Neutral Tone

You're absolutely right!

How do you ask an overly agreeable assistant an honest question? The English language has a quirky bug, where a question can be either an inquiry, request, rhetorical, or a blend of either. For example, consider the following questions:

Inquiry: What is your name?

Request: Can you pass the milk?

Rhetorical: What’s wrong with you?

If you wanted to make a genuine inquiry to your coding agent, you should avoid asking the question like a request or a rhetorical one. It’s a twist of language that induces honesty.

Can you pass the milk? -> Do you have the ability to pass the milk?

What’s wrong with you? -> Please tell me about the challenges that hinder your abilities.

Another common mistake is to ask leading questions. Pretend that you’re an investigative journalist trying to hide your motive. For example,

Leading: Why are you so upset?

Neutral: What makes you feel the way you do?

In a coding example:

Leading: Did you write too many tests?

Neutral: Is this an appropriate amount of testing?

If you don’t know the neutral phrasing, you can simply say opposites:

Is this plan overengineered or underengineered?