README.md

@@ -74,8 +74,15 @@ rejected.
     This is distinct from "responded with no records."
   - **NS recovery**: A previously-unreachable nameserver starts
     responding again.
-  - **Inconsistency detected**: Two nameservers that previously agreed
-    now return different record sets for the same hostname.
+  - **Inconsistency detected**: Two nameservers return different record
+    sets for the same hostname and did not already differ on the previous
+    check. Every pair of nameservers is compared. The alert is sent once
+    for each such pair, on the check where they start to disagree, and not
+    again while they keep disagreeing, including after a restart. A
+    nameserver that was not in the previous check (newly added, or back
+    after dropping out) and answers differently is reported on the check
+    where it appears. If a pair agrees again and later disagrees, the
+    alert is sent again.
 
 ### TCP Port Monitoring
 

TODO.md

@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ Rationale, Design, TODO, License, Author) if any are still missing.
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-09-28: the inconsistency alert is sent once, on the check where two
+  nameservers start to disagree or where a nameserver that disagrees first
+  appears, instead of on every check while they disagree, and not again after
+  a restart. Every pair of nameservers is compared, not only neighbours in
+  sorted order of name (closes #158).
 - 2026-09-28: DNS names in record values (CNAME, MX, SRV and NS targets) are
   lower-cased, so nameservers that answer in different letter case no longer
   count as inconsistent or as a record change (closes #157).

internal/watcher/export_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+package watcher
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"sneak.berlin/go/dnswatcher/internal/state"
+)
+
+// NewlyDisagreeingPairs exports newlyDisagreeingPairs for testing.
+func NewlyDisagreeingPairs(
+	prev *state.HostnameState,
+	current map[string]map[string][]string,
+) [][2]string {
+	return newlyDisagreeingPairs(prev, current)
+}
+
+// DetectHostnameChanges exports detectHostnameChanges for testing.
+func (w *Watcher) DetectHostnameChanges(
+	ctx context.Context,
+	hostname string,
+	prev *state.HostnameState,
+	current map[string]map[string][]string,
+) {
+	w.detectHostnameChanges(ctx, hostname, prev, current)
+}

internal/watcher/inconsistency_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,182 @@
+package watcher_test
+
+import (
+	"slices"
+	"testing"
+
+	"sneak.berlin/go/dnswatcher/internal/state"
+	"sneak.berlin/go/dnswatcher/internal/watcher"
+)
+
+const (
+	host = "www.example.net"
+	nsA  = "a.ns.example.net."
+	nsB  = "b.ns.example.net."
+	nsC  = "c.ns.example.net."
+	ip1  = "192.0.2.1"
+	ip2  = "192.0.2.2"
+	ip3  = "192.0.2.3"
+)
+
+// hostnameState builds the state a check with these records leaves behind.
+func hostnameState(
+	records map[string]map[string][]string,
+) *state.HostnameState {
+	hs := &state.HostnameState{
+		RecordsByNameserver: make(map[string]*state.NameserverRecordState),
+	}
+
+	for ns, recs := range records {
+		hs.RecordsByNameserver[ns] = &state.NameserverRecordState{
+			Records: recs,
+			Status:  "ok",
+		}
+	}
+
+	return hs
+}
+
+func TestNewlyDisagreeingPairs(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	onlyA := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}}
+	agree := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip1}}}
+	disagree := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip2}}}
+	alert := [][2]string{{nsA, nsB}}
+
+	// b already disagrees with a and c; then c changes, so a and c,
+	// which agreed, now differ.
+	bDiffers := map[string]map[string][]string{
+		nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip2}}, nsC: {"A": {ip1}},
+	}
+	cChanges := map[string]map[string][]string{
+		nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip2}}, nsC: {"A": {ip3}},
+	}
+
+	// Each case starts from the state loaded at startup and runs the
+	// checks in order; want[i] is what check i alerts for.
+	tests := []struct {
+		name   string
+		loaded map[string]map[string][]string
+		checks []map[string]map[string][]string
+		want   [][][2]string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement persisting across checks alerts once",
+			loaded: agree,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{disagree, disagree, disagree},
+			want:   [][][2]string{alert, nil, nil},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement starting on a later check alerts on it",
+			loaded: agree,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{agree, agree, disagree},
+			want:   [][][2]string{nil, nil, alert},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement in the loaded state does not alert",
+			loaded: disagree,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{disagree, disagree},
+			want:   [][][2]string{nil, nil},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "nameserver new on the first check and disagreeing alerts once",
+			loaded: onlyA,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{disagree, disagree},
+			want:   [][][2]string{alert, nil},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement after agreeing again alerts again",
+			loaded: agree,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{disagree, agree, disagree},
+			want:   [][][2]string{alert, nil, alert},
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "new disagreement while another nameserver differs alerts",
+			loaded: bDiffers,
+			checks: []map[string]map[string][]string{cChanges, cChanges},
+			want:   [][][2]string{{{nsA, nsC}}, nil},
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Parallel()
+
+			prev := hostnameState(tt.loaded)
+
+			for i, current := range tt.checks {
+				got := watcher.NewlyDisagreeingPairs(prev, current)
+				if !slices.Equal(got, tt.want[i]) {
+					t.Errorf(
+						"check %d: alerted for %v, want %v",
+						i, got, tt.want[i],
+					)
+				}
+
+				prev = hostnameState(current)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestInconsistencyAlert(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	onlyA := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}}
+	agree := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip1}}}
+	disagree := map[string]map[string][]string{nsA: {"A": {ip1}}, nsB: {"A": {ip2}}}
+
+	// Each case starts from the state loaded at startup and then sees
+	// the nameservers disagree on three checks in a row.
+	tests := []struct {
+		name   string
+		loaded map[string]map[string][]string
+		want   int
+	}{
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement lasting several checks alerts once",
+			loaded: agree,
+			want:   1,
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "disagreement in the loaded state does not alert",
+			loaded: disagree,
+			want:   0,
+		},
+		{
+			name:   "nameserver new on the first check and disagreeing alerts once",
+			loaded: onlyA,
+			want:   1,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Parallel()
+
+			// The hostname change detection uses only the notifier.
+			notifier := &mockNotifier{}
+			w := watcher.NewForTest(nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, notifier)
+
+			prev := hostnameState(tt.loaded)
+
+			for range 3 {
+				w.DetectHostnameChanges(t.Context(), host, prev, disagree)
+				prev = hostnameState(disagree)
+			}
+
+			got := 0
+
+			for _, n := range notifier.getNotifications() {
+				if n.Title == "Inconsistency: "+host {
+					got++
+				}
+			}
+
+			if got != tt.want {
+				t.Errorf("sent %d inconsistency alerts, want %d", got, tt.want)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}

internal/watcher/watcher.go

@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ func (w *Watcher) detectHostnameChanges(
 ) {
 	w.detectRecordChanges(ctx, hostname, prev, current)
 	w.detectNSDisappearances(ctx, hostname, prev, current)
-	w.detectInconsistencies(ctx, hostname, current)
+	w.detectInconsistencies(ctx, hostname, prev, current)
 }
 
 func (w *Watcher) detectRecordChanges(
@@ -448,22 +448,11 @@ func (w *Watcher) detectNSDisappearances(
 func (w *Watcher) detectInconsistencies(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	hostname string,
+	prev *state.HostnameState,
 	current map[string]map[string][]string,
 ) {
-	nameservers := make([]string, 0, len(current))
-	for ns := range current {
-		nameservers = append(nameservers, ns)
-	}
-
-	sort.Strings(nameservers)
-
-	for i := range len(nameservers) - 1 {
-		ns1 := nameservers[i]
-		ns2 := nameservers[i+1]
-
-		if recordsEqual(current[ns1], current[ns2]) {
-			continue
-		}
+	for _, pair := range newlyDisagreeingPairs(prev, current) {
+		ns1, ns2 := pair[0], pair[1]
 
 		msg := fmt.Sprintf(
 			"Hostname: %s\n%s: %v\n%s: %v",
@@ -481,6 +470,43 @@ func (w *Watcher) detectInconsistencies(
 	}
 }
 
+// newlyDisagreeingPairs returns every pair of nameservers whose records
+// differ in current, in sorted order of name, except pairs where both
+// nameservers were in prev and already differed there. A nameserver
+// missing from prev is paired with every nameserver it differs from.
+func newlyDisagreeingPairs(
+	prev *state.HostnameState,
+	current map[string]map[string][]string,
+) [][2]string {
+	nameservers := make([]string, 0, len(current))
+	for ns := range current {
+		nameservers = append(nameservers, ns)
+	}
+
+	sort.Strings(nameservers)
+
+	var pairs [][2]string
+
+	for i, ns1 := range nameservers {
+		for _, ns2 := range nameservers[i+1:] {
+			if recordsEqual(current[ns1], current[ns2]) {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			prev1, ok1 := prev.RecordsByNameserver[ns1]
+			prev2, ok2 := prev.RecordsByNameserver[ns2]
+
+			if ok1 && ok2 && !recordsEqual(prev1.Records, prev2.Records) {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			pairs = append(pairs, [2]string{ns1, ns2})
+		}
+	}
+
+	return pairs
+}
+
 func (w *Watcher) checkAllPorts(ctx context.Context) {
 	// Phase 1: Build current IP:port → hostname associations
 	// from fresh DNS data.