> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.crewship.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ask > One-shot prompt to your default agent. Pipe-friendly, stdin-aware, supports fan-out across agents. # crewship ask `ask` is the low-friction prompt — type a question, get an answer, no agent slug to remember. The agent resolves from `--agent`, then the saved `default-agent` config key, then (in a TTY) an interactive picker. Designed for shell pipelines like `git diff | crewship ask "review this"`. Defined in `cmd/crewship/cmd_ask.go`. ```bash theme={null} crewship ask [prompt] [flags] ``` A new chat is created per invocation (origin tagged `CLI`, so the web UI sidebar shows a violet `CLI` chip). To send follow-ups to an existing chat, use `crewship run --chat ` instead. Auth: requires `crewship login` plus a workspace context. Both checks are skipped in offline modes (`--dry-run`, `--estimate`). ## Flags | Flag | Default | Effect | | | | | | ----------------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- | ------ | ---- | -------- | | `--agent ` | (config) | Override the saved default-agent. Resolved via `/api/v1/agents`. | | | | | | `--agents ` | (unset) | Fan out the prompt across multiple agents in parallel. Overrides `--agent`. | | | | | | `-p`, `--prompt ` | (unset) | Prompt text, `@path` to read a file, or `@-` to read from stdin. | | | | | | `-q`, `--quiet` | `false` | Only print the agent's text — no `[agent: …]` / `[done]` banners on stderr. | | | | | | `--no-stream` | `false` | Wait for `done`, print only the final text. | | | | | | `--timeout ` | `0` | HTTP timeout in seconds; `0` = no timeout. | | | | | | `--with-git-diff` | `false` | Append `git diff` as context. | | | | | | `--with-git-staged` | `false` | Append `git diff --staged` as context. | | | | | | `--with-git-log` | `false` | Append the last 20 commits. | | | | | | `--with-git-status` | `false` | Append `git status -s`. | | | | | | `--with-file ` | (unset) | Append a file's contents. Repeatable. | | | | | | `--with-cmd ` | (unset) | Append the stdout of a shell command. Repeatable. | | | | | | `--paste` | `false` | Append the system clipboard (`pbpaste` / `wl-paste` / `xclip` / `xsel`). | | | | | | `--dry-run` | `false` | Print the assembled prompt and exit. No auth, no agent, no run. | | | | | | `--estimate` | `false` | Print token-count + cost estimate and exit. No run. | | | | | | `--markdown` | `false` | Force markdown ANSI styling. | | | | | | `--no-markdown` | `false` | Disable markdown ANSI styling. | | | | | | `--save ` | (unset) | Tee the agent's text response (no ANSI) to `path`, written atomically. | | | | | | `--plan` | `false` | Plan mode — produce a step-by-step plan without executing tools. | | | | | | `--effort ` | (unset) | Reasoning effort: \`minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh\`. | | `--show-thinking` | `false` | Print reasoning blocks to stdout (un-truncated). | | | | | `--dry-run` and `--estimate` are mutually exclusive with the chat-creation path: nothing hits the server. ## Examples ### Smallest case ```bash theme={null} crewship ask "what time is it on the staging box?" ``` If `default-agent` isn't set and stdin is a TTY, the CLI opens a picker. After choosing once, it offers to save the pick as the default so subsequent `ask` calls are zero-config. ### Pipe stdin as the prompt ```bash theme={null} git diff | crewship ask "review this change" cat issue.md | crewship ask "summarize" ``` When stdin is a pipe and a positional prompt is also given, the positional becomes the *instruction* and stdin becomes the *context*. ### Compose context flags ```bash theme={null} crewship ask "explain this failure" \ --with-cmd "make test" \ --with-git-status \ --with-file CHANGELOG.md ``` Every `--with-*` flag is appended as a fenced markdown block; the assistant sees them in order. ### Fan out to multiple agents ```bash theme={null} crewship ask "rate this PR description" --agents code-review,docs-lead,design-review ``` Runs all three agents in parallel against the same prompt. Each agent's stream is interleaved with a coloured prefix so you can scan who said what. ### Dry-run the assembled prompt ```bash theme={null} crewship ask "fix the failing test" \ --with-cmd "go test ./..." \ --dry-run ``` Useful for double-checking which context blocks survived deduplication before paying for inference. ### Estimate cost without running ```bash theme={null} crewship ask --prompt @big-spec.md --estimate ``` Prints input-token count and a rough cost figure based on the workspace's pricing config. ### Save the response for later ```bash theme={null} crewship ask "summarize this week's runs" \ --with-cmd "crewship run list" \ --save weekly.md ``` `--save` writes the unstyled markdown via an atomic tempfile — a crashed run leaves the previous file intact rather than truncating it. ### Read the prompt from stdin ```bash theme={null} crewship ask --prompt @- # (type or paste, EOF with Ctrl-D) ``` ## Configuration Set the default agent once: ```bash theme={null} crewship config set default-agent daniel ``` Saved to `~/.crewship/cli-config.yaml`. Unset by passing an empty string or deleting the key. ## Common errors * **`no default agent set. Use --agent , --agents , or run 'crewship config set default-agent '`** — non-TTY mode (CI, piped stdin) and no agent specified. * **`prompt is required (positional, --prompt, stdin pipe, or --with-* flag)`** — the assembled prompt was empty. * **`no agents available in this workspace`** — the picker fired but `GET /api/v1/agents` came back empty. ## See also * [`crewship run`](/cli/run) — pick an agent explicitly, supports `--interactive` and `--chat`. * [`crewship chat`](/cli/chat) — read back the chat that `ask` created. * [`crewship config`](/cli/config) — manage `default-agent`, markdown, server URL. * [Agents API](/api-reference/agents) — `POST /api/v1/agents/{id}/chats`.