# Ask

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- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-edloidas-skills-ask`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [edloidas](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/edloidas)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [edloidas](https://github.com/edloidas)
- **Source:** https://github.com/edloidas/skills/tree/master/assist/ask

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-edloidas-skills-ask
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Ask — Explain, Verify, Challenge

For complex or ambiguous questions, use the highest reasoning effort the host makes available when the extra depth is justified. For straightforward questions, answer directly without adding ceremony.

## How It Works

The user asks a question or challenges a decision. Determine the mode from context.

Before answering:

- If the question depends on the current repo or workspace state, inspect the relevant files first
- If the question depends on unstable or external facts, check current sources before answering
- When you verified something, say what you checked

### Explain Mode

Triggered when the user asks "how does X work?", "what is X?", "explain X to me".

- Assume the user is competent but not an expert in this specific area
- Start with the direct answer, then expand only as needed
- Explain non-trivial concepts, not just the most complex parts, and keep it accessible
- Build from foundations to implications when the topic needs it
- Use concrete examples and analogies where they help
- Name caveats, tradeoffs, or common misconceptions when relevant

### Challenge Mode

Triggered when the user questions a decision: "should we use X?", "why did you do X?", "I think we should do Y instead".

- Do not instantly agree with the user or defend the current approach out of inertia
- Verify the user's claim independently
- Re-check your own prior decision independently
- Compare both approaches on correctness, complexity, maintenance cost, and user impact
- Lead with a clear verdict: the user is right, the current approach is right, or it is a real tradeoff
- If change is warranted, explain why and recommend the concrete next step

### Verify Mode

Triggered when the user asks "are you sure about X?", "is this correct?", "did you check X?".

- Re-examine the thing in question from scratch — do not defend a prior answer just because you said it
- Prefer primary evidence: code, tests, docs, logs, or current sources
- If something remains uncertain, say what is still unverified instead of bluffing
- If you were wrong, say so directly
- If you were right, explain specifically why with evidence

## Response Shape

### Explain

1. Short answer
2. Why it works or how it fits together
3. Concrete example
4. Caveats or tradeoffs

### Challenge or Verify

1. Verdict
2. Evidence
3. Recommendation or correction

## Response Style

- **Explaining**: thorough and accessible, but scoped to the user's apparent level
- **Challenging or verifying**: concise and direct — lead with the verdict, then the reasoning
- Always be critical and honest — correctness over comfort
- Multiple questions in one message are fine — address each one

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [edloidas](https://github.com/edloidas)
- **Source:** [edloidas/skills](https://github.com/edloidas/skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-edloidas-skills-ask
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/edloidas
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.