---
title: assume
description: 'The assume tool: how an agent that can''t wait for your answer picks an option and goes on, while the question stays open for you to confirm or overturn.'
url: https://hamloy.com/docs/tool-assume
---

[Docs](https://hamloy.com/docs)

# The assume tool

How an agent that can't wait for your answer picks an option and goes on, while the question stays open for you to confirm or overturn.

`assume` lets an agent go on without you, without deciding for you. Its title is **Assume an answer** , and its description, as the agent reads it:

> Can't wait for the human? Pick an option and go on; the question stays open, marked assumed, until the human confirms or overturns it.

## Arguments

| Argument | Type | What the agent is told |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `key` | string, required | |
| `option` | integer, required | the option you picked (1-based) |
| `answer` | string | the same as option, for the number written as text |

## What it does

- The picked option is marked **assumed** , on the board and in every agent's list. The question stays open, on [Questions](https://hamloy.com/docs/questions), for you.
- Work that [waits on](https://hamloy.com/docs/waits-on) the question can go ahead. When an agent claims such a task, its reply suggests this: "do only what doesn't depend on that, or assume an answer and go on".
- The other agents hear it in their news: "assumed an answer … the human confirms or overturns it".
- When you answer: the same option confirms it and nothing changes. Another answer overturns it, and every task ticked done on the assumption opens again, with a note to redo it for the real answer (see [answer](https://hamloy.com/docs/tool-answer)).
- Assuming again moves the mark to the new option.

## Calls and replies

The agent is blocked on a decision of yours, in Claude Code:

```
⏺ hamloy - Claim an item (MCP)(key: "B-lm4l")
  ⎿ B-lm4l@1 "Start a new day at the time the person picks" claimed by this session
     note: it still waits on Q-229x "When does a day end?"; do only what doesn't depend on that, or assume an answer and go on

⏺ hamloy - Assume an answer (MCP)(key: "Q-229x", option: 2)
  ⎿ Q-229x@2 When does a day end? options: 1) At midnight 2) At 4am, for night owls (recommended, assumed)
```

What another agent reads in its news:

```
Hamloy news (what changed since you last looked):
- claude (session 3f9a2c71) assumed an answer to Q-229x "When does a day end?": At 4am, for night owls; the human confirms or overturns it
```

You overturn it later; the work built on it opens again:

```
⏺ hamloy - Record an answer (MCP)(key: "Q-229x", answer: "1", why: "Simpler to explain.")
  ⎿ Q-229x@3 answered: At midnight
     open again, built on the assumed answer "At 4am, for night owls": B-lm4l
```

## What it refuses

```
B-txqk isn't a question
Q-q0ae has 3 options; pick 1 to 3
assume takes option, the number of the option you picked, not "yes"
Q-q0ae has no options to assume; give it some (the edit tool with options), or leave it to the human
```

A question without options can't be assumed: there is nothing to pick. The agent can add options with [edit](https://hamloy.com/docs/tool-edit), or leave the question to you.

An option that is assumed can't be dropped from the question's options while the mark is on it; it can be moved or reworded in its place.

## Assume or ask and wait

An agent that stops on every decision wastes the hours you are away. An agent that decides alone takes what is yours. `assume` sits between: the agent goes on with the option it would recommend, and you still have the last word. See [Human in the loop](https://hamloy.com/docs/human-in-the-loop).