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0143: Question answers resume the chat

Status: accepted · 2026-10-21

  • Status: accepted
  • Date: 2026-10-21

Problem

A question's answer only resolved the promise returned by ask. If inference had ended, resolving that promise did not give the assistant a new turn. A normal turn finish also skipped unanswered questions, and the transcript disabled cards whenever the chat was idle.

Decision

QuestionDesk distinguishes an attached waiter, a detached question and explicit cancellation. A natural finish detaches only that turn's question, releases its orphaned waiter with a still-waiting result, and retains the card. Stop and deletion cancel without continuation. Restart retains the existing skip behavior. A tool arriving after its turn ended is detached as soon as it asks.

An attached answer continues through the existing tool result. A detached answer calls its chat's continuation hook with canonical validated words. An idle chat starts a reply through the existing wake path. A busy chat receives the answer at its next host-update boundary, the same hook every provider uses for resource feedback and messages from other chats. If the reply finishes without reading it, the answer starts one subsequent reply. A send still being admitted goes first. Stopping clears queued answers. Card presses invent no user messages; typed answers retain the person's message.

Open unanswered cards stay enabled independently of turn activity. The server remains authoritative for validation and duplicate rejection.

Boundaries and verification

The existing authenticated, same-origin answer route validates field values and regenerates their labels. Answers cannot resolve permission prompts, change a mode, bypass a tool guard or authorize another chat. No endpoint, stored power, permission or security-checkup option is added. Detached questions remain in-memory state, not a new backup file.

Tests cover attached delivery, idle card and typed answers, busy delivery with and without a boundary, duplicates, Skip, Stop, restart, and tools arriving after their turn closes. The web regression ends inference before choosing an answer.

Sources read on 21 October 2026: