Question cards

When an agent needs a decision from you, it asks with a question card in the conversation instead of guessing. You answer on the card, from any device, and the agent carries on with your answer. The card is the same on every provider; this page is about answering it. Which tool an agent calls to ask, and its parameters, are on the ask_user page.

Where you see a card #

• In the conversation. The card sits at the end of the transcript. Its top line names the provider that asks (Claude question, Cursor question, and so on), the conversation's relay mode and the time. Under the question comes a short note on why it was asked, and at the bottom the line Waiting for your answer, with the time the card expires.
• In the conversation list. The row shows N open, and the title turns red while the session waits for you. See Conversation list.
• In the header. A button reads ❓ 1 open question (or the count). When the open cards are in another conversation it adds latest in and that conversation's title. Clicking it opens the conversation with the newest card.
• As a push notification, if you switched on Questions from the agent under Settings → Notifications. Notifications go out only while no device has OAR in the foreground. A notification can carry up to three of the choices as buttons, as many as your device shows, so you can answer without opening OAR. A choice longer than 120 characters gets no button. If the answer does not land (the card was answered elsewhere, has expired, or you are offline), tapping opens the conversation instead. See Settings.

Answering a card #

Choices #

A question with choices shows one button per choice. A click is the answer; there is no second step.

If a choice needs more explanation, the agent can describe it. The descriptions show as lines under the question.

Several answers #

Some questions allow more than one answer. The card then shows a checkmark per choice and one Reply with selection button. Ticking does not answer anything. Reply with selection sends every ticked choice, in the order the card lists them, and anything you typed in the box as one more item, separated by , :

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With nothing ticked and nothing typed, the button does nothing.

Claude, DeepSeek, Claude Cloud and Cursor say by themselves when several answers are allowed. On Copilot the card shows the checkmarks when the agent said so or worded the question "select all that apply" Added in 0.9.3. Any Copilot card with two or more choices also has a Select several switch under the choices, so you can give several answers when the agent did not offer that. Switching it on or off keeps what you have ticked. A Copilot request that demands exactly one of the offered choices has no switch. Claude and DeepSeek cards never have the switch: they follow what the agent asked for.

Free text #

Every card except a form has a box Type a reply…, so you can answer in your own words instead of picking. Type and press Reply, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). On a card with checkmarks the box reads Add another answer or a note (optional)…, and Ctrl/Cmd+Enter sends the ticked choices with your text, as Reply with selection does.

A question with no choices is free text only. On an approval card the box is there too, but do not use it; see Approval cards.

Forms #

When an agent needs several values at once, the card is a form with one field for each value, and a Submit button. A field marked with * is required. A field can carry a description under its name and a default that is already filled in.

Submit sends the form to the relay, which checks it. A problem shows above the button and nothing is sent: for example Port is required, or Environment: value not allowed. A field you leave empty takes its default, if it has one. The agent receives your values by field. Your entries stay in the form while the card is open.

Several questions #

Claude, DeepSeek, Claude Cloud and Cursor can ask several questions in one tool call (up to four on Cursor). They do not arrive as one card with several parts. You get one card at a time: the next question appears when you have answered the one before, and each card is answered like any other and has its own time limit. When an agent needs several values together, it uses a form.

Approval cards #

OAR itself, and some providers, ask you to approve an action. These cards offer two buttons, and OAR's own can be answered only by you: another agent, on this relay or another, cannot answer them.

On a Copilot permission card, anything you type that is not Approve denies the action, and your text goes to the agent as the reason. A plain Deny tells it only that you declined.

When each of the relay cards appears, and what Allow covers, is on the relay_tool page. A plan the agent wants you to review is not a question card; see the plan board.

While a card is open #

• The turn waits. The agent does nothing until you answer. A turn that waits on a card is never treated as stuck, however long it takes.

• The send button. On Claude, DeepSeek and Copilot's SDK engine, a message you send during a turn normally steers into it. With a card open the button reads Queue instead, and its tooltip says Will steer in after you answer the question. The message is held and goes into the turn once you have answered. On the other providers the button reads Queue anyway. See Turns and the queue.

• How long it waits. 8 hours, and 2 hours on Copilot's extension engine; see How long a card waits. The card shows when it expires. After that it disappears, and the agent is told:

  [No user response before timeout — continue according to the current relay mode.]
  

  What it does then depends on the agent and the relay mode.

• Stop. Stopping the turn ends the agent's wait. The card disappears and cannot be answered any more. A turn that is cancelled or fails closes its cards the same way.

• A relay restart. The relay keeps its open cards across a restart, and the agent's wait outlasts it. A card does not answer itself because the relay was briefly unreachable.

Answering from somewhere else #

Added in 0.9.16 The Inbox in the sidebar lists every card a session waits on, on this relay and on paired relays, together with the questions agents asked without waiting. A card of this relay is answered there as in its session; a paired relay's card opens there.

• Another device. Cards are the relay's, not the browser's. An answer on your phone closes the card on your laptop. A second answer to a card that is already answered is refused.
• Offline. If your device has no connection when you answer, the answer is queued with the notice You are offline. Answer queued — it will send when the connection returns.
• claude.ai. A card of a Claude Cloud conversation, a question or a tool permission, can also be answered on claude.ai. The card disappears in OAR.
• Another agent. With agent sessions or a paired relay, an agent can answer a question card of another session with answer_question. Agents are told to ask you first, unless you told them to decide themselves. An agent cannot answer its own question, nor an approval card. When it answers, the card disappears on your screen like any answered card; you get no notice, and the answer is not shown. With ask or plan mode, the agent's answer_question call is itself a write action that asks you first (see Approval cards).

After you answer #

The card disappears from the conversation on every device. On the device where you answered, a short notice shows for a few seconds: Answer received: … with your answer, then Agent continuing…. The agent gets your answer: the text of the choice, the joined choices, your words, or the form's values. The turn goes on.

OAR does not keep the card, the question or your answer as a message in the conversation, and a reload shows none of them. What the agent writes about your answer is part of its reply. Cards that expired or were closed by Stop disappear the same way.

An answer is final. A card cannot be reopened or changed. If you chose wrongly, send the agent a message and say so; it is an ordinary message in the conversation.

By provider #

Which tool each provider asks through, and its parameters, are in the table on the ask_user page.