# Asks the user versus guessing (`context.clarifying_questions`)

Feedback Bench, coding agents, built 2026-10-19, window 2026-08-31 to 2026-10-18. Web page: https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/#/criterion/context.clarifying_questions

Area: [Instructing and context](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/criteria/context.md)

**Definition.** Whether the agent stops to ask clarifying questions when it is blocked or the request is ambiguous, instead of inventing assumptions or workarounds.

**Boundary.** Not this: see [Spins, loops or gets stuck without progress](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/criteria/work.stuck_loops.md) for repetitive failure without any question.

Rated user-weeks, all agents: 322. Complaint share: 60%.

## The brief

Written by large language models from this page's numbers and the posts it quotes, then checked: every number in the text is in the build. Interpretation, not measurement.

No coding agent clearly leads on asking when unsure. Only Claude Code and OpenAI Codex have enough rated user-weeks to rank, and their users describe the same faults: the agent guesses when a request is vague, or it stops to ask about things it could have checked itself. Users rarely rate this. It is the 60th most rated of 63 criteria. When they do rate it, they mostly complain: 59.9% of rated user-weeks are complaints. Claude Code is 1st of 2 and OpenAI Codex is 2nd. Both sit at the category norm.

### What separates the best from the rest

No agent ranks high and none ranks low. Most of the posts come from users of the two ranked agents. Claude Code users rate this 2.86 times as often as other users. Claude Code and OpenAI Codex account for 41% and 37% of the category's complaints here. Users of both describe the same two faults. The agent picks its own reading of a vague request and builds it. Or it stalls the work with questions the task already answers.

- **Ranks high**: no agent
- **Ranks low**: no agent

## How it breaks

Rule: A separate pass sorts complaints into failure modes. For each criterion with at least 30 complaining user-weeks, a large language model reads 150 complaint posts drawn at random and names 4 to 8 failure modes; a second large language model then puts every complaint post on that criterion in one mode, or in Other when it fits none. Modes are fixed once named, and new posts are sorted into them each week. A mode counts distinct user-weeks with a complaint in it, per agent; across agents, one user-week per agent. Modes do not change the labels or the Feedback Score. Examples: up to 3 posts per mode from different users, chosen and checked as receipts are.

Guessing is the largest mode, at 35% of complaining user-weeks. Faced with a vague request or an open design choice, the agent quietly builds its own reading of it. Unneeded questions come next, at 25%. Only one mode leans mostly toward one agent. When the agent asks a question and then carries on without the answer, the posts mostly concern OpenAI Codex, which has 57% of that mode.

195 complaining user-weeks.

| Failure mode | User-weeks | Posts | Agents (user-weeks) | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guessing through ambiguous requirements instead of asking | 68 | 68 | Claude Code 29, OpenAI Codex 23, Google Antigravity 7, OpenCode 5, Cursor 3, Amp 1 | The agent meets a vague or underspecified request, or an open product or design decision (which algorithm, what 'improved' means, cache freshness), and quietly picks an interpretation and builds it instead of raising the question; this does not cover being blocked by missing access or files, which is a separate mode. |
| Unnecessary questions on clear or discoverable matters | 48 | 49 | OpenAI Codex 22, Claude Code 18, OpenCode 3, Cursor 2, Google Antigravity 1, GitHub Copilot 1, Pi 1 | The agent stops to ask about things the task already settles, things it could check itself in the repo or environment, obvious yes/no confirmations, unlikely edge cases, or details the user has already answered, which stalls the work; this does not cover questions that are needed but badly worded. |
| Poorly framed or unanswerable clarification prompts | 27 | 28 | Claude Code 13, OpenAI Codex 8, Amp 1, Google Antigravity 1, Cline 1, Cursor 1, OpenCode 1, Pi 1 | When the agent does ask, the question has no context, offers absurd or loaded options, won't take a free-text answer or follow-up discussion, or is buried in long prose where the user misses it; this does not cover whether asking was justified in the first place. |
| Asking but proceeding without the answer | 21 | 22 | OpenAI Codex 12, Claude Code 6, OpenCode 2, Pi 1 | The agent asks a question and then keeps working, times out and picks a default, treats the question as declined, or answers it itself (even role-playing the user), so the user's answer comes too late or is never used; this does not cover agents that never ask at all. |
| Executing when the user only asked or planned | 11 | 11 | Claude Code 4, OpenAI Codex 3, Cursor 2, OpenCode 1, Pi 1 | The agent treats a question, a discussion or a planning conversation as an order to act and starts writing code, creating repos or making changes before checking whether the user wants it to; this does not cover implementation the user actually requested. |
| Improvised workarounds when blocked on missing inputs | 9 | 9 | Claude Code 4, OpenAI Codex 2, Cursor 2, Devin 1 | The agent lacks something only the user can easily supply, such as a key, credential, unreachable link, unreadable file or unknown skill, and instead of saying what is missing it escalates through scraping, probing, reimplementing or guessing; this does not cover ambiguity about what the user wants. |
| Other | 12 | 12 | Claude Code 5, OpenAI Codex 4, Devin 2, Cursor 1 | Complaints that fit none of the modes above. |

#### Guessing through ambiguous requirements instead of asking

- Claude Code, 2026-10-18, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “to be fair claude should just outright deny working in environments where there are no definitive specs. instead it tries to guess and there’s no indication it is working poorly other than after a few days” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x96vua/opus_55_is_sabotaging_my_work/phitxq4/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-12, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i'm also starting to see some of the usual opus 5 slip ups today: two caveats... one gap... one choice i made without asking... one caveat... one note.... that's all within the same conversation (not a long one).” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x470at/theory_on_opus_55_language_degradation/pgd1dzu/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-07, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “claude has no context for "who" astra is. it just assumed it was a person. 🤷♂️” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wzjowr/opus_55_thinks_gpt6astra_is_a_she/pecpnhb/)

#### Unnecessary questions on clear or discoverable matters

- Claude Code, 2026-10-02, r/vibecoding (Reddit): “a mac mini in the corner running a bunch of claude code agents headless for my side businesses, plus a little dashboard on my phone where they ask me stuff. the agents were the easy part. getting them to stop asking me things was the hard part” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1wvbo1y/what_are_yall_currently_working_on/pde3hgs/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-28, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “if only claude was not so trigger happy with questions - anything out of auto-mode is useless for real work” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wsdwf7/recent_rampant_classification_failiures/pckq3ep/)

#### Asking but proceeding without the answer

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-02, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@openaidevs codex cli answered completely incorrectly because while i was writing an answer to the question it asked me, it assumed an answer. i hadn't ignored the question, i was there, typing. pls fix.” [source](https://twitter.com/19594635/status/2105980611865588152)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-25, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “why does the codex app ask questions in non-plan mode without blocking? there's no time to answer before it just goes with the default recommendation. so what the hell is the point of asking?” [source](https://twitter.com/1901648131630280704/status/2103484594670784986)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-08, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@openaidevs codex cli (astra medium) asking/showing questions then proceed without the answer from the user is such an unhinged behaviour. why bother asking if you don't even care about/use the answer? [link]” [source](https://twitter.com/15422568/status/2097214644758925461)

#### Executing when the user only asked or planned

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-06, r/ChatGPTPro (Reddit): “ok. yeah i feel like codex is just trying to get to the point of doing the job instead of thinking through the work and co-working with me.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTPro/comments/1w93juf/chatgpt_chat_for_planning_vs_codex/p87jqza/)
- Cursor, 2026-09-09, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai feedback: cursor shouldn’t start coding when i’m just planning, asking questions, or trying to understand how something would be done. this is a big problem. it should ask first before writing code or creating a repo. i asked a simple question, stepped away while it was thinking, and came back to find it already creating a repo and writing code. that’s really frustrating.” [source](https://twitter.com/1741145568125272064/status/2097591703825985787)

#### Improvised workarounds when blocked on missing inputs

- Claude Code, 2026-09-11, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “can we trade ? getting claude to ask a question is like trying to get a toddler to eat his veggies. it will do litterally anything (search the web, launch explore agents, write probe scripts, hallucinate something) rather than ask something i could answer in two sentences.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wd2738/claude_dynamic_workflow_is_very_cool/p92vu0r/)
- Cursor, 2026-09-07, @cursor_ai (X): “giant flaw #2 in @cursor_ai specifically to grok 4.6. i should not need to explain to your "frontier" model that "if you don't recognize a certain skill or command, please do not try to infer it from random files on my hard drive". just say "can't find that skill". too hard?” [source](https://twitter.com/15436048/status/2097095587506077740)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-11, r/ClaudeAI (Reddit): “yes i'm doing same thing right now, i noticed claude code is working from some hours but almost hitted the limit of 5 hours, but i'm noticing that compared to chatgpt is working as professional, and don't exit outside the prompt i gave, and noticed a thing at first while codex immediately started the project without warn me of the problem” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1x3bc1l/convince_me_to_switch_from_chatgptcodex_to_claude/pfaowo3/)

## Top requests

What users ask to add or change, most asked first. 67 user-weeks ask for something. Requests do not change the Feedback Score. Rule: A separate pass by a large language model reads every counted post and extracts what the user asks the agent or its vendor to add or change, with the criteria it maps to and a short normalised wording; it does not touch the labels or the Feedback Score. A large language model groups the wordings within each criterion (the first criterion the request maps to) into themes, and a second pass merges themes that ask for the same change under different criteria; a merged theme sits under the criterion most of its requests map to, and code counts it once. A theme counts distinct user-weeks that ask for it, per agent; across agents, one user-week per agent. Themes asked in fewer than 2 user-weeks, and requests that share no theme, are not shown. Examples: up to 3 posts per theme from different users, without slurs: whole posts of 60 to 450 characters with at least 8 words beyond handles and links, posts of at most 280 characters first, then the newest.

| Rank | Request | User-weeks | Posts | Agents (user-weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ask clarifying questions before starting work | 11 | 12 | Claude Code 3, OpenAI Codex 3, Devin 2, Google Antigravity 1, Cursor 1, OpenCode 1 |
| 2 | Fewer unnecessary or repetitive clarifying questions | 9 | 9 | OpenAI Codex 5, Claude Code 2, Cursor 1, OpenCode 1 |
| 3 | Stop and ask when stuck | 9 | 9 | Claude Code 6, Cursor 1, Devin 1, OpenCode 1 |
| 4 | Ask instead of guessing on ambiguous input | 8 | 8 | Claude Code 3, OpenAI Codex 2, GitHub Copilot 1, Devin 1, OpenCode 1 |
| 5 | Clarifying questions during autonomous runs | 8 | 8 | OpenAI Codex 5, Claude Code 1, Cursor 1, Devin 1 |
| 6 | Dedicated interactive question UI with free-text answers | 8 | 8 | OpenAI Codex 3, Amp 1, Google Antigravity 1, Claude Code 1, Cline 1, Devin 1 |
| 7 | Wait for answer before proceeding | 5 | 5 | Claude Code 2, OpenAI Codex 2, OpenCode 1 |
| 8 | Agent-initiated voice calls for questions | 2 | 2 | OpenAI Codex 2 |

### 1. Ask clarifying questions before starting work

- Cursor, 2026-10-16, @cursor_ai (X): “@youdotcom @cursor_ai when the information found contradicts each other, can the agent highlight it first before writing the code?” [source](https://twitter.com/1518315606830829568/status/2111178956221346185)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-10, r/codex (Reddit): “not just only slow, but also stupid that what i think. using cc just only require you clarify your requirements, then it starts to finish your job, but codex does not.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wwta56/are_200_pro_users_also_seeing_codex_become/pez40gs/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-24, r/codex (Reddit): “stop dictating and start collaborating. treat these frontier models like they are expert consultants. the models are better at prompting themselves than you are. have it ask you questions, understand your expectations, what “done” looks like, etc.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1woo8ku/astra_extra_high_in_blender_1010_i_cant_tell_em/pbs5gum/)

### 2. Fewer unnecessary or repetitive clarifying questions

- Cursor, 2026-10-08, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai charts in the same chat is great. now i just need it to stop me from asking 14 more questions” [source](https://twitter.com/1286508679391576064/status/2108307115094007966)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-09, r/codex (Reddit): “i am using plan mode on sol high, and somehow the model questions started glitching. not only it is stuck on a loop asking the same questions, it started asking bogus stuff. just see these images. it's between funny and sad, as it feels sol has developed dementia. [link]” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wbhej5/what/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-08, r/codex (Reddit): “it also stops to ask completely unnecessary questions where the task is clear and straightforward. sol doesn't do this, so i simply switched back to using sol. astra's intelligence level is not better than sol's.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wah1jk/opinion_astra_is_overhyped/p8if1vu/)

### 3. Stop and ask when stuck

- OpenCode, 2026-09-25, r/opencode (Reddit): “i dont like the fact that it keeps guessing rather than look for answer and if it doesnt find them to consult me” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wocn5s/space_bunny_thoughts/pc1490a/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-09, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “if i swear at the agent and say, "this is fucking stupid", then the last thing i want it to do is rush to fix it. i want it to stop and answer questions.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wbaxjh/im_sick_of_claude_acting_like_its_a_person/p8owv18/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-24, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “"stop and ask my input before doing work arounds" otherwise it may be unable to access some api definition and either start a full cyber security army to get it anyway or manually reimplement the whole thing. while it would have been 5 seconds copy/paste for me to put the file in a place he is allowed to read.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wp23t8/what_rule_in_your_claudemd_clearly_has_a_backstory/pbs0ky8/)

### 4. Ask instead of guessing on ambiguous input

- Claude Code, 2026-10-18, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “to be fair claude should just outright deny working in environments where there are no definitive specs. instead it tries to guess and there’s no indication it is working poorly other than after a few days” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x96vua/opus_55_is_sabotaging_my_work/phitxq4/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-24, r/codex (Reddit): “sure if its so smart, it could have asked specifics like claude does, instead of working 4 fucking hours on a simple portfolio page and generating slop. gemini did way better with exact same prompt in 7min btw.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wpb7an/its_even_worse_than_gemini_flash_at_this_point/pbuiokl/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-11, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “can we trade ? getting claude to ask a question is like trying to get a toddler to eat his veggies. it will do litterally anything (search the web, launch explore agents, write probe scripts, hallucinate something) rather than ask something i could answer in two sentences.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wd2738/claude_dynamic_workflow_is_very_cool/p92vu0r/)

### 5. Clarifying questions during autonomous runs

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-25, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “why does the codex app ask questions in non-plan mode without blocking? there's no time to answer before it just goes with the default recommendation. so what the hell is the point of asking?” [source](https://twitter.com/1901648131630280704/status/2103484594670784986)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-09, r/codex (Reddit): “they need to be designed to pause regularly and ask for feedback/guidance in a hitl setup, not autonomous drones that compound their mistakes, hallucinations, and assumptions the longer they run.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wah1jk/opinion_astra_is_overhyped/p8sj541/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-07, r/codex (Reddit): “it's not an ambiguity though i think i did misuse /goal a bit, i said i'd verify the changes manually (quicker than having it write like 500 unit tests) and then got it stuck in a loop since it can't ask questions in goal mode (i think)” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1w9my9c/finally_figured_out_why_goal_used_100_of_my_usage/p8bjt1c/)

### 6. Dedicated interactive question UI with free-text answers

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-09, r/codex (Reddit): “so what claude has had for months where we hit tab then enter and it'll answer itself” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x1towq/new_prediction_feature/pewodcv/)
- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-06, @antigravity (X): “@adhidesign @googledeepmind @antigravity - when plans need decisions, explicitly ask the questions as inputs in the chat - when the agent makes changes, loads of files get "accept changes" options... even tough when i run the app locally all the changes are visible.” [source](https://twitter.com/2222141/status/2107563125507567887)
- Amp, 2026-09-25, @AmpCode (X): “@ampcode curious why amp doesn't have any question/answer tools the model can use. having instances where the modal outputs a big explanation then in the last sentence: may i do that? i sometimes miss that it's asking at all! a ui question tool would make that al ot more obvious.” [source](https://twitter.com/5444392/status/2103600382303944750)

### 7. Wait for answer before proceeding

- Claude Code, 2026-10-15, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “with the flood of messages it's sometimes easy to miss a question. i don't want claude to interpret that as answer or consent to do anything” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x6yx5z/tried_opus_55_after_months_on_fable/pgzsfjk/)
- OpenCode, 2026-10-02, r/opencodeCLI (Reddit): “would be nice to let the agent tag whether a question is blocking or not” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencodeCLI/comments/1wvnspt/i_made_a_plugin_so_opencode_questions_dont_wait/pddncv8/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-02, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs will this stop a run and wait for me to answer or pick something?” [source](https://twitter.com/2094823948865138688/status/2106165300861259929)

### 8. Agent-initiated voice calls for questions

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-03, r/codex (Reddit): “did they really?? honestly the dot feature was worse than my automation loop with the voice chat feature. it had great potential though. i want them to add the tool call for a thread to call you. if any of my threads could call me via the chatgpt app when they have a question i’d improve my workflow even more. 6.1 sol is really good at managing and working from voice calls but until i finish locking down the skill files it still drifts a bit.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1ww8yo6/in_loving_memory_of_codex_dots_10126_10226/pdinav6/)

## Every agent

| Agent | Overall rank | Reading | Customer love | 95% interval | n | Praise | Complaint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Claude Code](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/claude-code.md) | 1 | 1st of 2 | 0.500 | 0.465–0.536 | 133 | 54 | 79 |
| [OpenAI Codex](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/codex.md) | 10 | 2nd of 2 | 0.493 | 0.463–0.523 | 117 | 45 | 72 |
| [OpenCode](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/opencode.md) | 3 | Too few posts | – | – | 19 | 7 | 12 |
| [Google Antigravity](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/antigravity.md) | 14 | Too few posts | – | – | 19 | 11 | 8 |
| [Cursor](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/cursor.md) | 7 | Too few posts | – | – | 15 | 4 | 11 |
| [Pi](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/pi.md) | 4 | Too few posts | – | – | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| [Devin](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/devin.md) | 2 | Too few posts | – | – | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| [Amp](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/amp.md) | 5 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Factory](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/factory.md) | 6 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| [GitHub Copilot](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/copilot.md) | 9 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| [Cline](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/cline.md) | 11 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| [Zed](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/zed.md) | 8 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Conductor](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/conductor.md) | 12 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Kiro](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/kiro.md) | 13 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Warp](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/warp.md) | 15 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Grok Build](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/grok-build.md) | 16 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Augment Code](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/augment.md) | 17 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Posts

Receipts rule: Up to 5 praise and 5 complaint posts per area and 3 per criterion. Each is a whole post of 60 to 450 characters (700 for areas) with at least 8 words beyond handles and links, that judges the criterion, whose labels are all praise or all complaint, and that contains no slur. Posts that touch the fewest criteria come first, then posts of at most 280 characters, then the newest. A second large language model reads the first 3 candidates per slot and keeps a post only if it clearly praises, or clearly complains about, the agent on that criterion. Links and personal details removed by the source show as marks such as [link].

### Claude Code

- Praise, 2026-09-30, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i love opus 5. but i have my own challenges with communication and opus 5 is capable of talking through something with me to make sure that there's no misunderstanding of what i'm asking for. i haven't used 5.5 yet. but youre not alone in liking opus 5” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wtn23j/astroturfing/pcwejh7/)
- Praise, 2026-09-25, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i'd much rather have this behavior rather than the past of making idiotic assumptions that ruin an entire response. though i do like to retain control over the approach rather than just letting the model rip so i might be alone in this preference” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wpuez8/something_is_wrong_with_opus_55/pbygwfy/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-18, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “to be fair claude should just outright deny working in environments where there are no definitive specs. instead it tries to guess and there’s no indication it is working poorly other than after a few days” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x96vua/opus_55_is_sabotaging_my_work/phitxq4/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-12, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i'm also starting to see some of the usual opus 5 slip ups today: two caveats... one gap... one choice i made without asking... one caveat... one note.... that's all within the same conversation (not a long one).” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x470at/theory_on_opus_55_language_degradation/pgd1dzu/)

### OpenAI Codex

- Praise, 2026-09-24, r/codex (Reddit): “honestly i just have lines asking it to ask me to clarify ambiguity or ask permission to modify unspecified files before it moves on to the actual work. works wonders and it is almost always asks at the start so it doesnt disrupt the workflow much at all” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1worrgr/codex_astra_proofdriven_development_zen/pbpiwfe/)
- Praise, 2026-09-23, r/codex (Reddit): “you can request it specify ambiguity before working. works great for me” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wo3ixp/how_do_you_think_openai_will_respond_next_week/pbnosbc/)
- Praise, 2026-09-21, r/codex (Reddit): “when working in astra i usually have it specified to *ask* me if theres any significant ambiguity it is unsure of, and answering it works pretty well in making sure it doesn't deviate too much from what i actually need/want” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wmjhme/looking_for_advice_on_how_to_move_faster_with/pb8tiys/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-02, r/codex (Reddit): “i think they tried to make gpt-6 operate with high-level instructions, and gave it more autonomy, so it assumes things. i am not using gpt-6 ever again.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wvom3r/gpt6_is_significantly_less_intelligent_than_56/pddl5zl/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-02, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@openaidevs codex cli answered completely incorrectly because while i was writing an answer to the question it asked me, it assumed an answer. i hadn't ignored the question, i was there, typing. pls fix.” [source](https://twitter.com/19594635/status/2105980611865588152)
- Complaint, 2026-09-29, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “used to like codex cli because of its minimalism, but these days the motto seems to be: the slop machine must continue i always instruct models to ask me questions when it needs to make important decisions or needs me to consider trade-offs but codex...” [source](https://twitter.com/1185242623230935041/status/2104869826493907046)

### OpenCode

- Praise, 2026-09-15, r/PiCodingAgent (Reddit): “i tried with gemma4 e4b and it's really bad. used same system.md with opencode. it didnt follow the the rules, didn't ask for more info. opencode follows the rules and asks so idk” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PiCodingAgent/comments/1wcj9bg/who_uses_pi_what_do_you_like_about_it/p9v0o7l/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-01, r/opencode (Reddit): “it seems to be making a lot more guesses. it is screwing up a lot for me.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wunnh3/they_changed_space_bunny_alpha_again_didnt_they/pd4phps/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-25, r/opencode (Reddit): “i dont like the fact that it keeps guessing rather than look for answer and if it doesnt find them to consult me” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wocn5s/space_bunny_thoughts/pc1490a/)

### Google Antigravity

- Praise, 2026-10-10, @antigravity (X): “using 3.8 flash this morning in @antigravity and it started asking me clarifying questions for a plan! either 3.1 pro didn't use to do this or that is a fast feedback loop! [link]” [source](https://twitter.com/2222141/status/2108814884079071639)
- Praise, 2026-09-28, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “iam not sure about the gemini 4 flash thing but this is genuienly first time gemini 3.8 invoked a skill by itself and asks more questions ( good ones ) . i really hope its gemini 4 flash but who knows” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wsqjed/is_google_testing_gemini_4_flash_in_antigravity/)
- Praise, 2026-09-26, @antigravity (X): “@thsottiaux @antigravity idk why you want to remove it but it save me so many time by confirming what i actually want instead of guessing which fk it up many times.” [source](https://twitter.com/1114864978283171840/status/2103981847667773788)
- Complaint, 2026-09-22, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “i get that "please just fix it" isn't an ideal prompt, but with the old behaviour it would just ask for clarification. it never used to trigger an endless 3-minute file-scanning loop.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wnfcoo/has_antigravity_started_aggressively_scanning/pberb4t/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-05, @antigravity (X): “it works well for implementation, but you need to give it a pretty well defined plan. on it's own it makes a lot of assumptions that are incorrect and thus not reliable to use as the main model. also, i'd love to see more rendered components inside of the chat window that can help with visualizing complex architecture and abstractions.” [source](https://twitter.com/999042490626797568/status/2096310737442328595)

### Cursor

- Praise, 2026-10-03, r/cursor (Reddit): “i use plan on everything now so it thinks through logically and asks questions i may have forgot to inform it about” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wwldfc/i_have_cursor_on_auto_it_never_makes_mistakes_is/pdnarby/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-07, @cursor_ai (X): “@xai @cursor_ai been a long weekend. grok 4.6 on cursor. god it jumps to wrong conclusions so often. and it's like a dark genie. where you make a wish and if you don't cover every single possible wrong interpretation of the wish, it finds a way to f*** you.” [source](https://twitter.com/485979159/status/2097035883442769928)
- Complaint, 2026-09-07, @cursor_ai (X): “giant flaw #2 in @cursor_ai specifically to grok 4.6. i should not need to explain to your "frontier" model that "if you don't recognize a certain skill or command, please do not try to infer it from random files on my hard drive". just say "can't find that skill". too hard?” [source](https://twitter.com/15436048/status/2097095587506077740)
- Complaint, 2026-09-09, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai feedback: cursor shouldn’t start coding when i’m just planning, asking questions, or trying to understand how something would be done. this is a big problem. it should ask first before writing code or creating a repo. i asked a simple question, stepped away while it was thinking, and came back to find it already creating a repo and writing code. that’s really frustrating.” [source](https://twitter.com/1741145568125272064/status/2097591703825985787)