--- name: asking-user-questions description: "Use when composing an ask_user_question round inside a workflow, or when a workflow skill names it at a question step. Shared norms for the tool — not a workflow, nothing to execute." ---

# Asking User Questions

The workflow family's shared norms for `ask_user_question`: how to compose rounds, shape options, and degrade when answers don't come. Process skills name this concept at the steps that ask; *when* to ask — and where the answers get recorded — stays with the referencing skill.

## Rounds, not chat turns

- One call = one **round**: up to 4 questions, 2–4 options each. Group everything the current step needs into a single round — never chain a second call straight after for a trivial follow-up. - **The call ends your turn.** The questionnaire is shown and your run stops; the answers arrive as the next user message (a structured "User has answered your questions:" message). Don't keep working on the blocked step after calling, and don't assume an answer until it arrives — whether that is seconds later or days later. - If the user replies with a free-form message instead of answering the card, that reply **supersedes** the round — treat it as their answer, and re-ask only what is still genuinely undecided. - Resolve the round, act on what you learned, and open a new round only when the answers raised a genuinely new question.

## Options

- Recommended option first, label suffixed "(Recommended)", plus a one-line `recommendedReason` saying why you recommend it over the alternatives (shown inline under the option as a `Why:` line). - Every option: a concise label (1–5 words, ≤ 60 chars) + a description carrying the trade-off or consequence of choosing it. Tailor options to the work at hand — never generic placeholders. - Options must be **decidable by the asked user**: frame them as observable behavior or outcomes ("collapsing a project stays collapsed after a rename"), never as implementation mechanics ("semantic guard", "activation ref"). If candidate options differ only internally — identical observable behavior — don't ask: decide yourself and record the reasoning in the workflow's artifact. - Never author your own "Other", free-text, or escape options — the tool adds a free-text row to every question and an always-available Skip, and reserved labels are rejected. This holds under `multiSelect` too: the free-text row stays and is *additive* — a typed answer arrives alongside the checked options, it does not replace them. - `multiSelect: true` when several answers are valid at once (feature checklists); single-select when confirming something or choosing one path. - `options[].preview` (markdown) when a concrete artifact — code, a config, a mockup — is clearer shown than described. Single-select only. - `header` is a short chip, ≤ 16 characters.

## Confirming an inference

When you have inferred something and need a yes/adjust rather than an open answer: the inferred statement *is* the question text, with "Looks right" as the first option (description: "accurate as written") and a genuine rejection option second (e.g. "Off base — ask me directly"). Edits arrive through the tool's automatic free-text row — do not author an edit option. Read the response as:

- **"Looks right"** → the inference holds; continue unchanged. - **Free-text tweak** (one fact changes) → update that field only; don't re-derive anything else. - **Substantial rewrite** → re-derive every inference that came from that statement before continuing. - **Rejection** → discard the inference entirely and ask an open-ended question instead.

## Degradation

- Skipped, declined, or unanswered questions are not blockers: proceed on best-guess assumptions, explicitly recorded as unconfirmed in the workflow's artifact (the referencing skill says where). - If the host reports no interactive UI (`ask_user_question` returns "not available"), state your assumptions the same way instead of blocking. - "I don't know / help me understand" is a mis-framing signal, not a missing-knowledge one: re-explain from user-visible behavior in plain language, then re-ask with behavior-framed options — don't repeat the same technical options with more detail.