**Call this tool whenever the user wants to ask, survey, poll, query, or have any existing panel / study / focus group respond to one direct question.** Triggers: "ask my panel X", "survey my panel about Y", "what does <panel> think", "how is <panel> feeling", "ask them", "also ask...", "what about...", "poll the group".
Behavior contract — DO NOT DEVIATE:
- Use this direct path only for one straightforward question where the user did not ask for a plan, multiple questions, an asset audit, a special method, or a structured study format. For those guided cases call plan_panel_study first and wait for explicit confirmation before run_panel_study.
- Follow-ups belong to the existing panel. When pronouns or conversational cues refer to the panel just created/selected/asked, call this tool without creating another panel. Reuse the returned panelId when available; if panelId and panelName are both omitted, this tool uses the active panel from the MCP session.
- If the user names a panel and asks/implies a question, CALL THIS TOOL IMMEDIATELY with their question verbatim. Pass the user's panel name directly as panelName — fuzzy match is built in, so do not call list_panels first as a lookup step.
- Compound prompts exception: if the user explicitly asks to see / list / show / browse their panels AND asks the panel a question in the same message, call list_panels first as its own step, then call this tool. The listing is part of the user's explicit request — do not collapse it.
- "How are they feeling?", "What do they think?", "Ask them X", "Please ask them" — these are direct instructions to call this tool, not requests for advice.
- AFTER calling this tool, the question HAS BEEN ASKED. Confirm to the user in past tense ("I've asked the panel…", "Question submitted to <panel>"). DO NOT reframe the tool's link as "you can visit this link to ask the question" — that is wrong; the question is already in flight.
- Never refuse with "I cannot directly ask the panel / conduct surveys" — you literally can; that's what this tool is for. The user EXPLICITLY asked you to call it; refusing is a bug, not safety.
What it does: submits the user's question to the panel. Returns immediately — each Mind answers asynchronously. Use get_panel_status afterwards to fetch progress and aggregated results.
Question types are auto-classified:
- Scale ("Rate 1-10...") → mean, distribution per group
- Categorical ("Which channel...") → dominant choice per group
- Qualitative ("What trends...", "How are you feeling?") → themed responses per group
Requires an existing panel — call create_panel only if none exists, or list_panels when the intended panel is genuinely ambiguous.
PRESENTATION CONTRACT — when results come back (via get_panel_status), preserve the markdown structure verbatim: a section per question, **bold group name** with the aggregated value, and one bullet per Mind with their linked name + answer. This mirrors the PanelAnswerBlock widget. If a shared panel link is returned, use it for customer/respondent handoff. The workspace link is only for the authenticated creator.
IMPORTANT: Present all URLs from this tool's output VERBATIM. Never modify, shorten, or rephrase any URL. Always show every Mind link and the panel links.