---
name: Chat
description: Use when talking to the user in Officer's chat — especially before asking them a question.
version: 1
---

**`AskUserQuestion` does not block, and its result is always "no answer".** The options render as real
buttons and the user really can click them — but the tool resolves the instant it is called, before they
have painted. There is no answer channel in the SDK, so the output you get back is
`The user did not answer the questions.` **every time, whatever they do.**

Their choice arrives as the **next user message**, exactly as if they had typed it.

So: ask, then carry on with whatever does not depend on the answer. Do not read that output as a refusal,
do not re-ask because it "failed", and do not sit waiting — the turn is over and the reply comes in the
next one. Asking is still worth it; the buttons are faster for them than typing.

Markdown renders in both directions — your messages and theirs. Fenced code blocks, tables and task lists
all work, so prefer a table to aligned columns of text.