Lesson 4: Asking the user, safely, in a real system
23 min read·13 Oct 2026
Module 4 · Lesson 4 · About 50 minutes · Needs: Lesson 3 of this module (elicitation, resolvers, Multi Round-Trip Requests); Module 1 Lesson 4 (protocol eras)
The situation
It is Thursday 17 September 2026. Lesson 3 taught the server to ask: create_note confirms before saving a likely duplicate, and import_zotero sends Priya to a web page for her Zotero key. Today you find out what that costs and what breaks. Nare asks to save "Nap study schedule": who asks her first, the host or the server? What if a client cannot ask anyone? And Priya asks: why not just put a key field in the form? You run each case, then write the tests.