Stop vs disconnect - why canceling AI streaming is harder than it looks

What this post added

This post details the challenges of implementing a reliable 'stop' functionality in AI streaming applications using HTTP streaming, contrasting it with the capabilities of Ably AI Transport. It explains that HTTP streaming's one-way nature makes distinguishing intentional stops from network drops difficult, requiring dedicated stop endpoints with idempotency checks and backend-specific cancellation logic. Ably AI Transport, built on a bidirectional session model, offers a native 'cancel' signal, simplifying this process and eliminating the need for complex stop endpoint implementations. It provides server-side code examples for cancellation using Ably's abortSignal and discusses the trade-offs between HTTP streaming stop endpoints and Ably's session-based cancellation.