Ask a Question and Wait for the Answer
Stops the run on what the agent cannot decide, puts it to you as one batch of questions, and carries on with your answers.
Overview
An agent that guesses hands you a document to check line by line. This is the other option: where the run cannot take the next step on its own, it asks, and stops there until you answer.
Everything it is blocked on goes into one batch, so you answer in one sitting instead of being asked again every few minutes. The answers go back to the run that asked them, which carries on rather than starting over.
What It Does
| Capability | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| One batch, one sitting | Every question the agent is blocked on arrives together, up to four of them |
| Answers it can use | Each question offers between one and three answers, plus free text where the options cannot cover it |
| An option can be a document | An option that is answered by uploading a file is marked as one, and the upload lands in the run that asked |
| What you type is data | An answer in your own words, rather than one of the options, goes into the fill as data |
| The run picks up where it stopped | Your answers reach the run that asked, under its own number, so it carries on towards the same document |
| Every option has to be an answer | The agent is told to read each option as if you had already picked it and to drop any that leaves it holding a promise, and the English wording of that promise is struck out on the way to you |
When the Agent Chooses This Tool
Available in the Fill Any Form workflow. The appraisal-report, pre-bid and coating QA workflows do not have it.
The instructions send the agent here whenever it cannot take a step with confidence, and name three cases outright: it cannot tell which file is the form, no file looks like a form at all, or there is nothing to fill from.
- Everything it is blocked on goes in one call. A second call is only for a question whose wording depends on another's answer.
- Every option has to move the run forward. An option that leaves the agent unable to carry on is not offered.
- When what is missing is the data itself, one option hands over a document and free text is open for the details.
Inputs and Outputs
Takes: up to four questions, each with one to three options, whether free text is allowed, which options are answered with a file, and whether another round is likely.
Returns: the questions as recorded, which is where the run stops.
Example
You attach two PDFs and write "fill this out". Both of them look like forms.
The agent stops and asks which one to fill, offering the two filenames as the answers. You pick one, and the run carries on from there and fills that form.
Limits
- Four questions in a batch, ten in a run. Past either, the call is refused rather than trimmed.
- One batch at a time. With questions already waiting, the agent cannot ask a second set.
- The answer has to be one the question allows. Anything outside the options is refused unless the question allowed free text.
- An option answered by a document needs the document. Picking it with nothing uploaded is refused.
- A batch answered in parts leaves the run waiting. It resumes when the last question of the batch has an answer.
FAQ
Can I answer some of the questions now and the rest later?
You can, and the run waits. It carries on only when nothing in the batch is left unanswered.
What if none of the answers offered fits?
Write your own, where the question allows it. The agent is told to allow free text whenever the options cannot cover every answer, and a question left with no usable option accepts free text on its own.
Can I answer by uploading a document?
Yes, where the option says so. The file is attached against that question and reaches the run that asked, rather than waiting for a new run.