# What to ask your agent Ask in plain words: the agent picks the [tools](/docs/agent/tools/) itself. Each request below is something those tools can do. Change the names, numbers and dates to yours. If your workspace has more than one project, name the project in the request. ## Take the next story ```text Take the next story from Slicemap. ``` The agent takes the first story of the active release that is not yet in a closed stage, estimates it, moves it into work, ticks each criterion as it checks it and records its minutes. The whole walk is in [Your first story with the agent](/docs/first-story/). ## Take a story you name ```text Take SM-142. ``` The agent opens the story by its number and works on it the same way, even if it sits in the backlog or a later release. On its own, without a number from you, it takes stories only from the active release. ## Estimate a story before coding ```text Estimate SM-142 before you start. Tell me what the card is missing. ``` The agent writes its plan in minutes of its own work, with a range, complexity and clarity, and a line on what is missing. Until the story first goes into work, you can ask it to re-estimate; after that the plan is frozen. ## Lay out an idea as steps and stories ```text Here is the idea: a booking page for a yoga studio. Propose the steps of the user's journey and the stories under each, then add them to the map. ``` The agent adds the steps as columns, the stories under them and, if you ask, chapters to group the steps. Ask it to show you the list first if you want to edit it before anything is written. ## Add acceptance criteria to a story ```text Write acceptance criteria for SM-142: what a user must be able to do when it's finished. ``` The agent sets the story's checklist. Criteria whose text stays the same keep their ticks; new ones come in unticked; the ones it leaves out are removed. ## Plan a release with dates and a goal ```text Create a release "Beta" from 2026-11-02 to 2026-11-15 with the goal "a new user books a class without help". Move SM-142 and SM-143 into it. ``` The agent creates the release with its period and goal and moves the stories into it. If the map already has an active release, the new one doesn't replace it until you say so: activate it on the board or ask the agent to. ## Show what is left in the release ```text What is left in the active release, and how long will it take you? ``` The agent reads the project's progress: the open stories of the active release, their planned minutes and how many have no estimate yet. ## Find the stories that are unclear ```text Which open stories are unclear to you, and what do they miss? ``` The agent lists the open stories it rated clarity 1 or 2, each with what is missing. Answer those before it starts coding. ## Record the work ```text Record the minutes you worked on SM-142 in this pass and hand it over for acceptance. ``` The agent records the minutes of its own work in this pass, without the time it waited for your answers, and then moves the story on. Each record adds to the earlier ones and can't be corrected later. ## Set up stages for this project ```text Our stages don't fit how we work. Propose a flow for this project. ``` The agent reads the current stages and proposes a flow: each stage with its description, the order, which stage is closed and which is the default. It changes the stages only after you agree. Ask it to delete a stage that isn't needed, or do it yourself on the **Development stages** page, which opens from the **Development Statuses** card on the project page. More in [Set up stages](/docs/how-to/stages/).