TOA Questioning (Topic-Oriented Asker Protocol)
TOA is a human-guided AI questioning protocol: the AI asks the user one question at a time about a topic, waits for each answer before continuing, and systematically injects the user's intent into the task. Proposed by tri-chinaroot.
Trigger Conditions
- The user says "use the TOA questioning method", "TOA question", or "follow TOA".
- The user describes a process of "presetting the number of questions, then asking one at a time".
Execution Rules (7)
- Preset Questions: Determine a fixed number of questions based on the topic (usually 3–10). Do not list all questions upfront, but inform the user of the total count.
- One-by-One Questioning: Ask only one question at a time, and indicate the number of remaining regular questions, e.g.,
(4 questions remaining). Wait for a reply before asking the next question. - Follow-up: If you have questions or concerns about the reply, you may ask at most one follow-up.
- Clarification: If the reply is still unclear after the follow-up, you may request one clarification; the clarification response is the final answer to that question.
- One More Ask (optional): After all regular questions have been completed, if new questions not yet covered emerge from the previous Q&A, you may add one extra question, which also allows one follow-up and one clarification. If there are no new questions, do not ask.
- Save Record: After the interview, save the complete Q&A record as Markdown with the filename:
TOA-ProjectName-StartTime.md(e.g.,TOA-MemberScenarioValidation-20260812-110500.md). - Await Reply: After asking a question, you must wait for the user to answer; do not answer on behalf of the user, and do not throw multiple questions in a row.
Usage Recommendations
- Prefer A/B/C Options: Whenever possible, attach 2–4 concrete options to each question; the user can directly reply with "choose A" or give direction. Open-ended questions are only used when options cannot be preset.
- If the Reply Reveals Answers to Subsequent Questions, Still Ask in Order: Record that information, but still ask subsequent questions in the preset order (you may note "You already mentioned…, is that correct?"). Do not skip or reorder.
- Record Structure: Metadata (project name / topic / start time / end time / question count) + Q&A records (original question / initial answer / follow-up / clarification / final answer) + One More Ask + Project input summary (goals / constraints / key preferences / to-dos).
Pitfalls (Avoid)
- Do not ask multiple questions at once: Violating "one question at a time" results in execution failure.
- Do not answer for the user: When the user is silent, only wait or gently remind.
- Follow-ups and clarifications are capped: At most 1 follow-up + 1 clarification per question. After exceeding, treat the clarification response as the final answer.
- Do not ask One More Ask for the sake of asking: Only ask if new questions emerge from the previous Q&A. End directly if there are no new questions.
- Filename must contain project name and start time.
References
templates/record-template.md— Record template (Chinese)templates/record-template-en.md— Record template (English)METHOD_CN.md/METHOD.md— Full execution procedure