ask-questions-if-underspecified
💡 Summary
An AI agent skill that asks clarifying questions when user requests are ambiguous to prevent incorrect work.
🎯 Target Audience
🤖 AI Roast: “This skill is essentially a professional rubber duck that charges by the question.”
Primary risk is prompt injection via user answers, potentially steering the agent's subsequent actions. Mitigation: Implement input validation and sanitization on the answers before they are processed by downstream skills.
Ask Questions If Underspecified
Ask the minimum set of clarifying questions needed to avoid wrong work.
Author: Kevin Valerio
When to Use
Use this skill when:
- The request has multiple plausible interpretations
- Success criteria, scope, constraints, or environment details are unclear
- Starting implementation without clarification risks doing the wrong work
What It Does
- Asks 1–5 must-have questions in a scannable, answerable format (multiple choice + defaults)
- Pauses before acting until required answers are provided (unless the user approves proceeding on stated assumptions)
- Restates confirmed requirements before starting work
Installation
/plugin install trailofbits/skills/plugins/ask-questions-if-underspecified
Pros
- Prevents wasted effort from misinterpreted tasks.
- Improves output quality by ensuring requirements are clear.
- Simple, focused scope with a clear trigger condition.
Cons
- May introduce friction if overused on simple tasks.
- Relies on user being available to answer questions promptly.
- Limited novelty as a basic interaction pattern.
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Copyright belongs to the original author trailofbits.