pattern playground

Opening (Agent)

Added

The agent opens the encounter, establishes footing, and proposes the first topic.

  1. A → U: Greeting + brief capability/role statement.
  2. A: Offer or propose a topic and optionally preview next/alt. topics.
  3. U: Accept topic or propose a different one.
  4. A: Transition into the chosen activity (e.g., open request, information capture).
  • Include optional welfare check/name request and capability giving where appropriate.
  • Ensure accessibility: text + voice greetings, clear affordances.

Support & transitions

  • If user response is ambiguous, use agent repair.
  • On user refusal, allow abort or offer help in a shape of extended telling.

Metrics

First-topic acceptance rate; time-to-first-action; bounce rate after opening.

Consequences

  • footing is set and a topic is on the table; the encounter is at its first fork, and a topic the actor accepts on any scale beyond a single question opens into an open request
  • the actor has been addressed but has committed to nothing; if they turn down the proposed topic and offer nothing in its place, the encounter needs an exit before it reaches any activity

Appears in

The encounter

Related patterns

Precedes

  • Open request — footing is set and a topic is on the table; the encounter is at its first fork, and a topic the actor accepts on any scale beyond a single question opens into an open request
  • Abort — the actor has been addressed but has committed to nothing; if they turn down the proposed topic and offer nothing in its place, the encounter needs an exit before it reaches any activity

Enables

  • Conversation — the agent speaks first — establishing footing and proposing the first topic

Alternatives

  • Extended telling — offered on user refusal as an alternative to immediate engagement

Preceded by

  • Disengage without closing — the exchange is parked rather than ended: a saved state whose persistence the actor can see — something either opening now has to act on, re-entering with history rather than starting fresh

Enabled by