Dispatcher FAQ: reading the board during a storm

Common dispatcher questions

A vehicle shows "silent." What do I do?

Silent means no ping for 5+ minutes while the machine may still be holding a stop. Check the alert — often it's a brief signal drop and the operator is fine. If it stays silent, the self-healing job releases the claimed stop back to the swarm automatically, so the work won't be stuck even if you don't act.

I have a stranded stop. How do I clear it?

A stranded stop has no live vehicle able to reach it. You have two levers: bring another machine online in that area, or, if there's a nearby vehicle you can spare, reserve the stop for it. The alert exists specifically so you catch this before the property is missed.

Can I override the swarm for a VIP property?

Yes — reserve the stop for the machine you want, and tick "Next" if it has to be cleared right away. It's held for that vehicle and the rest of the fleet keeps running on autopilot. See "Reserve a stop for a machine."

A property got re-buried by the road plow. Do I re-send someone?

If the operator marked it "cleared with issues," Snowmass schedules an automatic recheck after a cooldown — you don't have to do anything. For any other reason, reopen the stop and it returns to the swarm.

An operator's tablet died. Are they locked out?

No. They open the run on a new device and it takes over automatically — newest device wins, old one goes read-only. See "Device handoff."

Why is progress not moving in one area?

Check liveness and the map. Usually it's a paused or silent machine, or a region with thin coverage on the choropleth — all of which the board shows you at a glance.