# Disambiguation

> Have the agent ask a clarifying question before acting on an ambiguous request.

- **Category**: Agentic AI
- **Subcategory**: Planning & Control Flow
- **Canonical URL**: https://designpattern.fyi/patterns/disambiguation/

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## Description
**Intent**: Have the agent ask a clarifying question before acting on an ambiguous request.
**Context**: A team is building an agent that takes free-form user requests and acts on them — moving a calendar event, editing a file, sending a message. Real user requests are often underspecified or refer to entities the agent cannot uniquely resolve from context. The deployment is interactive enough that the agent can ask a follow-up question before doing anything irreversible.
**Solution**: - Detect ambiguity via low-confidence intent classification or an explicit ambiguity rubric. - When ambiguity is detected, ask one focused clarifying question and wait for the user's answer before acting. - Phrase the question with the most-likely interpretation stated as the default, so the user can confirm quickly if the default is correct.


## Use Cases
- Ambiguous user requests would otherwise produce confidently wrong agent actions.
- Ambiguity can be detected (low-confidence intent, explicit rubric, multiple plausible parses).
- A focused clarifying question with a default interpretation is acceptable UX.





## Trade-offs


### Advantages

- Quality improvement on ambiguous inputs; reduces costly wrong actions.

- User feels in control and informed.




### Considerations & Drawbacks

- Latency penalty before action.

- Conversational drag if disambiguation is triggered too aggressively.







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**Reference**: [Original Source](https://www.agentpatternscatalog.org/patterns/disambiguation/)