside the viewport (
calc(100vh - 290px); tune if a layout starts
lower). All columns become reachable on smaller screens (e.g. ace-linux-2).
Why a user-override instead of editing the bundled plugin
The bundled plugin lives at <hermes-agent-repo>/plugins/kanban/dashboard/,
inside the git checkout — dist/index.js and dist/style.css are git-tracked
source (no build step), so any in-place edit is reverted on the next
git pull / hermes update.
Dashboard-plugin discovery (hermes_cli/web_server.py::_discover_dashboard_plugins)
scans, in order: user ~/.hermes/plugins/<name>/dashboard/ → bundled
memory/ → bundled <repo>/plugins/. It dedups by manifest name, first
match wins, so a user copy named kanban shadows the bundled one — and
~/.hermes/plugins/ is outside the repo where git pull can't touch it.
How to run
.claude/skills/devops/hermes-kanban-readability/install.sh
Idempotent and self-locating. Honors HERMES_HOME, HERMES_AGENT_REPO, and
HERMES_BUNDLED_PLUGINS env overrides (defaults: $HOME/.hermes,
$HERMES_HOME/hermes-agent, $REPO/plugins). After it runs, hard-refresh the
Kanban tab (Ctrl+Shift+R). Re-run after every hermes update.
Verify
Read-only check (run after install / bootstrap; safe anywhere):
bash .claude/skills/devops/hermes-kanban-readability/verify.sh
Exit 0 = PASS (or N/A on a non-Hermes machine — guard no-ops); exit 1 =
Hermes present but override missing/incorrect (then run install.sh).
On a machine with a live dashboard it also confirms the board is serving
kanban from the user override, not the bundled plugin.
Recovery / drift handling
- The installer always rebuilds the override from the current bundled plugin,
then re-applies both customizations — so it picks up upstream kanban changes
while keeping these two fixes layered on top.
- The CSS fix is append-based (later rules win on source order), so it's
robust across upstream restyles.
- The JS fix does a literal find-replace of the original
renderInline block.
If upstream changes that function, the installer prints a WARNING and
leaves JS unpatched (rather than silently failing). Re-derive the patched
function then — see patches/.
Files
| Path | Purpose |
|---|
install.sh | Idempotent installer / recovery entrypoint |
verify.sh | Read-only check: PASS/FAIL that the override is installed + correct (N/A on non-Hermes machines) |
patches/renderInline.original.js | Exact clean renderInline block to match (provenance: hermes-agent 2c6bbaf35) |
patches/renderInline.patched.js | Replacement block with bare-URL autolinking |
patches/style.append.css | CSS override appended to the copy's style.css |
kanban-readability.patch | Full original git diff (reference / provenance) |
Provenance
Captured against NousResearch/hermes-agent commit 2c6bbaf35 (2026-05-26).
Upstream-PR path (not taken here) would make the change durable via normal
pulls; the autolink fix is a clean bugfix candidate, the font swap is a local
preference that may conflict with Hermes's deliberate Mondwest branding.
