Meeting replies

Calendar triage needs more than yes or no: accept, decline, or propose other times, and which times. One kind: question request asks both questions in a single card, recommends an answer based on the conflict the agent found, and returns structured answers your calendar tool can act on. Script: examples/cookbook/meeting-reply.sh.

sh examples/cookbook/meeting-reply.sh examples/cookbook/invite.json

The request

{
  "title": "RSVP: Q4 planning (Thu, 09 Oct 2026 15:00 UTC)",
  "summary": "From Dana Lee <dana@example.org>. Overlaps 'Dentist' (15:30-16:30)",
  "kind": "question",
  "tool": "calendar.rsvp",
  "source": {"agent": "calendar-agent"},
  "timeout": "1d",
  "input": {"questions": [
    {"id": "rsvp", "header": "RSVP", "recommended": 2,
     "question": "Reply to **Q4 planning**, Thu, 09 Oct 2026 15:00 UTC (45m)?",
     "options": [
       {"label": "Accept", "description": "Accept as sent"},
       {"label": "Decline", "description": "Decline with a short note"},
       {"label": "Propose new time", "description": "Offer the slots selected below",
        "preview": "Conflict: Overlaps 'Dentist' (15:30-16:30)"}
     ]},
    {"id": "slots", "header": "Slots", "multi": true, "allow_free_text": true, "recommended": 3,
     "question": "If proposing, which slots should I offer? Type another time if none fit.",
     "options": [
       {"label": "Thu 09 Oct 10:00 UTC"}, {"label": "Fri 10 Oct 14:00 UTC"},
       {"label": "Mon 13 Oct 16:00 UTC"}, {"label": "Not needed"}
     ]}
  ]},
  "options": [
    {"id": "submit", "label": "Send RSVP", "outcome": "approve", "style": "primary"},
    {"id": "decline", "label": "Ignore invite", "outcome": "deny"}
  ]
}

Question rules worth knowing:

• Up to 10 questions per request; every question must be answered before Submit. Give conditional questions an explicit way out (Not needed).
• recommended is an option index; the agent can compute it (here: propose a new time when it found a conflict, otherwise accept).
• multi: true allows several selections; allow_free_text adds a text box.
• Option preview is Markdown shown while the option is focused.
• options default to Approve/Deny; label them for the action (Send RSVP, Ignore invite), keeping one approve (submit) and one deny (decline).

Reading the answers

Answers arrive in decision.fields.answers, keyed by question id, with the selected labels:

{"status": "answered", "option": "submit", "feedback": "Prefer Friday",
 "fields": {"answers": {
   "rsvp": {"selected": ["Propose new time"]},
   "slots": {"selected": ["Fri 10 Oct 14:00 UTC", "Mon 13 Oct 16:00 UTC"], "text": "Tue 14 Oct 09:00 UTC"}}}}

printf '%s' "$decision" | jq '.fields.answers as $a | {
  rsvp: $a.rsvp.selected[0],
  slots: ($a.slots.selected - ["Not needed"] + (if $a.slots.text then [$a.slots.text] else [] end)),
  note: (.feedback // "")}'

{"rsvp": "Propose new time",
 "slots": ["Fri 10 Oct 14:00 UTC", "Mon 13 Oct 16:00 UTC", "Tue 14 Oct 09:00 UTC"],
 "note": "Prefer Friday"}

From a terminal the same answer is:

handup answer ID --select "rsvp=Propose new time" \
  --select "slots=Fri 10 Oct 14:00 UTC" --select "slots=Mon 13 Oct 16:00 UTC" \
  --text "slots=Tue 14 Oct 09:00 UTC" -m "Prefer Friday"

Variations

• Over MCP: a single question is simpler with ask_question ({"question": "…", "choices": [...], "allow_free_text": true}); use request_approval with kind: "question" for several questions or a timeout.
• Skip the obvious ones: an invite from your own domain with no conflict needs no question; accept it in the caller and ask only when there is a conflict or an external organizer.
• Same pattern elsewhere: choose a deploy region, pick which flaky tests to quarantine, select PR reviewers, triage a bug’s severity and owner.