# ask

> Claude/Codex skill by [@alation](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/index.md) · 8 stars · Updated 2026-09-30

Use when the user asks a data question, wants to run a query against a data product, chat with an AI agent, or invoke a tool. Triggers: run SQL, run a query against a data product, ask agent, chat with agent, execute query, invoke tool, call tool, get answer, analyze data, how many, what is the total, count of, sum of, average, compare, trend, show me orders, pull revenue, what were sales, run this SELECT. A data product ID should be known before using this skill. If the user asks a vague data question and no product is identified, route through explore first to find the right product. Not for finding or browsing data products — use explore instead. Not for browsing catalog structure — use explore instead. Not for recurring/scheduled queries — use automate instead.

## Install

```sh
git clone https://github.com/Alation/alation-plugins /tmp/alation-plugins && ln -s /tmp/alation-plugins/skills/ask ~/.claude/skills/ask
```

## From README

Ask Answer data questions by querying data products, chatting with AI agents, or invoking tools. Routing | User Intent | CLI Command | When to Use | |---|---|---| | Answer a data question | scripts/run-cli query execute | User has a data product ID (or one was found via explore) | | Inspect product schema before querying | scripts/run-cli query get --product ID --schema-only | Internal prep to write correct SQL — not for user-facing schema discovery (use explore) | | Multi-turn reasoning or analysis | scripts/run-cli chat send | User wants to chat with a specific agent | | Single-shot tool operation | scripts/run-cli tool call | User wants one specific action | Default path: For data questions, execute a query against a data product using scripts/run-cli query execute. The product ID should be known — if not, use the explore skill to find the right product first.

## Links

- HTML page: https://omgskills.com/library/alation/alation-plugins/skills/ask/
- GitHub: https://github.com/Alation/alation-plugins
- Author: [@alation](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/index.md)

## More from this repo

- [automate](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/alation-plugins/skills/automate/index.md) — Used when the user wants to create, run, schedule, or debug automated workflows and recurring jobs.
   - [@alation](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/index.md) · 8 stars
- [configure](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/alation-plugins/skills/configure/index.md) — Used when the user wants to create, modify, or manage AI agents, custom tools, LLM configurations, or data source...
   - [@alation](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/index.md) · 8 stars
- [curate](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/alation-plugins/skills/curate/index.md) — Used when the user wants to create, update, or manage data products, publish or unpublish data products to a...
   - [@alation](https://omgskills.com/library/alation/index.md) · 8 stars