btw: ask a working Bot a side question without interrupting it or polluting its context #407

Activity

1. Notoonex commented on Oct 21, 2026

   

   Notoonex

   on Oct 21, 2026

   More actions

   👍 +1 confirming this issue with a critical multi-context user scenario:

   Real-world failure scenario: Single-chat long task disrupted by Group chat mention

   In addition to the user wanting to ask a quick side question in single chat, we encountered a severe workflow breakage in multi-session / group chat setups:

   1. The setup: A Bot is running an autonomous multi-step execution (e.g. running 5+ bash commands/code refactoring) in its private 1-on-1 chat.
   2. The trigger: While waiting, the user switches to a multi-bot Group Chat and mentions @Bot with a quick coordination task.
   3. The disruption: Because of the steer delivery path, the Bot interprets the incoming group task as a mid-turn course correction for the private chat, abandoning the uncompleted steps of the long task and jumping into the group topic.
   4. The consequence: The original long-running engineering task is permanently left half-done and cannot be resumed, causing significant user frustration.

   The proposed /btw side-channel mechanism in #407 is urgently needed. Furthermore, we strongly suggest:

   • Group chat deliveries should NEVER default to steering an in-flight private turn; cross-session events should either queue independently or isolate cleanly without hijacking a separate running session.
2. klarkxy

   added

   enhancementNew feature or requestNew feature or request

   P2Ordinary bug or featureOrdinary bug or feature

   on Oct 21, 2026
3. klarkxy commented on Oct 21, 2026

   

   klarkxy

   on Oct 21, 2026

   CollaboratorAuthor

   More actions

   Thanks @Notoonex — both the +1 and the scenario are appreciated. The cross-session case is deliberately out of scope for this issue: /btw here covers only the private chat, and group-chat behavior is explicitly excluded.

   What you describe — a group-chat @mention steering an in-flight private turn — would be a delivery-routing bug of its own: deliveries are session-scoped by design (deliver() targets an explicit Session, and steer only cuts into that same Session's running turn), so a group message should never reach the private turn. I've split it into #411 so it gets tracked on its own — could you add your DS Bot/DSH versions and what the private chat looked like afterwards over there?
4. bigbearcool

   added a commit that references this issue on Oct 23, 2026

   Add btw: a side question to a working Bot, leaving no trace in its co…

   ...

   96d0457
5. Fei2411

   closed this as completedin #460on Oct 23, 2026