# Run a pre-flight before asking

Before any question reaches the human, the agent checks every source it has: memory, records, recent files, comms. Most questions die there.

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

## The move

The agent checks every source it has before it spends the human's attention. A question that evidence could have answered is not diligence. It is a tax.

## When to use it

Every time the agent is about to ask the human something. In this household the checklist has seven steps, and only when all seven come up empty may the question be asked.

## Steps

1. Search memory under several phrasings.
2. Check direct relationship records.
3. Check for duplicate or stub identities.
4. Read the last seven days of work files.
5. Check the people pages.
6. Search every comms channel.
7. For photo questions, check whether the person appears in the photos at all.

## The gotcha

Your memory search, saved files, and connected accounts are the pre-flight. Skipping it feels faster and costs the human the one resource the whole system exists to protect: attention.

## Where this came from

The checklist is exercised constantly in the household's verification chat, where most candidate questions die in the pre-flight before they are ever asked.

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

Related resources: [The question pre-flight checklist](question-preflight-checklist.md), [Ask only for ground truth](ask-only-ground-truth.md), [One question, at the end](one-question-at-a-time.md)

Canonical page: https://www.niclydon.io/muse/items/preflight-before-asking.html