ShockRock2004 Ask Agy
Overview
agy is the Antigravity CLI — a separate agent process on this machine, reachable non-interactively. It is a cold-start agent: it cannot see this conversation, the files you have open, or anything you already know. Its answer is only as good as the context you hand it in a single string.
Core principle: the prompt is the entire interface. Build it deliberately, then relay the reply as agy's, not your own.
Step 0 — Find agy, or stop
Resolve the binary before doing anything else. First hit wins:
AGY="$(command -v agy 2>/dev/null)"
[ -z "$AGY" ] && [ -x "$HOME/AppData/Local/agy/bin/agy.exe" ] && AGY="$HOME/AppData/Local/agy/bin/agy.exe"
[ -z "$AGY" ] && [ -x "$HOME/.local/bin/agy" ] && AGY="$HOME/.local/bin/agy"
[ -z "$AGY" ] && [ -x "/usr/local/bin/agy" ] && AGY="/usr/local/bin/agy"
echo "${AGY:-NOT_FOUND}"
If it resolves, carry $AGY through every call below. If it prints NOT_FOUND:
Say so plainly and stop. Tell the user the Antigravity CLI is not installed or not on
PATH, and that/askagyneeds it. Offer to answer the question yourself instead, clearly labelled as your own view rather than a second opinion.
Never fabricate a second opinion. A made-up "agy says…" is worse than no second opinion at all — the entire value of this skill is that the answer came from a different process.
The Prompt Recipe
Write the prompt as these four parts, in this order:
- Task framing — one sentence naming the role and the job. "You are reviewing a Python data pipeline for correctness bugs."
- Context agy cannot see — the relevant code, error text, file paths, versions, constraints, and what has already been tried and ruled out.
- The specific question — one question, sharply stated. Not three loosely related ones.
- Output shape — how you want the answer back. "List each bug as: file:line, one-sentence cause, minimal fix." Or "Answer in under 200 words, no preamble."
For code questions, prefer pointing agy at the directory with --add-dir over pasting large files. It can read them itself.
Invocation
Always use the Bash tool with a prompt file. Shell argument handling mangles long inline prompts. Write the prompt to a temp file first, then pass it as a single argument:
PROMPT_FILE="$(mktemp -t agy-prompt-XXXXXX)" # or $CLAUDE_JOB_DIR/tmp/agy_prompt.txt
# ...write the prompt into "$PROMPT_FILE"...
timeout 300 "$AGY" --print-timeout 240s --print "$(cat "$PROMPT_FILE")"
Set the Bash tool timeout above --print-timeout. Model calls typically take 10-60s; complex ones take minutes.
Quick Reference
| Need | Flag |
|---|---|
| Machine-readable reply | --output-format json |
| Pick model | --model <name> |
| More reasoning | --effort high (low|medium|high) |
| Give it a codebase | --add-dir /path/to/project |
| Follow up on last reply | --continue |
| Resume a specific thread | --conversation <id> |
| Let it use tools unattended | --dangerously-skip-permissions (only if the user asked) |
Model names change. Run "$AGY" models to list what this install actually offers rather than assuming a name is still valid. Omit --model to use whatever the user configured as their default.
JSON reply shape: {"conversation_id","status","response","duration_seconds","num_turns","usage":{...}} — read .response, and keep .conversation_id if a follow-up is likely.
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
PowerShell Start-Process -ArgumentList @("-p","long prompt") |
Silently word-splits; agy replies "your message might have been cut short" | Use the Bash tool with "$(cat file)" |
| Piping the prompt to stdin | Fails: flag needs an argument: -print |
agy takes the prompt as an argument only |
| Prompt assumes shared context ("the bug we discussed") | Agy answers a question it invented | Recipe part 2 — spell out the context |
Bash timeout below --print-timeout |
Call killed mid-flight, answer lost | Bash timeout > print-timeout |
| Hardcoding an install path | Breaks on every machine but one | Step 0 resolution |
| Presenting agy's reply as your own analysis | User can't weigh the second opinion | Attribute it, and say if you disagree |
Reporting Back
Give the user agy's answer, attributed. Add your own take when you agree, disagree, or spot something agy missed — the value of a second opinion is the comparison, so don't flatten it into one voice.
Each call spends the user's Antigravity quota under their own account. For a long chain of calls, say so first.