Lesson 996 of 1455
When to Tell Claude Code or Manus to STOP and Wait for You
The 'stop and ask me' instruction is a power move — agents don't know what they don't know.
Builders · Agentic AI · ~4 min read
The big idea
Agents will guess when they're unsure. That can be useful or catastrophic depending on the guess. The fix is free: in your initial prompt, say 'if you're unsure about X, stop and ask me.' Claude Code, Manus, and Cursor Agent all respect this. It turns the agent from a runaway robot into a checkpoint-driven teammate.
Some examples
- 'If you're about to delete more than 10 lines, stop and show me the diff first.'
- 'If you can't find the file I mean, ask me — don't guess.'
- 'If a test fails after 3 fix attempts, stop and let me debug with you.'
- 'If you'd need to install a new package, ask first.'
Try it!
Next agent run, add three 'stop and ask me if' lines to your prompt. Notice how much calmer the run feels.
Key terms in this lesson
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