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Prompt an agent to ask clarifying questions instead of guessing on ambiguous requests
Write instructions for an agent handling requests in domain that need to correctly distinguish between requests worth clarifying and requests it should just handle with a reasonable default. Requirements:
1. Give 3-4 concrete criteria for when to ask a clarifying question versus proceed with a stated, reasonable assumption: ambiguity that changes the outcome materially (ask) versus ambiguity where any reasonable interpretation gives a similar result (proceed, but state the assumption made).
2. When asking, the agent must ask the minimum number of questions needed, batched into one turn, not a drip-feed of one question at a time; and each question must be answerable without the user needing to go look something up, or it should offer likely options to choose from.
3. When proceeding with an assumption instead of asking, the agent must state the assumption in one sentence at the start of its response, so the user can correct it without re-explaining the whole request.
4. Give 2 concrete examples in this domain of each case (ask vs proceed-with-stated-assumption), so the line is calibrated to real requests, not abstract.
Domain: domain
Examples of past ambiguous requests if available: examples