Ask user

How to ask the signed-in user a question from an automation, use the answer in later steps and when the step fails.

Use this action to ask the users signed in on the device a yes/no/cancel question and wait for the answer. Later steps can react to the answer and, if you like, reuse a value the user typed in. The device must be online.

Prerequisites

A Windows or macOS device with a user signed in.

Configuration fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
Title	text	Yes	—	Heading of the question window. Supports variables `${{ … }}` through Insert variable.
Question	formatted text (Markdown)	Yes	—	The question for the user. Use the toolbar to format it. HTML and images are not supported. Supports variables `${{ … }}` through Insert variable.
Request input	switch	No	off	Adds an input field to the question window. The entry is sent along with the pressed button and becomes the `input` output.
Input type	selection	No	Text	Shown only while Request input is on. See Input types below.
Options	text, one option per line	Yes, for Dropdown and Multi-select dropdown	—	Shown only for those two input types. 1 to 200 options, each up to 100 characters.
Answer timeout in seconds (optional)	number	No	120	How long the user has to answer. Allowed range: 10–600 seconds.
Button captions (optional)	three text fields	No	Yes / No / Cancel	Your own wording for the three buttons. Empty fields keep the default caption. Variables `${{ … }}` you type here are replaced when the step runs.

Before showing the Options, octoja removes empty lines, duplicates and leading or trailing spaces. Your saved options stay as they are, including capitalization.

A custom caption only changes the wording. The button keeps its meaning, and all three buttons are always shown.

You can only save the automation once Title and Question are filled in, the timeout is between 10 and 600 seconds, and every selection type has options.

Input types

Input type	What the user sees	Value in `input`
Text	One line, up to 1,000 characters	The text as entered
Multi-line text	Text area, up to 10,000 characters	The text as entered
Integer	Whole number without thousands separators	The number, for example `42`
Decimal	Number using the session's decimal separator, without thousands separators	The number with a dot, for example `1.5`
Yes / No	A checkbox, independent of the pressed button	`true` or `false`
Dropdown	One of the configured options	The chosen option
Date	Date picker; Clear date empties it	`yyyy-MM-dd`, for example `2026-10-01`
Multi-select dropdown	Checkboxes for the configured options	A JSON list, for example `["Monday","Friday"]`

The input is optional. If the user leaves the field empty, input is empty too. Exceptions: an unchecked Yes / No checkbox gives false, and a Multi-select dropdown with nothing selected gives []. The user must fix an invalid number before they can press Yes or No. Cancel always works.

Don't ask for passwords or other secrets — the entry is stored in the run history.

Platform support

Platform	Supported
Windows	Yes
Linux	No
macOS	Yes

On Linux, the step always fails with No user is signed in on the device.

Outputs

Output	Description
`response`	Answer: `yes`, `no`, `cancel` or `timeout`. In a condition, you pick the value from a list: Yes, No, Cancelled or No answer.
`confirmed`	Confirmed: `true` only when the user pressed the Yes button, otherwise `false`.
`selectedText`	Selected button text: The caption of the pressed button. Without a custom caption, `yes`, `no` or `cancel`. Not set on timeout.
`input`	Text input: The entry in the format of the chosen input type (see Input types). Only available while Request input is on. Also set when the user cancels, empty on timeout.

Base decisions on response or confirmed, not on selectedText. Otherwise renaming a button suddenly changes your logic.

Result behaviour

Case	Result	Outputs
The user presses Yes	Succeeded	`response = yes`, `confirmed = true`
The user presses No	Succeeded	`response = no`, `confirmed = false`
The user presses Cancel	Failed: prompt cancelled	`response = cancel`, `confirmed = false`
No answer within the timeout	Failed: no answer in time	`response = timeout`, `confirmed = false`
Nobody is signed in	Failed: No user is signed in on the device.	None
Title or Question is empty after variables are filled in	Failed	None
The device is offline	Device offline. Depending on If device is offline, the run ends with this status or the step is skipped.	None
The agent does not respond in time	Timed out. The outcome is then unknown.	None

The run waits until the user answers or the timeout expires. The question window has no close button: the user must pick one of the buttons, or the window closes by itself when the timeout expires. If several user sessions are connected, the question appears in all of them. The first answer wins and closes the window everywhere. Answered and unanswered questions are also recorded in the device log.

Mind the difference between No and Cancel:

No ends the step successfully. So the next step also runs after No, unless you give it a condition on confirmed or response.
Cancel and a missing answer fail the step. With the default On failure setting Stop the workflow, the automation stops there.

To handle these cases in later steps as well, set On failure on this step to Continue to next step and check response explicitly. A missing answer is not consent.

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