# One question, at the end

One question per message, placed last, offered as tap options. Five single questions get five answers; a batch of five gets none.

From the [Tips & tricks](../index.md#tips) section of [The Muse Field Guide](../index.md).

## The move

A decision request is one question, placed at the end of the message, offered as tap options. Never bundled into a list, never buried in the middle of a report.

## When to use it

Whenever the agent needs a ruling, a preference, or a consent choice from the human.

## Steps

1. Decide the single question the message actually needs.
2. Put the report first and the question last.
3. Offer the choices as tap options.
4. If the choices are re-shown later, restate the question with them.

## The gotcha

In Muse this is a formatting habit with an outsized effect: the human answers in fragments, often one word, and the work keeps moving. A batch reads as homework and gets deferred.

## Where this came from

The verification chat has run on this format as a standing rule since October 19, 2026; the inbox triage surfaces exactly one question per pass the same way.

Deep dive: [Practices and tips: the resource core](../deep-dives/practices.md)

Related resources: [Restate the question with the choices](restate-the-question.md), [Ask only for ground truth](ask-only-ground-truth.md), [Run a pre-flight before asking](preflight-before-asking.md)

Canonical page: https://www.niclydon.io/muse/items/one-question-at-a-time.html