A user asks a simple question or makes a simple request; the agent provides a direct response.
- U → A: Inquiry → Fulfillment
- U (Optional): Sequence closer (“Thanks”, “Got it”).
This primitive appears across all dialogue forms.
Guidance
- Optimise for minimisation: answer first, then offer one-tap next moves.
- Prefer explicit evidence for non-trivial answers (source, timestamp).
- Keep turns short; avoid multi-part instructions (use extended telling instead).
Repair affordances
Repeat, paraphrase, example, definition
Next moves
Ask a follow-up, see sources, change scope, or start a new activity.
Metrics
- Adjacency-pair completion rate (Inquiry→Answer)
- Repair rate & time-to-correct
- Evidence uptake (user opens source)
Consequences
- the question is answered and the pair is complete; the actor is between activities rather than inside one, free to follow up, check the source, or start something else
- a direct answer carries no working, so for anything non-trivial the actor is taking the agent's word for it unless evidence came with the answer
Related patterns
Enables
- Conversation — user inquiry appears across all dialogue forms
Related
- Extended telling — for multi-part answers that exceed the scope of a single inquiry response
Preceded by
- Opening (User) — the actor's topic is on the table and the agent has aligned to it; the shape of what they brought decides the activity — a question answerable in one turn passes straight into user inquiry, a goal with steps behind it into an open request, and one stated too loosely to act on needs the agent to ask first