Switch Node

Move OctoMY™ from one Node Personality to another without changing your Sentient. Faster than a full Sentient switch — the active Sentient hive stays mounted; only the Node layer is swapped.

When to use this

• You own several Agents and want to operate a different one (workshop bot ↔ garden bot)
• You created a new Agent and want to switch from your Remote to operate it
• You want to try a sandbox Node without losing your current Node's state
• You're testing pairing or hardware against a specific Node

For the conceptual background, see Identity Switching. To change which Sentient is active, see Switch Sentient — that's a different (heavier) flow.

Prerequisites

• An active Sentient — if you haven't selected one yet, do Switch Sentient first
• At least one Node Personality owned by the active Sentient, or the intention to create one
• No critical unsaved work in the activity bound to the current Node

Step 1: Reach NodeSelectionActivity via the Lanyard

The Lanyard sits in the top-right corner. Its Node chip (the right-most identity chip, blue identity colour) shows the active Node Personality with its identicon and display name.

Click the Node chip — the click handler navigates to NodeSelectionActivity directly. The lanyard no longer carries a separate caret / dropdown arrow; hive switching now lives inside SentientLobbyActivity (reachable from the sentient chip).

Step 2: Open NodeSelectionActivity directly (alternative)

You can also reach the activity through OPAL — the node.list task family registered in RegisterSentientTasks exposes the same surface.

Step 3: Pick from NodeSelectionActivity

The activity is headed "Select Node Identity" with the explanation "Each node is an independent identity for communicating with other devices." It shows an EntitySelectionList — one row per Node Personality owned by the active Sentient.

Each row carries the Node's display name and metadata about its type and recent activity. Tap a row to select that Node — there is no separate Select button; the row tap is the action.

If you want to create a new Node, the list has an action labelled "Create new node…" at the bottom; tapping it launches the delivery wizard for a fresh Node Personality.

Deleting a Node is a separate flow — not part of NodeSelectionActivity. Look for the per-Node management surface inside the Node's own settings activities.

Step 4: Let the switch run

A Node switch is the cheaper of the two switch flows. The active Sentient stays mounted; only the Node layer changes. You'll see a spinner for:

1. Save of any pending writes on the outgoing Node
2. Unmount of the previous Node hive
3. Mount of the new Node hive
4. Reconfigure — UI widgets refresh, Comms reattaches under the new Node identity, discovery reconnects
5. Unfreeze

Typical switch time: well under a second for a previously-mounted Node.

Step 5: Verify

When the spinner disappears:

• The Lanyard shows the new Node's identicon and personality name (the Sentient half is unchanged)
• Any activity that was bound to the previous Node has been closed; you land on the new Node's home activity
• Discovery may take a moment to re-announce under the new Node identity — peers will see you as the new Node

Switching to "no Node"

You don't have to have a Node selected to operate as a Sentient. To deselect without picking a different Node:

1. Open Node Selection
2. Click the None entry at the top of the list (or Deselect Node action)
3. The switch runs the same way; afterwards the Lanyard shows "No Node selected"

Useful when you want to manage Sentient-level things (contacts, profile, sharing) without a Node's UI getting in the way.

If something blocks the switch

The same two pause causes as a Sentient switch:

A Node-switch failure during Mount rolls back to the previous Node automatically. The Sentient is never affected.

Troubleshooting

The Lanyard's Node half is greyed out. No Sentient is active — switch to one first.

My Node isn't in the list. It belongs to a different Sentient. Switch Sentient first (the Switch Sentient guide), then come back here.

I see "No Node" but I just created one. The delivery wizard may still be running for that Node. Wait for it to finish; the new entry appears in the list once the Node has been born.

Switching to a Node doesn't reach my paired Remote. The Remote was paired to a different Node identity. Re-discovery is needed under the new Node — wait a few seconds, or trigger Discovery from Settings. Trust is per-NID, so you may need to re-confirm trust with the Remote.

Related