TL;DR:
A plan has three parts: a goal, ordered steps and checks that show each step worked.
Vague requests get questions first. Clear ones go straight to steps.
Doing the plan in your apps is new and in early access. Making and checking a plan is something you can do today.
You type: find the cheapest train to Boston on Friday. A person would not start by clicking. They would think: from where, at what time, do I mind a long trip, how many tickets? An assistant has to do the same thinking, and the quality of its plan decides whether the result is useful.
This article shows how a short request becomes a plan, using that train request as the example.
The short answer: goal, steps, checks
Goal: what finished looks like, in one sentence.
Steps: the actions in order, small enough to check one at a time.
Checks: how you know each step worked.
If a request is missing something the plan needs, the assistant should ask. If it fills the gap with a guess, you may get a good answer to the wrong question.
What happens step by step
It reads your request and picks out what you asked for: the thing, the place, the day.
It notices what is missing or unclear and decides whether to ask.
It writes the goal in a single sentence.
It lists steps in the order they have to happen.
It adds a check to each step.
It marks the steps that need your say, such as paying or sending.
Walk-through: finding the cheapest train to Boston on Friday
Here is how that request breaks down. This is an illustration of the thinking, not a record of any real search.
Questions first. From which station? Any time on Friday, or morning only? How many people? Is the cheapest ticket still fine if it takes much longer? A good assistant asks the ones that change the result, and only those. Say your answers are: from New York, morning, one person, up to a little longer is fine.
Goal. Find the lowest-priced one-way morning train from New York to Boston this Friday for one person.
Step | Check |
|---|---|
Open the site of the train operator, or a site that compares them. | The page shows New York to Boston search fields. |
Enter New York, Boston, this Friday, one adult, morning times. | The results list only Friday morning trains. |
Read the price and travel time of each result. | Every row has both a price and a time. |
Sort by price and pick the lowest, noting the travel time. | The lowest price is first, and I can name it. |
Compare with the second lowest, in case it is much quicker. | I can say what the extra cost buys. |
Show you the choice. Stop here. | You say whether to go ahead. |
Notice what the checks do. If step two returns Saturday trains, the check fails and the assistant knows to fix the date before it reads any prices. Without checks, an early mistake flows silently through every later step, and you only find it at the end.
Notice also the order. Reading prices comes before sorting, and sorting comes before choosing. Each step depends on what the one before it produced, which is why a plan is a list and not a pile. If you can swap two steps without anything changing, they were probably one step.
The last step is a deliberate stop. Buying a ticket is a payment, so the plan ends with a choice for you, not a purchase.
Where the assistant should ask you
When the request has gaps. Dates, places and counts.
When there are real trade-offs. Cheapest versus fastest.
Before sending or paying. Anything you cannot take back.
When something unexpected shows up. A price that looks wrong, or a page that asks for a sign-in.
Asking costs you a few seconds. A wrong guess can cost much more.
Doing it, and early access
Making the plan is thinking, and you can do that in any chat. Carrying it out inside your apps is a different matter, because the assistant must work in real windows, deal with banners and sign-ins, and stop at the right moments. Tools that do this are new. DuckyHelper's version is in early access, and it's built to ask first before it sends a message or pays for anything.
What it can't do
It cannot know prices without looking. A plan is not an answer. Do not trust prices it recalls from training.
It can miss options. It only compares what it can see. A different site may have a better deal.
It can plan badly. If a step looks odd, say so and ask for a change.
It cannot read your mind. Say what matters: price, speed or comfort.
Privacy and control
A plan for a task like this reveals things: where you are going and when. Check where the assistant sends your requests and whether the tool keeps them. Keep personal details such as passport numbers out of requests unless a step truly needs them, and enter those yourself on the booking site.
Try it yourself
Pick a task with a few moving parts, such as finding a cheap flight, comparing two laptops or planning a route.
Ask an assistant to write the plan first and not to start. Ask for a goal, steps and a check for each step.
Edit it: remove a step you do not need, and add one it missed.
Only then let it carry out the steps, if your tool can, and watch the first run.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just ask for the answer?
For simple questions you can. For tasks with several steps, seeing the plan lets you fix a wrong assumption before any time is spent.
How detailed should the plan be?
Detailed enough that each step has a visible result you can check, and no more.
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