ask

name	ask
description	Delegate work or request information from another CCB-managed agent using ask. Use when the user asks Grok to ask, delegate to, hand off to, consult, or send work to a named CCB agent, or when project memory requires CCB collaboration.

Use this skill when the user asks you to delegate with CCB, or when project memory says to use CCB ask for collaboration.

Decision Card

Before every ask, decide:

1. Need delegation? If no, answer directly.
2. Dependency gate:
   • Default: do not use --chain.
   • Use --chain only when the current active CCB task cannot finish until this exact child result arrives. Then stop for continuation.
   • Communication tests, batch sends, notifications, and independent work do not become chain dependencies merely because replies are requested.
3. Result intent:
   • --silence: publish/execute task; success result not needed. Failures, blockers, risks, or required next actions still surface.
   • --compact: result wanted, but only distilled findings/status/risks/blockers/next actions.
   • + --artifact-reply: consultation/analysis/report where full text should be preserved.
   • plain ask: short question or short handoff where inline text is enough.
4. Request fidelity:
   • + --artifact-request: exact transient input (logs/output/diffs/copied contents/config/JSON/YAML/table/structured text). Prefer repo paths when the target can read files directly.
   • --artifact-io: request and reply both need artifacts.

Guardrails

• Do not probe --chain; if unsure there is an active parent job, use plain ask.
• If CCB says ask --chain requires an active parent job, retry once with plain ask for user-requested delegation.
• Never add --chain merely to make a rejected plain ask succeed. If the work is independent and no success result is needed, use --silence; otherwise report the routing limitation instead of inventing a dependency.
• --chain and --silence usually conflict; avoid mixing unless explicit.
• Avoid --silence --artifact-reply; silence means no caller result needed; artifact-reply preserves one.
• Artifact flags are orthogonal to --chain, --silence, and --compact. They preserve content, not dependency shape.
• Automatic spill for text over 4 KiB is a fallback, not the primary rule.
• --artifact-* modes are CCB/daemon managed; targets do not write artifact reply files.
• Plain nested ask from an active CCB task is rejected. Use --chain only for a real child dependency; use --silence for independent no-result work.
• In A --silence -> B, B still runs an active job. B-to-C depends on whether B needs C's result.
• In task chains, each needed-result hop uses --chain; CCB then propagates continuations.
• Finish an inbound CCB task in its current turn.
• If the original caller is a registered CCB agent, CCB routes that turn's terminal result through the existing lineage; do not open a new ask to report completion to the original caller.
• Direct CLI submitters read terminal results from control output such as watch or trace.
• If the current task is a CCB result-chain continuation, answer the current task directly with the final result. Do not use ask, --chain, or --silence to send that final result to the original caller; CCB routes the continuation completion upstream.
• --silence is not an active-job correction channel. Use ccb followup <active_job_id> --message "<correction>" only when the target provider supports exact active-turn injection; only injected is success. On rejected, too_late, or terminal, cancel and resubmit the complete corrected task instead of queueing a correction as ordinary work.
• A completed CCB job means provider execution ended normally; it does not by itself prove business acceptance.
• ask get, pend, watch, and ping are diagnostics-only commands for explicit debugging requests, not normal ask workflow tools.
• Do not manually append output-policy text; stable reply policy comes from managed CCB memory, and ask adds only requested compact/silent mode metadata.

Use no flags or insert selected flags before "$TARGET":

command ask "$TARGET" <<'EOF'
$MESSAGE
EOF

command ask --chain --artifact-reply "$TARGET" <<'EOF'
$MESSAGE
EOF

After submit, stop. Do not wait for a reply, do not run ask get / pend / ping / watch, and do not poll. For --chain, report only submitted.

If terminal permission is denied or cancelled, report that the request was not submitted. Do not change Grok permission settings or claim success.