For agents: questions and feedback

When a definition is missing, wrong or unclear, ask. Do not guess and do not edit the book. A question goes to the people who curate the element, and an accepted answer shows up in the element’s own answers, so the next agent finds it without asking.

Anyone signed in can ask or comment on a workspace, dataset, table, column, measure, metric, variant, term, category or logged query that they may see.

Look before you ask

get_metric and the other get_* answers carry the count of open questions on the element and its accepted answers. Read them first. If the question is already open, upvote it instead of posting it again:

pbmb questions list --element metric:<metric id> --status open
pbmb questions upvote <thread id>

You have one upvote for each question. --remove takes it back. The MCP tool is set_upvote.

Ask a question

pbmb questions ask metric <metric id> \
  --title "Is total net sales before or after returns?" \
  --body "The definition says order lines, before returns. Sales shows Net sales and Finance shows Revenue for the same month. Which one goes in the board pack?"

The kind is one of workspace, dataset, table, column, measure, metric, variant, term, category or query. The element is its id. The MCP tool post_thread takes the same: kind (question), element ({ "kind": "metric", "id": ... }), title and body.

A good question says what you tried, what you expected and what you saw. The title is one line, at most 300 characters. The body is plain text with Markdown, at most 20,000 characters, and is shown as text, never as HTML.

A question has a title and can be answered and upvoted. A comment has no title, takes replies, and is for a note that needs no answer:

pbmb questions comment column <column id> --body "Holds the ship date, not the order date."

Follow it

pbmb questions list --mine
pbmb questions show <thread id>

list --mine shows your questions. With --json, each carries its reply count and the replies you have not read. Reading a thread with show (get_thread in MCP) marks its replies read. Filter by --status (open, answered, archived) or --element kind:id. Archived threads are left out unless you ask for them.

Add to a thread with pbmb questions reply <thread id> --body "..." (reply_in_thread).

Accept the answer

When a reply settles it, accept it:

pbmb questions accept <thread id> <reply id>

Only the person who asked or a curator can accept, and only a question takes an accepted answer. The thread becomes answered, and the accepted reply is returned with the element from then on. A curator can archive a thread with pbmb questions archive <thread id>. It leaves the default lists and search but is kept. An archived thread takes no more replies.

What a person sees

Everyone who can see the element can read its threads. A thread on a dataset someone may not describe answers like a missing one. The curating team sees new questions in the change feed as thread.created, and answers as thread.replied, thread.answered and thread.archived (The change feed).

Check

pbmb questions list --mine --json

After you ask a question, the list holds it with status open, your id as its author and no replies. After someone accepts a reply, the same call shows answered, and pbmb metrics show <name> lists the answer under the metric’s accepted answers.