FAQ: What happens if a tractor loses signal or goes offline?

Short answer

Nothing gets lost, and nothing gets stuck for long. Snowmass is built to expect dropouts.

While the machine is offline

The operator's tablet keeps working. It buffers GPS positions locally (up to hundreds of pings) and syncs them the moment the connection returns, so the track fills back in with no gaps.

The honest limit: while offline, a tractor can keep logging position but can't claim a new property, because the claim decision is made on the server. Claiming resumes automatically the instant the device reconnects.

If the silence lasts

A brief dropout — a parking garage, a dead zone — is normal and the swarm simply holds the machine's current claim. But if a tractor stays silent for 5+ minutes and its claim's time-to-live has expired, self-healing kicks in: the engine releases that claim so a healthy machine can take the work, rather than letting a property sit behind a dark tractor.

What the dispatcher sees

The live ops dashboard grades fleet liveness — online, at-risk (quiet ~2 min), silent (~5 min), paused, offline — so a dispatcher sees a machine going quiet in seconds, well before it becomes a coverage problem. If it's a real breakdown, they can recall it and its work flows straight back to the swarm.

See Self-healing for the full recovery flow.