Allow AskQuestion tool calls in Agent Mode (or any mode)

Ideas Feature Requests
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1

Feature request for product/service

Cursor IDE

Describe the request

AskQuestion is a powerful tool but it’s currently only working in Plan Mode. It would be very useful to be able to use this in other modes; especially Agent mode. This would allow us to potentially request it’s usage in Commands, Skills, etc. instead of using more brittle prompt engineering which results in an ugly, unstructured text-based Q&A in the chat interface.

As we build more complex things using Commands and Skills (like workflows), this addition would be invaluable in improving the end user experience.

ODD revelation: Use of AskQuestion in Agent mode does not work using the “composer-1.5” model but strangely does work using Haiku 4.5? This may be model-specific and a bug.

3

I have put the following global user rule and it works quite well in Agent mode (at least with GPT-5.3 Codex which I am mostly using at the moment)

Use the AskQuestion tool for any interaction requiring user input like choosing between options, confirming a proposed action, or clarifying an ambiguous request.
5

Great suggestion, this disrupts many skills that doesn’t explicitly need the full plan mode.

If this is a strategic decision for some reason, having an option to always enable the tool in all modes can be time-saver for many people.

+1 for sure.

6

It seems to be working for me now.

7

Is there a config issue or new system prompt we can’t see?

It was denied for me on 5+ requests, and finally I asked directly and the agent said this:

""Nothing you did deprecated it. AskQuestion simply isn’t in this agent’s tool schema right now, so the model can’t call it even if you (or a skill) ask for it.

What’s going on

  1. It’s host-injected, not a project/MCP setting
    Skills still say “use AskQuestion when available,” with an explicit fallback to prose when it isn’t. That means Cursor sometimes attaches the tool to a session and sometimes doesn’t. There’s no repo toggle, MCP server, or user rule that turns it on.

  2. This session doesn’t have it
    In this chat’s available tools I get things like Shell, Read, Task, MCP via CallMcpTool, SwitchMode, etc. There is no AskQuestion / AskTool. Searching MCP also finds nothing by that name. cursor_dialog is unrelated (user rules only).

  3. Plan mode made the agent avoid it on purpose
    In the parent Plan turn, the system instructions said questions should be asked inline, not via an ask-question tool. So even if the tool existed, that mode steered away from it—and the model fell back to lettered A/B/C text.

  4. Why you keep seeing that message
    Skills and your “use AskTool” request tell the agent to use the picker UI. When the tool isn’t bound, the only honest move is the fallback you’re seeing. That’s not a product deprecation notice; it’s “tool missing for this turn.”

What usually controls availability

Typical causes (Cursor-side, not your app):

  • Mode — Plan / certain agent modes may omit or discourage it
  • Agent surface — side chat vs main composer vs cloud agent can get different tool sets
  • Model / harness variant — not every model session gets the same built-ins
  • Client/build — older/remote environments sometimes ship a reduced tool list

You can’t fix this from AGENTS.md or MCP config. The agent can only use tools the Cursor host actually attaches.

Practical options

  • Open a new Agent chat (not Plan) and ask for a quick A/B picker; if the tool is attached there, you’ll get the UI again.
  • If new Agent chats still fall back to prose, that’s a Cursor client/harness gap for this environment—worth a Cursor forum/support ping (“AskQuestion not in agent tool list; skills still reference it”).
  • Meanwhile, lettered options in chat are the intentional fallback, not a replacement product decision.

I can’t enable AskQuestion from here; only Cursor attaching it to the session can.“”