Hermes Kanban board for native multi-agent task orchestration with parent-child dependencies. Setup, profile routing for token efficiency, parallel execution, and the auth token sync gotcha that breaks multi-profile orchestration.

Watch on YouTube

Setup

hermes kanban init
hermes dashboard

Update Hermes skills to latest version first: run /update in your Hermes session. The Kanban tab appears in the dashboard after init.

How It Works

Tell Hermes to use the Kanban board for any complex task. It:

1. Creates a parent task card with the overall goal
2. Decomposes into subtask cards with dependency relationships
3. Assigns each card to a profile (writer, designer, researcher, coder)
4. Profiles process cards sequentially unless parallel is specified
5. Dependent tasks wait for prerequisites before starting

Example: "Create a research brief and X image for this topic. Use the Kanban board and assign appropriate agents."

Result:

• Parent card: overall goal
• Card 1 (writer): research brief - must complete first
• Card 2 (designer): X image - blocked until Card 1 done

Profile Routing for Token Efficiency

Different profiles can use different models and providers. Key principle: do not burn a frontier model on tasks where a smaller model suffices.

• Image generation profile: configured with a cheaper image API (not the primary LLM)
• Writing profile: your primary model
• Research profile: may use a different provider

This is the primary token efficiency lever in Kanban: right model for right task.

Parallel Execution

Specify parallel tasks explicitly: "Do the image and the LinkedIn post in parallel." Hermes queues sub-agents for those cards simultaneously. Default behavior is sequential.

For tasks with no dependency between them, always specify parallel to reduce total execution time.

Auth Token Sync Gotcha

When using multiple profiles, authentication tokens must be present in ALL profiles, not just the main one. If you change or rotate credentials, update each profile individually.

Failure mode: Orchestrator creates cards, delegates to profiles, profile API calls fail silently due to stale tokens. The task shows as in-progress but nothing happens.

Fix: Manually copy the new auth token to each profile's credentials.

Kanban vs GitHub Issues

Factor	Hermes Kanban	GitHub Issues (Ralph Loop)
External dependency	None	Requires GitHub repo
Best for	Non-code tasks, content, design	Code tasks with PRs
Audit trail	Local dashboard	GitHub history
Dependency model	Parent-child cards	Issue blocking relationships

Use Kanban for tasks that are multi-step with sequential dependencies and do not involve code PRs. Use GitHub issues (Ralph Loop) for production code builds where PR review is part of the workflow.

Practical Guidance

Kanban is most powerful for content production workflows:

• Research -> outline -> draft -> image -> social posts

All steps can be tracked, each assigned to the right profile, with dependencies enforced automatically. Tell Hermes: "Use the Kanban board for any complex tasks. If it's three or more steps, put it on the board."