/ask

name: ask
description: "Answer a question from this project's own knowledge — retrieved, read and cited, never from memory."
commands:
  ask: "Answer a question from this project's own sources, with citations."
origin: magi

ask

When to use

Any question about what this project knows. Also when you are about to answer one from memory.

Method

1. `magi search "<question>"` — hybrid retrieval, the default route. Add `--line <line>` when the question comes from inside a research line: it ranks what that line is looking at higher without hiding the rest. 2. **Read the files it returns.** A search result is a pointer, not a source; citing a snippet you did not open is how a half-sentence becomes a claim. 3. About one concept: `magi wiki context --name "<concept>"` gives every paragraph that mentions it, which beats reassembling the card from search hits. 4. Structural questions — what links to what, which sources back a claim, what is unlinked: `magi graph query "<SQL>"`, or `magi graph browse` for the same without SQL. Exact strings: `magi grep "<text>" wiki/`. 5. Answer with inline `[[wikilinks]]` to the cards you actually read. Where the project does not know, say that instead of filling the gap. 6. A question the project cannot answer but should be able to is a gap worth keeping: one line in `inbox/notes.md`, or open it as a question with `magi thread new <slug> --kind question --title '<the question>' --purpose '<why it matters now>'`.

Rules

• **Never** answer from parametric memory. If retrieval found nothing, the

answer is "this project does not have that", which is useful and true.

• **Never** cite a reference card as the source of a claim; cite the `raw/`

file it was compiled from. A card can be wrong in the way the claim is trying to rule out.

• Retrieval that returns nothing usually means the index is stale: `magi sync`

says so, and `magi index` fixes it.