⚠️ Discussion: Preventing Cross-Talk and Chaos with /ai Commands in Shared Mesh Networks

[mr-tbot]

⚠️ Discussion: Preventing Cross-Talk and Chaos with /ai Commands in Shared Mesh Networks
As the adoption of MESH-AI continues to grow, a critical scalability issue has emerged when multiple nodes are running MESH-AI within the same mesh or MQTT network.

🔁 The Problem: Multi-Node Response Chaos
Right now, any node running MESH-AI that hears an /ai command will respond, whether it’s local, long-range (longfast), or over MQTT. This creates a major problem in shared or large-scale environments:

Multiple bots reply at once.

Bandwidth is wasted.

Mesh traffic floods.

Users receive overlapping or conflicting responses.

This behavior is fine in isolated test setups, but becomes unmanageable in:

Urban or public meshes.

Emergency deployments.

Global bridges via MQTT.

🤖 AI-to-AI Messaging Loop Warning
A more dangerous issue occurs when a message generated by one AI-enabled node is received by another AI-enabled node.

If the message itself contains something the second node interprets as an /ai command or input, it responds. If that response is received by the original node, the cycle continues—creating an infinite AI loop.

This can result in:
Continuous, self-sustaining chatter between two nodes.

Rapid battery drain or device lockups.

Channel flooding that renders the mesh unusable.

A feedback loop that can persist even after rebooting the devices.

Currently, the only way to stop this behavior is to physically disconnect at least one node.

⚠️ Please do not send MESH-AI messages from one bot to another. This issue is actively being investigated, but it is tricky to mitigate fully in a decentralized network.

🧪 Current Mitigations Being Explored
To help reduce accidental cross-talk and chaos, I am experimenting with:

✅ A config toggle to disable longfast responses for AI commands.

🛑 Optionally disabling longfast entirely for MESH-AI to preserve bandwidth and prevent command duplication.

🔧 Allowing users to customize the /ai command string per node.

🎲 Auto-generating unique suffixes or identifiers for the /ai command on first setup (e.g., /ai-TB42).

💡 Additional Fixes Under Consideration
To address future scalability and robustness, here are some ideas I’m exploring:

Command UUID Tagging – Assign each /ai request a unique hash so nodes ignore duplicates or foreign requests.

Addressed Commands – Require formatting like /ai TBOT: so only named nodes respond.

Designated AI Nodes – Allow networks to define one AI responder per channel or group.

Cooldown or Rate-Limiting Logic – Prevent repeated /ai responses within a short time window.

MQTT Scoped Routing – Ensure only one MQTT-connected node responds per command, avoiding echo storms.

📍 Summary and Next Steps
These are critical challenges for MESH-AI as it scales, particularly in large, bridged, or emergency-ready networks. While fun in isolated environments, AI-to-AI loops and uncontrolled command floods could cripple real-world deployments.

I am aware of these risks and am actively working on fixes to prevent:

Unintended AI loops,

Multi-node response storms,

And mesh saturation in future builds.

💬 Community Input Welcome
Have suggestions, workarounds, or experience with decentralized bot architectures?

Join the discussion! Let’s build MESH-AI into a smarter, safer, and more scalable platform — together.

— TBOT 🛰️
Developer of MESH-AI

[Soupbones]

Don't run it on Longfast. This is a public channel, and its common courtesy not to shout over everyone in public places, let alone have AI do it. Make the bot Direct Message access only. I would have thought running Ai bots on Longfast would be frowned upon in most areas.