Two independent fixes that both blocked the "install → Run Now → see
the Site tab render" loop.
1. CronViewModel.runNow stopped blocking on `cron tick`. Previously
the UI waited up to 60 s on the tick before deciding whether the
job succeeded, so any agent run that did real work (an LLM call +
a few HTTP GETs + a file write = easily 90 s+) surfaced a false
"Run failed" toast while the job kept running in the background.
Dashboard updates landed minutes later, confusing the user.
New shape: show "Agent started — dashboard will update when it
finishes" the instant `cron run` queues the job, then call `cron
tick` with a 300 s timeout to force execution. Tick failures are
logged but don't overwrite the started-toast — HermesFileWatcher
picks up the dashboard.json rewrite automatically when the agent
finishes.
2. site-status-checker's webview widget pointed at
`github.com/awizemann/scarf/tree/main/templates/awizemann/...`.
The templates/ path only exists on project-sharing, not main, so
GitHub returned 404 in the Site tab until the first cron run
replaced the URL with the user's configured site. Switched the
placeholder to `awizemann.github.io/scarf/` which always renders.
Bundle + catalog rebuilt against the updated dashboard.json.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A Scarf project dashboard that includes at least one webview widget
automatically exposes a Site tab next to the Dashboard tab. Adding a
"Live Site Preview" section with a webview widget gives this template
that tab out of the box.
The cron job + AGENTS.md now tell the agent to rewrite the webview's
`url` field to the first entry in `values.sites` on each run, so the
Site tab renders whatever the user actually configured instead of the
GitHub placeholder. If `values.sites` is empty, the webview URL is
left untouched.
Swift example test updated to assert 4 sections (was 3) plus the new
webview widget's presence + title; bundle + catalog rebuilt.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Hermes doesn't set a working directory when firing cron jobs, so any
relative path in a template's cron prompt (`.scarf/config.json`,
`status-log.md`, etc.) resolves against whatever dir Hermes happens
to be in — NOT the installed project. Practical effect: site-status-
checker's cron job fires, agent runs with relative paths, finds
nothing to read, silently bails. User sees "Run now" complete with
zero output and nothing updated on disk.
Fix: the installer now substitutes template-author placeholders in
cron prompts at install time, before calling `hermes cron create`.
The registered cron job carries a fully-qualified, CWD-independent
prompt.
Supported tokens (deliberately few — each is part of the template
format contract from now on):
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}` — absolute path of the installed project dir.
The one that was motivating this fix; required for any cron prompt
that reads or writes project files.
- `{{TEMPLATE_ID}}` — the `owner/name` from the manifest, for
templates that want to tag delivery payloads or log lines.
- `{{TEMPLATE_SLUG}}` — the sanitised slug used by the installer for
dir name + skills namespace, for templates that want to reference
their skills install path.
Implemented as a static `ProjectTemplateInstaller.substituteCronTokens`
so it's testable as a pure function. Unsupported placeholders pass
through verbatim — template authors notice in testing that their
token didn't get replaced and either use a supported one or file
a request.
Site Status Checker v1.1.0 updated to use the tokens:
- cron/jobs.json prompt now opens with "Run the site status check
for the Scarf project at {{PROJECT_DIR}}" and references
{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.scarf/config.json, {{PROJECT_DIR}}/status-log.md,
and {{PROJECT_DIR}}/.scarf/dashboard.json explicitly.
- AGENTS.md gains a note explaining that the cron-registered prompt
carries absolute paths (installer substitutes at install time),
while interactive-chat agents can keep using relative paths.
- bundle rebuilt, catalog regenerated.
templates/CONTRIBUTING.md documents the three supported tokens under
the cron/jobs.json bullet so future authors don't have to discover
this by hitting the same CWD bug.
Tests:
- ProjectTemplateExampleTemplateTests.siteStatusCheckerParsesAndPlans
extended to assert the bundled prompt contains {{PROJECT_DIR}}
UNRESOLVED. If someone accidentally bakes an absolute path into
the template (their install dir), every user of that template
would get the wrong path — this test catches that.
- Four new substitution tests in ProjectTemplateInstallerTests:
resolves PROJECT_DIR / resolves ID + SLUG / leaves unknown tokens
untouched / substitutes repeated occurrences. All go through the
static helper directly; no install round-trip needed.
57/57 Swift tests + 24/24 Python tests pass. Catalog check clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The template's dashboard shipped with two hardcoded example URLs
(https://example.com + https://example.org) baked into a "Configured
Sites" list widget, and the widget title still said "from sites.txt"
— stale from the v1.0.0 layout before we moved to config.json.
After the v1.1.0 configure-on-install flow lands, the user fills in a
real sites list through the Configure form (which correctly lands in
`.scarf/config.json` — the editor modal confirms that), but the
dashboard still rendered the baked-in example URLs. The agent would
overwrite them on the first cron run, but until then the dashboard
misrepresents reality.
Two orthogonal paths to fix this — populate the dashboard's items
from config.json at install time (requires Scarf-side template-value
interpolation, which is a v2.3.1 feature), or ship a dashboard that
clearly advertises "nothing has run yet." Taking the second path for
v1.1.0: replace the example URLs with a single placeholder row with
status "pending" pointing the user at running the check. The agent
replaces the row with real data on the first cron run.
Also: widget title fixed ("Watched Sites (populated after first run)"
instead of the stale sites.txt reference), top-of-dashboard description
updated, and the Quick Start text now mentions the Configuration
button as the way to set sites, not the long-gone sites.txt.
Bundle + catalog rebuilt; ProjectTemplateExampleTemplateTests still
passes (it asserts against cron prompt + schema shape, not dashboard
content, so the dashboard edit doesn't affect it).
---
Secondary fix: test deflake from the saveRegistry throw change.
Making saveRegistry throw exposed a pre-existing parallel-test race:
three suites (ProjectTemplateInstallerTests,
ProjectTemplateUninstallerTests, ProjectTemplateConfigInstallTests)
all write to the real `~/.hermes/scarf/projects.json`. Swift Testing's
`.serialized` trait only serializes within a single suite — multiple
suites still run in parallel. Before, writes silently failed on the
racing-loser side and tests passed by accident; now the loser's test
throws "couldn't be saved in the folder 'scarf'".
Added TestRegistryLock — a module-level NSLock that all three suites'
snapshotRegistry/restoreRegistry helpers share. acquireAndSnapshot()
locks + reads; restore(_:) writes + unlocks. The paired
snapshot-in-test-body / defer-restore pattern keeps acquire + release
balanced. Replaced the three per-suite copies of the helpers with
thin delegates to the shared lock.
Verified by running the full test suite 3 consecutive times: 53/53
tests pass each run, no flakes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
First real exercise of the v2.3 configuration feature. The template no
longer asks the agent to bootstrap sites.txt on first run — instead,
users enter their list of URLs through the Configure form during
install, and change them later via the dashboard's Configuration
button. This makes the template a complete round-trip test of the
new feature end-to-end.
Schema (manifest.config.schema):
- `sites` — list<string>, required, 1–25 items, default two example
URLs. This is the list the cron job hits.
- `timeout_seconds` — number, 1–60, default 10. Per-URL HTTP timeout.
- `modelRecommendation.preferred = claude-haiku-4` — rationale: simple
tool-use task, Haiku is cost-effective for daily cron.
Manifest bumped: schemaVersion 1 → 2, version 1.0.0 → 1.1.0,
minScarfVersion 2.2.0 → 2.3.0, contents.config = 2.
AGENTS.md rewritten for the config-driven flow:
- Reads values from `.scarf/config.json` at run time (values.sites +
values.timeout_seconds). No more sites.txt bootstrap.
- "Add a site" / "Remove a site" no longer mean the agent edits a
file — they mean "open the Configuration button on the dashboard."
The agent points the user there rather than trying to mutate
config.json itself. A future Scarf release may expose a tool for
agents to write config programmatically; until then, config is
strictly a user action.
- First-run bootstrap now only creates status-log.md (if absent).
README.md rewritten to walk users through the new form-based flow,
explain the Configuration button, and document the model
recommendation. Uninstall instructions point at the right-click
Uninstall Template action rather than manual steps.
Cron prompt updated to reference config.json (values.sites,
values.timeout_seconds) instead of sites.txt.
ProjectTemplateExampleTemplateTests.siteStatusCheckerParsesAndPlans
extended with v2-specific assertions: manifest.schemaVersion == 2,
contents.config == 2, schema.fields.count == 2, per-field
constraints (sites type/itemType/minItems/maxItems, timeout
min/max), modelRecommendation.preferred, plan.configSchema +
plan.manifestCachePath are populated, plan.projectFiles includes
both config.json + manifest.json destinations. Cron-prompt assertion
swapped from sites.txt to config.json/values.sites.
Three suites that touch ~/.hermes/scarf/projects.json now carry
.serialized — the new Phase B install-with-config tests stressed the
parallel-execution race in the snapshot/restore helpers. Serializing
within each suite deflakes without any architectural change.
Swift 50/50, Python 24/24, catalog validator accepts the upgraded
bundle. Site detail page now has manifest.json for renderConfigSchema
to pick up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Set up the catalog directory structure this branch will fill with
community templates. The existing site-status-checker example moves
from examples/templates/ to templates/awizemann/site-status-checker/
(tracked by git as a rename so history is preserved). The examples/
directory is removed.
New top-level docs:
- templates/README.md — landing for folks browsing the catalog on
github.com. Lists the current templates and points at the live site.
- templates/CONTRIBUTING.md — author-facing submission walkthrough.
Requires AGENTS.md, pre-flight with tools/build-catalog.py --check
(added in the next commit), one template per PR, don't edit
catalog.json (maintainer regenerates it post-merge).
ProjectTemplateExampleTemplateTests.locateExample updated to search
templates/<author>/<name>/ instead of examples/templates/ — the test
still walks up from #filePath to find the repo root so it works in
both xcodebuild and Xcode IDE test runs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Alan Wizemann