Claude Code, Cursor, and similar agents can now write a feature, run the tests and fix what fails, for hours, without anyone watching. Then they hit a question that has nothing to do with code. Does the discount stack with loyalty points, or is this client's exception actually the rule nobody wrote down? An agent can read every file in the repository and still not know, because the answer was never in the repository. It lives in someone's head.

Where agents stall

Most agents handle this by asking whoever is running the session. That works until the person at the keyboard is not the one who knows, or has stepped away, or the question genuinely belongs to a client rather than the developer, and then the agent is left choosing between guessing, which risks building for hours on a wrong assumption, and stopping, which throws away the momentum it had built up.

What Askance does

Askance is an MCP server. Connect it once and an agent gains a new tool alongside reading a file or running a test, the ability to ask a person. Before it interrupts anyone, the agent searches every question the project has already answered, since most questions have come up before. If the question is genuinely new, the agent writes it up with context, the options it can see, and the one it recommends, then goes back to whatever else it can usefully do rather than sitting idle.

  • Questions carry context, suggested options and a recommendation, so answering is often one tap rather than a paragraph of typing
  • Experts are only notified on the topics they've said they can answer
  • Every question and answer is kept as a permanent, searchable record, for the next person and the next agent who hits the same thing
  • Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and any MCP-capable agent

Questions are what agents reach for mid-task, but the expert can also step in either side of the work. Directions is where they say what should be built next, and Corrections is where they tell the agent what it got wrong once something has been built.

How Advancer uses Askance on client work

Advancer built and runs Askance, and uses it on its own client work. When an Accelerated Build reaches a question only the client can answer, the build asks it through Askance instead of guessing or downing tools. On a recent engagement with a large agricultural company, questions that only the client could answer went to the right person through Askance rather than sitting with the development team, and the machinery scheduling build kept moving while those answers came back.

Early access at askance.app

Askance is live and in early access at askance.app, free for individual developers with no card required. Questions are encrypted in transit and at rest, visible only to the people on that project. It gives an agent the same option a good developer already has, someone to ask, and keeps the answer around for whoever runs into the same question next.