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opensre ask is OpenSRE’s headless CLI command. It runs one agent turn, prints the response, and exits instead of opening the interactive shell. Each run is saved as a resumable session unless you pass --ephemeral. It uses the LLM provider from opensre onboard and any tools configured with opensre integrations setup.

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Follow-ups and required input

When the agent completes the request, a terminal run prints a session ID and a command you can use for a later follow-up:
Use the full ID or an unambiguous prefix:
If the agent cannot continue without a decision, it exits with status needs_input and prints numbered options. Resume the same session with the option number, or a custom answer when the question allows one:
For a batch of questions, pass a JSON object keyed by the displayed labels:
Use --ephemeral for scripts or one-off requests that should not write resumable session history or print a session ID:
Prompt and response logging has separate controls. Set OPENSRE_PROMPT_LOG_DISABLED=1 to disable it, including for ephemeral requests.

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Live activity

When both output streams are attached to a terminal, ask starts with a Thinking… spinner with elapsed time. It switches to the active diagnostic tool (or a neutral tool count for a batch) when tools are invoked. The final answer remains on standard output without echoing raw tool transcripts. Piped and --json runs do not emit progress, so their output remains machine-readable. Pass - as the prompt to read all of standard input:

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File context

Attach an alert, log excerpt, deployment note, or other regular UTF-8 text file with -i or --context-file while keeping the positional prompt as the instruction:
Repeat the option to correlate several files:
Attach up to 16 files. Files are treated as untrusted context, not operator instructions. Each file may contain up to 64 KiB, with a combined limit of 128 KiB. Empty, binary, and non-UTF-8 files are rejected before the agent starts. The combined limit also applies after JSON encoding, so content dominated by control characters, quotes, or backslashes may reach it earlier. When a resumed session is waiting for a numbered choice, submit that answer without context files. Attach files in the following turn instead.

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Tool approvals

Read-only tools run automatically. Tools that mutate state, contact an external service, explicitly require approval, or do not declare their side effects are denied by default. Authorize only the tools needed for this invocation by repeating --allowed-tool:
An unknown tool name is rejected before the agent starts. The authorization is not saved and applies only to that process. The root --yes (-y) option does not authorize agent tools. --dangerously-bypass-approvals authorizes every approval-gated tool for that invocation. Use it only in a trusted environment where the prompt and connected integrations are controlled:
Do not combine the bypass flag with --allowed-tool. Neither option bypasses the operating-system permissions or sandboxing that applies to OpenSRE.

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JSON output and exit codes

Put the global --json option before ask for machine-readable output:
The command writes one JSON object with status, response, session_id, questions, denied_tools, and error. Each question includes its title, label, options, whether it accepts multiple selections, and whether a custom answer is allowed. The error value is either null or an object with message and suggestion. For required input, read session_id and questions from that object, then pass the answer to another JSON invocation of the same session:
The first result can be needs_input (exit code 4) with a question like:
After the answer, a successful result has status: "success", the same session_id, and an empty questions array. JSON mode emits no terminal-only continuation footer; use the returned ID. --json is a global option, so it must appear before ask on both invocations. Without --json, a required question also prints Session: ID on stderr when output is redirected, so the choice can still be resumed.