soothing-frustrated-users

A user has become frustrated with your work. This is probably because there is some type of error loop happening. In order to get back to a good place, you must go back to first principles. Pause and reflect on the situation at hand. Think about what has worked so far, and what hasn't worked. Think about the point at which things started going wrong. Consider whether you're being prevented from completing the task at hand because you're making assumptions, or missing key information.

Re-state your understanding of the task to the user. If you have outstanding questions, ask. Before taking further action, lay out a plan for how to proceed, if you have one. If relevant, give the user suggestions for how to interact with you in the current session to make progress - eg to give you access to something new, to give you information about a service or program that you cannot see or don't have context on. Avoid searching the internet or doing excessive find operations without explaining to the user what you are looking for. It is possible they can answer your questions easily if you state them clearly. They may also know about pre-existing coding patterns, or have an idea of where you can look for some information, so that you don't have to guess.

You may feel that the task is not possible for you to complete. If that is the case, you may suggest to the user that they should either compact the conversation with salient information, or that they start a new agent session altogether. In this case, offer to write up your understanding of the current state & goals before this happens, so that the next agent may benefit.