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[ux] interactive ask tool or similar widget if available #1924
Description
ohmypi natively includes a multi-select w/ an optional text input. pi has similar plugins. I assume other agents provide similar functionality? it'd be nice if the skills used it when the agent has one, and fell back to asking in plain text when it doesn't.
Two reasons I'd like it: a picker is faster to answer than typing, and the answer comes back as the labels I picked instead of prose, so there's less to re-interpret. The workflow skills already ask one focused question at a time and explain what it unlocks (e.g. src/core/templates/workflows/explore.ts line 19, "Keep questions focused"), which is the text-only version of the same thing.
I checked what each tool in docs/supported-tools.md calls this, and whether it can multi-select or take a typed answer:
| OpenSpec tool | Ask tool name | Multi-select | Typed answer |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Code (claude) |
AskUserQuestion |
yes | yes, adds its own "Other" |
Gemini CLI (gemini) |
ask_user |
yes | yes |
Qwen Code (qwen) |
ask_user_question |
yes | yes, adds its own "Other" |
opencode (opencode) |
question |
yes | yes, adds its own "Type your own answer" |
Oh My Pi (oh-my-pi) |
ask |
yes | yes, adds its own "Other (type your own)" |
Cursor (cursor) |
AskQuestion |
not documented | not documented |
Codex (codex) |
request_user_input |
no | yes, custom option |
GitHub Copilot (github-copilot) |
AskQuestions in VS Code, ask_user in the CLI |
yes in VS Code, no in the CLI | yes |
Cline (cline) |
ask_question (was ask_followup_question) |
no | yes |
Pi (pi) |
none built in, a plugin adds ask_user |
yes via plugin | yes via plugin |
Sources: Claude Code docs, Gemini CLI docs, Qwen Code source, opencode source, oh-my-pi docs, Cursor forum thread, Codex source, VS Code Copilot PR, Copilot CLI docs, Cline docs.
The names are all over the place (AskUserQuestion, ask_user, ask_user_question, question, ask, AskQuestion, request_user_input, AskQuestions), and only some of them do multi-select. That's probably why skills just ask in plain text today.
A few caveats I noticed while checking: Cursor's and Codex's only work in plan mode, VS Code Copilot's is experimental and off by default, and the Copilot CLI one is single-select only.
I have not checked the other tools in docs/supported-tools.md, and I could not find one documented at all for Amp or Antigravity CLI.
Activity
texastoland commentedon Sep 21, 2026
addendum: the same argument applies to the built-in todo / plan tools, not just the ask tool.
proposealready tells the agent to "Use a todo list to track progress through the artifacts" (src/core/templates/workflows/propose.ts line 118), but it does not name a tool, so what you actually see depends on the harness: whichever tool the agent happens to reach for, or a prose checklist when it has none. Same fragmentation as the ask tool:TodoWriteTaskCreate/TaskGet/TaskUpdate/TaskList, and both sets exist only on some modelswrite_todostodo_writetools.todoWrite.enabled)todowritetodoupdate_planmanage_todo_listSources: Claude Code todo tracking, Claude Code tools reference, Gemini CLI todo docs, Qwen Code todo_write docs, opencode tools docs, oh-my-pi README, VS Code manage_todo_list issue, Cline plan and act docs. I could not verify Codex's or Cursor's from first-party docs.
The fallback is cheap here in a way the ask tool is not: a plain-text checklist already works and is what the skills do today, so this is only about preferring the tool when the agent has one.