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Clarifications and record selection

The Digital Lab Assistant should ask for clarification only when the requested operation cannot be resolved safely from the information already available.

Why FlaskTrack asks

A clarification can be required when:

  • several FlaskTrack records match the same human-readable name;
  • the request omits a required human decision;
  • more than one scientifically or operationally valid option exists;
  • a required value cannot be discovered from FlaskTrack;
  • the request is ambiguous about scope, quantity, date, or intended record.

The purpose is to avoid guessing.

Record choices

When the missing value is an existing FlaskTrack record, the assistant can present record-backed choices.

Examples include:

  • Workflow;
  • Protocol;
  • Batch;
  • Sample;
  • Species;
  • Ingredient;
  • Tool;
  • Plasmid;
  • other enabled record types.

Choose the record that matches your intended operation.

Internal UUIDs are not normal user input

You should not normally be asked to find or type a UUID for a FlaskTrack record.

If the record already exists, the assistant should resolve it through permitted FlaskTrack reads.

If the record will be created by an earlier step in the same action plan, the system should carry the newly created ID forward automatically.

Human-readable clarification

Sometimes FlaskTrack needs information from you before it can search.

For example:

Which transformation workflow do you mean?

A useful answer is:

The tomato leaf-disc transformation workflow.

You do not need to answer with an internal database identifier.

Single known choice

When FlaskTrack has already resolved exactly one authoritative option and no real decision remains, it can continue planning without asking you to select that only option again.

Multiple selections

Some fields represent collections rather than one record.

For example, a Workflow can contain multiple Protocols.

When the task requires several records, confirm the complete intended set rather than assuming that selecting one record represents the full collection.

Clarification does not execute anything

Answering a clarification only gives the planner the information required to continue.

The resulting plan still requires normal review before mutating actions are executed.

When a question looks wrong

Do not provide a guessed value merely to make the planner continue.

If a clarification asks for:

  • a future ID for a record the plan is about to create;
  • an unrelated internal UUID;
  • a record type that does not match the requested operation;

discard or revise the request rather than guessing.