---
title: "Ask questions across your platform"
url: "https://docs.alisx.com/how-to/cli/ask-questions-across-your-platform/"
---
# Ask questions across your platform

Get a cited answer drawn from your own coding sessions, your support conversations and the skills shared with you.

## Prerequisites

- A signed-in CLI.

## Steps

1. Ask, quoting the question:

    ```bash title="Terminal"
    alis ask "how did I fix the failing deploy last week?"
    ```

    The answer streams to the terminal, followed by `Sources:` and `Ask next:` suggestions. Only content you can see is used; access is enforced when the sources are retrieved.

2. Follow up in the same conversation. Every run prints its conversation ID; pass it back:

    ```bash title="Terminal"
    alis ask --session "<conversation-id>" "which command did that use?"
    ```

    Without `--session`, each question stands alone.

3. Open a cited source. Citations name their kind: a `SKILL` (load it with `alis skills load <id>`), a `SESSION` (`contexts/<id>`, in the TUI's Sessions page) or a `SPECIALIST` conversation (`tickets/<id>`, read it with `alis specialist get`).

=== "From a script or agent"

    ```bash title="Terminal"
    alis ask "which skill helps with build environments?" --json
    ```

    One `AskResponse` object: `answerDelta` (the full answer), `citations[]` (`kind`, `name`), `relatedQuestions[]` and `session`.

## If there is no answer

Exit 1 with `no_answer` means nothing could be cited: rephrase as a fuller question, or search directly. When you already know you want a skill, `alis skills search` is faster and returns loadable ids.

In the TUI, ++a++ opens the same Ask page; ++1++ to ++9++ open a numbered source.

Related: [alis ask](https://docs.alisx.com/reference/cli/ask.md).