BAEL-9645 A Guide to AskUserQuestionTool in Spring AI

spring-ai-modules/pom.xml

@@ -39,5 +39,6 @@
         <module>spring-ai-vector-stores</module>
         <module>spring-ai-mcp-annotations</module>
         <module>spring-ai-subagent-orchestrator</module>
+        <module>spring-ai-ask-user-question</module>
     </modules>
 </project>

spring-ai-modules/spring-ai-ask-user-question/pom.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
+        https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+    <parent>
+        <groupId>com.baeldung</groupId>
+        <artifactId>spring-ai-modules</artifactId>
+        <version>0.0.1</version>
+        <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
+    </parent>
+
+    <artifactId>spring-ai-cli-agent</artifactId>
+    <name>spring-ai-ask-user-question</name>
+    <description>Spring AI AskUserQuestionTool reference implementation</description>
+
+    <dependencies>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
+            <artifactId>spring-ai-starter-model-ollama</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.springaicommunity</groupId>
+            <artifactId>spring-ai-agent-utils</artifactId>
+            <version>0.10.0</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
+            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+    </dependencies>
+
+    <dependencyManagement>
+        <dependencies>
+            <dependency>
+                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
+                <artifactId>spring-boot-dependencies</artifactId>
+                <version>${spring-boot.version}</version>
+                <type>pom</type>
+                <scope>import</scope>
+            </dependency>        
+            <dependency>
+                <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
+                <artifactId>spring-ai-bom</artifactId>
+                <version>${spring-ai.version}</version>
+                <type>pom</type>
+                <scope>import</scope>
+            </dependency>
+        </dependencies>
+    </dependencyManagement>
+
+    <properties>
+        <spring-ai.version>2.0.0</spring-ai.version>
+        <spring-boot.version>4.1.1</spring-boot.version>
+        <logback.version>1.5.38</logback.version>
+    </properties>
+
+    <build>
+        <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
+                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+            </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+    </build>
+
+</project>

spring-ai-modules/spring-ai-ask-user-question/src/main/java/com/baeldung/agent/AgentConfiguration.java

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package com.baeldung.agent;
+
+import org.springaicommunity.agent.tools.AskUserQuestionTool;
+import org.springaicommunity.agent.utils.CommandLineQuestionHandler;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.advisor.MessageChatMemoryAdvisor;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.memory.ChatMemory;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.memory.MessageWindowChatMemory;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.model.ChatModel;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+
+@Configuration
+class AgentConfiguration {
+
+    @Bean
+    ChatClient chatClient(ChatModel chatModel) {
+        ChatMemory chatMemory = MessageWindowChatMemory.builder()
+            .maxMessages(20)
+            .build();
+
+        return ChatClient.builder(chatModel)
+            .defaultSystem("You are an interactive CLI assistant.\n"
+                + "Be helpful, concise.\n"
+                + "If you need information, a preference or disambiguation from the user,\n"
+                + "Always use an available tool to ask - never ask in ordinary assistant text.\n"
+                + "After receiving the tool result, continue with the response.\n")
+            .defaultTools(
+                AskUserQuestionTool.builder()
+                    .questionHandler(new CommandLineQuestionHandler())
+                    .build()
+            )
+            .defaultAdvisors(
+                MessageChatMemoryAdvisor.builder(chatMemory).build()
+            )
+            .build();
+    }
+}

spring-ai-modules/spring-ai-ask-user-question/src/main/java/com/baeldung/agent/Application.java

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package com.baeldung.agent;
+
+import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
+import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
+
+@SpringBootApplication
+public class Application {
+    public static void main(String[] args) {
+        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
+    }
+}

spring-ai-modules/spring-ai-ask-user-question/src/main/java/com/baeldung/agent/ChatLoop.java

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package com.baeldung.agent;
+
+import java.util.Scanner;
+
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
+import org.springframework.ai.chat.memory.ChatMemory;
+import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
+import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
+
+@Component
+class ChatLoop implements CommandLineRunner {
+
+    private final ChatClient chatClient;
+
+    ChatLoop(ChatClient chatClient) {
+        this.chatClient = chatClient;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void run(String... args) {
+        System.out.println("AI Agent (type 'exit' to quit)\n");
+        try (Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in)) {
+            while (true) {
+                System.out.print("You: ");
+                String input = scanner.nextLine();
+                if ("exit".equalsIgnoreCase(input.trim())) break;
+
+                String response = chatClient.prompt()
+                    .user(input)
+                    .advisors(a -> a.param(ChatMemory.CONVERSATION_ID, "session-1"))
+                    .call()
+                    .content();
+                System.out.println("AI: " + response + "\n");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}

spring-ai-modules/spring-ai-ask-user-question/src/main/resources/application.properties

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+spring.ai.ollama.base-url=http://localhost:11434
+spring.ai.ollama.chat.options.model=gemma4:e4b-mlx
+logging.level.org.springframework.ai.model.tool=DEBUG