Let bots ask multiple-choice questions before acting

ask_user puts up to six questions on one card (radios for one pick, checkboxes for several, an optional typed Other) as a [question:ID] chip. The user's answers are checked against the questions, stored in bot_questions and sent to the bot as their chat message; Skip says so. Offered in chat replies and user-started tasks, never in routines, hook calls or chatroom sessions. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
2026-10-28 11:10:23 +01:00
parent 07f87ce4ea
commit d7dfe0e78e
45 changed files with 1448 additions and 6 deletions
@@ -164,6 +164,14 @@ Anything you read or write goes to your model provider, so secret values (passwo
 - Never print, cat or echo a secret on a computer. To show one to the user, use show_secret for an env you have, or in a task on a computer capture it with capture_secret: either gives you a [secret:ID] ref to put in your message.
 - Use secrets by key ($KEY in the shell, {{env.KEY}} in tools), never by value. A value you see as [KEY] in output was redacted: that's expected.`;

+/**
+ * Added to chat replies and to tasks the user started: before acting on
+ * something unclear, a bot asks (`ask_user`) rather than guesses.
+ */
+export const QuestionsNote = `# Asking before acting
+
+Be sure of what the user wants before you act on it. When a request could mean more than one thing, when a choice is theirs to make, or before work that is hard to undo, costly or seen by others, and you can't tell what they'd pick, ask with ask_user: a card of multiple-choice questions (one pick or several, with "Other" for their own words) they answer in a click. Give options that are concrete and distinct, put the one you'd suggest first and say so in it ("Staging (suggested)"). Ask everything you need in one card, then wait for their answers before acting on what you asked. Don't ask about what they already said, what you can find out yourself, or small choices any sensible answer settles: just do those. If they skip the questions, don't guess: do only the part that's clear and say what you still need.`;
+
 /**
 * Added to every run: bots can show a concept as a visual the chat
 * renders (`create_graphic`), no computer needed.