Naming collision? :/

[enapt]

https://github.com/enapt/SwarmLLM

Project over a year old.

[Nehanth]

Hi, thanks for reaching out. I only just realised we share a name. It's a total coincidence: I picked it independently and hadn't come across your project. Yours was here first, and mine is a different thing under the hood (a browser-based WebGPU/WebRTC runtime, not a fork or derivative of your code).

My project got a lot of attention this month and I don't want that to cause confusion for your users. I'd like to keep the name, and I think both projects can coexist fine given how different they are.

If you'd rather talk it through, I'm happy to hop on a call and go over the options together. Either way, nice work on the project.

[enapt]

It's pretty lazy considering a simple Google search or even entering the same string on Github would have shown it. Basic due diligence.

My project is over a year old with thousands of commits -- now you posted your project with 1 release all over reddit/linkedin etc, diluting the namespace completely.

I'd prefer you find a new name of your system, its already causing confusion for my users given I have people asking in our discord if they are related somehow. They aren't vastly different. My project covers what yours does without any browsers and at much higher scale and performance.

[Nehanth]

Hey, just did a web search on this and the name turns out to be common in the space. swarmllm.com was registered by someone else in June 2025, months before either of our repos. There's a research repo called swarm_llm on GitHub from December 2025, which became the SWARM-LLM paper on arXiv this April. And there are other unrelated repos using the name, like jpm0112/swarmLLM and 128zh/SwarmLLM-Bench. So neither of us was first to it, and I'd like to keep the name.

To reduce the mix-up on GitHub, I'm planning to move the repo under a new org with a different name in the coming months, so it won't sit at swarmllm/swarmllm. And if anyone shows up in your Discord asking about mine, point them at me and I'll do the same in reverse.

[enapt]

Those repos share the namespace only, not functionality. You basically re-used my projects tagline but added phone based.

[Nehanth]

I understand the frustration, so let me lay out the dates and the differences rather than argue about it.

On the tagline: the two don't share any wording. Mine has been in the README since September 4: e3b5dcb
The current version of yours dates from September 23: enapt/SwarmLLM@58ce073
I'm not suggesting anything by that, just that neither was written with the other in view. I also looked at your earlier taglines, and none of them share any wording with mine either: "the network IS your GPU" from February 24 (enapt/SwarmLLM@53bd093), "Join the swarm" from March 7 (enapt/SwarmLLM@15f867b), and "Run AI together" from March 9 (enapt/SwarmLLM@e9ba86d).

On the idea: I've been working on peer-to-peer split inference since before your repo existed. https://github.com/Nehanth/llm_p2p is from July 2025, layer-wise sharding of a model across machines. Here's the commit from July 3, 2025: Nehanth/llm_p2p@d19300f
SwarmLLM is that idea moved into the browser on WebGPU and WebRTC. It wasn't derived from your project, and I wouldn't claim yours was derived from mine. We both landed on an idea that's been around since Petals.

On functionality, since you said they aren't vastly different. They share the pipeline-parallel idea and not much else:

• Runtime: mine is a from-scratch WebGPU engine in WGSL, running in a browser tab. Yours is a native Rust binary on Candle.
• Networking: mine is WebRTC between browsers in a room. Yours is libp2p with a public swarm and BitTorrent-style sharing of model parts.
• Install: mine has none, you open a URL. Yours is a downloaded binary.
• Devices: mine runs on phones. Yours targets desktops and servers.

Neither list is a criticism of the other. They're different tools for different situations, which is why I think a pointer between them solves the confusion without a rename.

On the name: I'm going to move the repo under a new org with a different name in the coming months, so it won't sit at swarmllm/swarmllm. If anyone asks me about your project anywhere, in my issues, on social, or in person, I'll point them to enapt/SwarmLLM, and I'd ask the same in reverse. I'll also make my repo description clear about what mine is, so search results tell us apart. Beyond that, I'm happy to work out a compromise if there's something concrete that would help your users. I'd rather find that than keep going back and forth. Good luck with the project.

[Nehanth]

@enapt one more thing I'm going to do: I'll add a short note at the end of my README saying this project is independent and not affiliated with enapt/SwarmLLM or the other projects using the name, with a link to yours. If you'd like to add the same on your side pointing here, that would help anyone who lands on the wrong one find the right one in a scroll. Totally fine if you'd rather not.

[Nehanth]

Done on my side: #61, with a couple of follow-up edits on main. The note is now at the end of the README, just above the license, with a one-line description of each project and a link to yours: https://github.com/Nehanth/swarmllm#name

Does this look good to you, @enapt?

[enapt]

Thanks for the dates. They leave something out, though.

You compared your Sept 3 tagline with the current version of my README from September 23. That was a rewrite for non-technical users. The README before it had been up since May 5, and it had the wording worth comparing:

| Mine (README, May 5 → Sept 23) | Yours (swarmllm.ai description, Aug 31 → now) |
| Pool hardware with other nodes | Pool your phone, laptop, and friends' devices into one room |
| to run 70B+ parameter models | and run AI models |
| on machines that couldn't host them alone | none of them could hold alone |

• Mine, May 5: https://github.com/enapt/SwarmLLM/blob/ada4a5f610668e04542b324a160596e0ffc1210b/README.md?plain=1#L9
• My docs homepage, also May 5, phones included ("your phone with 2 GB of RAM can host a few shards of a 70B model"): https://github.com/enapt/SwarmLLM/blob/ea6eb422001d551d4848e769f0ad5bcbb8d8d322/docs/book/src/introduction.md?plain=1#L11
• Yours, first commit, Aug 31: https://github.com/Nehanth/swarmllm/blob/167465d907b7dd59bf10f158ad6e031da484f470/index.html#L9

To be clear, I'm not saying you copied code. I've compared both histories, and the implementations are separate. My point is that the name and the pitch were both public here months before your first commit.

On "I hadn't come across your project": swarmllm.ai was registered on Aug 29. Your master plan on Sept 1 describes landscape research that covered "P2P history". Searching GitHub for "swarmllm" at any point since April would have returned this repo first. It had public releases from April 22 and forks from July. One search for the name before launch would have caught this.

That same plan describes a same-day launch across HN, r/LocalLLaMA and X/LinkedIn "to the 220k-impression audience". That's why the namespace was taken over within weeks, and why my users are now asking whether the two projects are related.

Moving the repo to a new org doesn't fix that, because it keeps the name. Since you're already planning the move, that's the cheapest point to pick a new name, before more links, posts and packages build up under this one. I'd ask you to do that.

[Nehanth]

Fair points. I compared against the wrong README, that's on me. A lot of the landscape research and early build was agent-driven and I didn't check the name against your repo myself, which is exactly the kind of thing that slips through.

Thanks for going through both histories and saying plainly that the implementations are separate. That matters to me more than the name does.

On the name: I've thought about it and I think the rename is fair. There's one thing I'd like to talk through with you first, and Discord is easier for that than this thread, so I've joined your server and will reach out there. We'll see where that lands, but if you still want the rename after we talk, I'll do it within three weeks, redirect swarmllm.ai so existing links don't break, and post the rename on the same channels I launched on, noting that "SwarmLLM" is a common name in this space and pointing to enapt/SwarmLLM, the SWARM-LLM paper, and the other projects that share it. I'll update this thread when it's done.

[Nehanth]

As we discussed in the general channel of your Discord (https://discord.gg/hHevBNTnj): I'll have the project fully renamed and moved to a new repo by October 11. Old GitHub URLs will redirect to the new one. swarmllm.ai will stay as a plain redirect to the new domain so existing links don't break, no content or branding on it. The README note about the rename is up now, and there's a discussion open for the community to suggest names: #62. I'll post on socials twice: one post before October 11 announcing the rebrand, sharing current progress, and asking for name suggestions, and another once the rename is done with the new name. Existing social posts and links will stay as they are.

@enapt, if this plan works for you, could you reply here to confirm so it's on the record?

[enapt]

Much appreciated, thank you.

[Nehanth]

Update for @enapt: the rename is fully done, ahead of the October 11 date.

• The project is now Pooled, at pooled.run. The repo is Nehanth/pooled, and github.com/Nehanth/swarmllm redirects there.
• swarmllm.ai and www.swarmllm.ai are plain redirects to pooled.run, with no content or branding on them.
• The SwarmLLM name is gone from the app, the site, the README and the package. v1.0.0 shipped as Pooled today: https://github.com/Nehanth/pooled/releases/tag/v1.0.0

Thanks again for raising it, and for being patient while it happened. Closing this as resolved.