Ask Better, Get Help Faster
We're happy to help. This guide exists to make questions easier to answer, reduce back-and-forth, and get you unstuck faster. It's not about asking less. It's about asking with enough context that someone can help effectively.
This is not a barrier to asking for help. If you're stuck, blocked, or unsure, ask anyway. Just include what you know so far.
Don't just say hello
"Hi" is friendly. "Hi, quick question: where does the onboarding checklist live?" is friendly and easier to answer. Include your actual question with the greeting so the other person can help when they have a minute.
A grateful nod to nohello.net, the classic tiny page that said this beautifully first.
Use AI as a first pass
AI and docs are great first-pass tools. They can often answer simple questions quickly or help you form a clearer question. But they are not a replacement for asking a teammate when you're blocked, dealing with codebase-specific behavior, or unsure about the right direction.
Check the docs
Documentation, runbooks, pinned channel posts, and old tickets often contain the answer or at least the map. A quick docs check can turn "do you know?" into "I found this, is it still right?"
Good question template
Use any parts that fit. You do not need a perfect report. A few useful details are enough to help someone start helping.
- What I'm trying to do:
- What I expected:
- What happened:
- What I tried:
- Relevant links/logs/screenshots:
- My current guess:
- What I need help with:
Ask a human
Teammates are great for judgment, tradeoffs, blockers, weird edge cases, and team-specific context. Clear questions help them jump straight into the useful part with you.
"Why is this broken?"
"I'm trying to deploy X. I expected Y, but I'm seeing Z error. I checked the deploy docs and asked AI about the error. It suggested A, but that didn't work because B. Relevant log: ____. Does anyone know if this service has a special deploy step?"
Share the vibe: Questions are welcome. Context helps.