ask

sigmap ask is the daily command in v5.2. It turns a natural-language coding question into a focused mini-context plus useful metadata.

sigmap ask "fix the login bug"
sigmap ask "explain the auth flow" --json

What it does

ask combines several steps that used to be separate:

1. Detects the query intent (debug, explain, review, refactor, search)
2. Ranks files against the current signature index
3. Writes a focused context file to .context/query-context.md
4. Reports coverage, risk, and estimated cost

Typical output

Intent      : debug
Context     : .context/query-context.md
Coverage    : 96%
Risk        : LOW
Cost        : saved 98%
Top files   : src/auth/service.js, src/auth/token.js, src/http/middleware.js

Best prompts to use

• "explain the auth flow"
• "where is the middleware stack configured"
• "fix the race condition in UserService.findById"
• "review the retry logic in the queue worker"

The more task-shaped the query is, the better the ranking signal becomes.

JSON mode

Use --json when you want to feed the result into scripts, dashboards, or CI:

sigmap ask "explain the ranker" --json

The response includes the detected intent, ranked files, coverage, cost, and risk fields.

Recommended follow-up

After ask, use:

• validate when you want to sanity-check coverage
• judge when you want to score whether an answer was actually grounded in that context
• learning when you want to reinforce or penalize the files that helped