The user signals they didn’t understand the agent’s utterance.
- U → A: “What do you mean by X?” / “Can you give an example?”
- A: Provide paraphrase, definition, or example as appropriate.
- A: Resume the activity at the same step; offer to continue.
- U (Optional): Sequence closer.
If confusion persists, degrade gracefully to extended telling or a visual aid.
Repair affordances
Paraphrase, definition, example
Metrics
Understanding repair resolution rate; repeats per concept; time-to-understand; fallbacks to extended telling.
Consequences
- the utterance has been re-delivered in another form — paraphrase, definition, worked example — and where none of those are enough the agent has to stop answering in single turns and take the floor properly
- comprehension is restored and the activity resumes from the same step, on its way to the receipt that closes the sequence
Related patterns
Precedes
- Extended telling — the utterance has been re-delivered in another form — paraphrase, definition, worked example — and where none of those are enough the agent has to stop answering in single turns and take the floor properly
- Sequence completion — comprehension is restored and the activity resumes from the same step, on its way to the receipt that closes the sequence
Enables
- Conversation — the actor signals the agent's last utterance didn't land, repairing the exchange from the user's side