Public Share

Who this is for: Anyone considering Public Share, in either direction
You need: Nothing — read this before turning it on
Time: 10 minutes

This page is the full disclosure behind the consent message you saw when enabling Public Share. Each point below states what happens — and why.

Public Share is off by default and strictly opt-in. When you turn it on, you can run AI work on other Waired users’ spare computers (“public nodes”), and other Waired users can run work on yours. The people using your node are guests; you appear to each other only under an automatically assigned nickname. To use public nodes you must also share one of yours — see Why you must share to use.

What the other side can and cannot see

The owner could see what you send

The owner of a public node could read what you send to it. Your request is processed in plain form in that computer’s memory, and its owner fully controls that computer. The Waired client is open source (Apache-2.0) and modifiable — so not logging your requests is our policy and the official app’s default behavior, not a technical guarantee. The official app does not write your prompts or replies to logs or disk.

The consequence is simple: do not send secrets, passwords, personal data, or private code through public nodes.

Leftover traces fade on their own; nothing actively erases them

While a model runs, it keeps a short-term working memory of recent requests (a cache) to respond faster. On a public node that cache is overwritten by later requests and freed when the model is unloaded — but in this version, nothing actively erases it. Today’s model runtimes offer no way to erase one request selectively, and force-unloading the model to clear the cache would disrupt the owner’s own work.

Answers from public nodes are not verified

This version does not verify that a public node ran the model faithfully, or that it returned honest, full-quality output. Your controls: set a minimum quality tier (--min-tier), use explicit mode so public nodes are only used when you say so, and judge results yourself.

Your nickname is stable, so patterns can be linked

Each pair of accounts gets a fixed nickname — the other side never sees your name, email, or account. But because the nickname does not change, the same counterpart can recognize your usage pattern over time: when you tend to be active, and how much you use.

When your IP address is visible

The consent message says the other side “may” see your IP address. Here is exactly when. When your computer and the public node connect directly (see Architecture), each side can see the other’s public IP address, from which an approximate region and internet provider can be inferred. When traffic goes through a relay — used when a direct connection is not possible — the other side sees the relay’s address, not yours. Which one happens is automatic and depends on both networks, so you cannot count on either: treat your IP address as possibly visible whenever you use or share public nodes. (Relayed traffic stays end-to-end encrypted; the relay cannot read it.)

What Waired itself records

Waired records request counts, token counts, duration, and which model — kept under your nickname so both sides can see usage totals. Never what was asked or answered. As the web console puts it: “Waired never records what was asked or answered — only how many requests, how many tokens, and how long they took.” Prompts and replies never touch Waired’s servers (Privacy).

Public Share works only if people contribute. Using public nodes requires at least one of your computers to be shared publicly and online. The single consent button does both things at once: it records your consent and turns on sharing for the computer you enable it from. There is no ratio or quota — one shared computer qualifies your whole account.

Turning it on and off

Where	How
Web console (app.waired.ai)	The device page’s Public sharing card (on/off toggle + “Max guests at once”), and the Public share tab (usage by nickname, per-node “Stop sharing”).
CLI	`waired public share [--max-clients N]` to start, `waired public unshare` to stop.
Tray menu	The Public share menu.

Stopping is immediate — a kill switch. Turning sharing off cuts off any guest requests running at that moment and cancels every guest pass for that computer. You can turn it back on at any time.
Max guests is how many guests may use the computer at once. 0 means automatic, which keeps one slot free for you by default. You can raise it up to the computer’s full capacity — and whatever you set, your own work takes priority when the computer is busy: a guest never blocks you for long, and new guest work is paused while you are using it.
Turning public sharing on also makes the computer available to your own other machines.

Choosing when public nodes are used

waired public use (or Public share → Use public computers in the Waired app) controls when your requests may go to public nodes:

off (the default) — public nodes are never used.
auto — a public node is used only when its model is better than the best your own computers offer.
explicit — public nodes are allowed whenever they are eligible.

Extra controls (CLI): --min-tier N sets a quality floor; --main on|off and --sub on|off allow or deny public nodes per agent class — for example, keep your main assistant off public nodes while sub-agents may use them.

Your own computers — and, if you are on a team, your teammates’ — are always preferred over public nodes. Teammates’ shared computers are separate from Public Share: teammates see your real name, not a nickname, and no reciprocity is required.

Known limitations

The first request to a public node takes a few extra seconds to connect (cold start).
Owners come first: a public node can pause taking new guest work at any moment, without notice. Your request then falls back to other nodes or retries.
If an owner stops sharing while your request is running, the request fails and partial output is discarded.

Consent is recorded once, together with the version of the message you accepted. If the wording ever changes in a meaningful way, you will be asked again before public nodes are used. You can see usage under nicknames at any time in the web console’s Public share tab.