Some embodiments provide loop detection and loop prevention mechanisms for messaging passing in between peers in a multi-tier hierarchy. In some embodiments, the messaging header is modified to track which peers have received a copy of the message. Each peer appends its identifier to the message header before passing the message to another peer. When selecting a receiving peer, the sending peer ensures that the receiving peer is not already identified in the message header. If the receiving peer has already received the message, then another peer from a next-peer list is selected to receive the message. If all peers in the next-peer have been traversed, the sending peer returns an error message via a reverse traversal of the peers in the message header.