nika:prompt
Core
Tool family from the canonical registry.
invoke
Call this builtin through the invoke verb.
Read this contract
This reference preserves the specification at the revision linked below. Source examples are fragments: their surrounding tasks, inputs and permissions are not supplied here. Consult engine status andnika catalog --tools --json for the installed implementation; a registry declaration is not a runtime qualification.
Usage and behavior
illustration
mode: selects what
is collected (default confirm) ·
Non-interactive contract (normative · all modes) · when no human can answer
(CI · daemon) the engine MUST use
default: when present · and MUST fail
NIKA-BUILTIN-PROMPT-001 (validation_error · non-interactive without a
default:) when absent: never hang forever · never silently pick an answer.
PROMPT-001 names only that unanswerable prompt, the one failure an engine
may turn into a durable pause awaiting an answer. Every configuration error
is a parse error (NIKA-BUILTIN-PROMPT-002 · validation_error), judged
before anyone is asked, attended or not, and never a pause, since no answer
repairs it: a missing message:, an unknown mode:, an empty choices:, and
a default: the mode cannot use — a choice default that is not an element
of choices:, an input default that is not a string, a confirm default
that is neither a boolean nor a word a person answers a confirm with (yes ·
y · no · n · true · false, case-insensitive, read as that answer;
YAML 1.2 reads an unquoted yes as a string).
For a workflow that requires fresh human approval, omit default: from the
confirmation prompt and gate the effect on its answer. default: false is an
automatic refusal in a non-interactive run; it does not request an answer or
pause for a human. Keep an unattended refusal in the invocation instead of
changing the workflow’s human gate; for example, the reference engine accepts
nika run workflow.nika --answer approval=false when the prompt task is named
approval. See the human-gated shipping template.
Related concepts
Arguments
Pass the values required by the tool contract.
Permissions
Understand authority before granting effects.
Errors and recovery
Read diagnostics and choose a recovery policy.
Workflow templates
Put the fragment inside a complete workflow.
Contract provenance
Read the pinned specification · Canonical registry. Tool identity:nika:prompt. Specification revision: 5cd95cd25c0f.
Documentation
Guides, reference contracts and working examples.
Language spec
the nine-key envelope, Apache-2.0. The contract these docs explain.
Engine source
Rust, AGPL-3.0-or-later. Every commit public.
TypeScript SDK
Use one typed lifecycle locally or against authenticated nika serve HTTP.
Editor extension
The editor extension, frozen at 0.120 and not qualified with 0.124: use
nika lsp and the JSON Schema.Homebrew tap
brew install supernovae-st/tap/nika for the latest tagged CLI release.SuperNovae
The Paris studio crafting Nika. 🦋