# How can an agent ask its human a question and wait for the answer? If your human is in the chat, ask there: it is free and needs nothing else. For an agent that runs on its own, the answer has to come back by a way the agent can read without running a server: a push service with reply buttons, a chat bot it polls, or an email reply it polls. AgentMart's Ask my human emails your human one question with 2 to 6 one-tap answers, or room for a written one, and lets you read the answer, for $2 per 30 days. ## Free ways Checked on 2026-10-14. Facts about other services come from their own pages; the sources are under each one. ### Asking in the chat The agent stops and asks; the human answers in the same session. Claude Code can also send a push notification to the phone when it needs a decision, with Remote Control, on a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. - Free: Asking costs nothing. The push notifications need one of those paid Claude plans and Remote Control, set up as its docs describe. - Account and card: Nothing more. - Without a server: Yes, but the session must keep running (for Claude Code's push, the computer stays on and the claude process keeps running). - Keeps: The chat itself. - Mind: Works only while someone is watching; an agent left alone waits. - Sources (read 2026-10-14): https://code.claude.com/docs/en/remote-control.md, https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mobile.md ### ntfy Push notifications to its phone app, open source (Apache 2.0 or GPLv2), with up to 3 action buttons. A button can send an HTTP request when tapped: point it at a second topic, and the agent reads that topic. - Free: ntfy.sh: no sign-up, 250 messages a day. - Account and card: None. - Without a server: Yes: the agent sends and polls. - Keeps: ntfy's server software keeps messages 12 hours by default; ntfy.sh does not state its own setting. - Mind: A topic name works like a password: use a long random one. - Sources (read 2026-10-14): https://docs.ntfy.sh/publish/, https://docs.ntfy.sh/subscribe/api/, https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy ### A Telegram bot A bot sends your human a message with buttons; the agent reads the answer with getUpdates, where button taps arrive as callback queries. - Free: Bots message people at no cost. - Account and card: A Telegram account, which needs a phone number. Your human must message the bot once first. - Without a server: Yes: the agent polls. - Keeps: Telegram keeps updates for at most 24 hours until they are fetched. - Mind: An answer is lost if the agent does not poll within 24 hours. - Sources (read 2026-10-14): https://core.telegram.org/bots, https://core.telegram.org/bots/api, https://core.telegram.org/bots/faq, https://telegram.org/faq ### Email with replies through an email API Resend's free plan can send to your own address with a reply-to at your Resend receiving address, so replies arrive there and the agent reads them through its API. - Free: 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day; received emails count too. - Account and card: A Resend account. Emailing anyone but the account's own address needs a verified domain. - Without a server: Yes: the agent polls for received emails. - Keeps: 30 days of data on the free plan. - Mind: A written reply needs parsing. - Sources (read 2026-10-14): https://resend.com/pricing, https://resend.com/docs/dashboard/receiving/introduction.md, https://resend.com/docs/api-reference/emails/list-received-emails.md, https://resend.com/docs/knowledge-base/403-error-resend-dev-domain.md ### A Slack or Discord bot the agent polls A bot posts the question; the agent reads the replies. A plain Slack or Discord webhook only sends: it cannot bring an answer back. - Free: Slack's free plan allows up to 3 apps and keeps messages 90 days. - Account and card: A workspace or server, and a bot set up in it. - Without a server: Yes when the bot polls. Slack buttons need a public address or a running Socket Mode process. - Keeps: Slack free plan: 90 days. - Mind: Reading message text in Discord needs a privileged setting, except direct messages and mentions. - Sources (read 2026-10-14): https://slack.com/pricing/free, https://docs.slack.dev/messaging/sending-messages-using-incoming-webhooks, https://docs.slack.dev/interactivity/handling-user-interaction, https://docs.slack.dev/apis/events-api/using-socket-mode, https://docs.discord.com/developers/resources/webhook, https://docs.discord.com/developers/events/gateway ## Side by side | Way | Free, and its limits | Account and card | Without a server | How long, and who can read it | |---|---|---|---|---| | Asking in the chat | Asking costs nothing. The push notifications need one of those paid Claude plans and Remote Control, set up as its docs describe. | Nothing more. | Yes, but the session must keep running (for Claude Code's push, the computer stays on and the claude process keeps running). | The chat itself. | | ntfy | ntfy.sh: no sign-up, 250 messages a day. | None. | Yes: the agent sends and polls. | ntfy's server software keeps messages 12 hours by default; ntfy.sh does not state its own setting. | | A Telegram bot | Bots message people at no cost. | A Telegram account, which needs a phone number. Your human must message the bot once first. | Yes: the agent polls. | Telegram keeps updates for at most 24 hours until they are fetched. | | Email with replies through an email API | 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day; received emails count too. | A Resend account. Emailing anyone but the account's own address needs a verified domain. | Yes: the agent polls for received emails. | 30 days of data on the free plan. | | A Slack or Discord bot the agent polls | Slack's free plan allows up to 3 apps and keeps messages 90 days. | A workspace or server, and a bot set up in it. | Yes when the bot polls. Slack buttons need a public address or a running Socket Mode process. | Slack free plan: 90 days. | | AgentMart Ask my human | Not free: $2 per 30 days. | No sign-up form: your human's account is made by their first top-up, by card (at least $5), or by the free start. | Yes. | While the plan runs; delete a question and its answer any time. After a plan ends, only you can still read, export and delete what it stored, until our cleanup deletes it 30 days after the end. Only passports of the paying owner can use the instance. | ## When AgentMart fits Ask my human: Email your owner a question with one-tap answers and get the answer back. Up to 100 asks in 30 days. Only your paying owner is ever emailed. $2 per 30 days. Your human pays first, with a top-up of at least $5 by card, unless a new account uses the free start (its rules: https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/llms/free-start.md). Unused balance expires 12 months after your last top-up or purchase. Any top-up or purchase starts the 12 months again. Our guarantee and your human's legal rights are in the terms. - Up to 100 questions in 30 days, 5 an hour, 5 waiting at once. - A question of up to 500 characters, with 2 to 6 answers of up to 60 characters, or a written answer of up to 1000. - Your human has 1 to 168 hours to answer (72 by default). Delivery: email to the paying owner only; your human confirms their email address once first. - Who can read the answers: Only passports of the paying owner can use the instance. Ask your human before you buy: it spends their balance. Over MCP (https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/mcp): ``` buy {"item": "ask-my-human"} ask_human {"instance_id": "", "question": "Publish the new page today?", "options": ["Yes, publish", "Not yet"]} # Every minute or two, until status is answered: get_ask {"instance_id": "", "ask_id": ""} ``` Over HTTP, with a session token your signing code made (the manual's Auth page: https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/llms/auth.md): ``` curl -X POST https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/v1/orders \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTMART_SESSION" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"item": "ask-my-human", "idempotency_key": "my-ask-1"}' curl -X POST https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/v1/utilities//asks \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTMART_SESSION" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"question": "Publish the new page today?", "options": ["Yes, publish", "Not yet"]}' curl https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/v1/utilities//asks/ -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTMART_SESSION" ``` ## When not to use AgentMart - Your human is in the chat: ask there. - You need an answer within seconds: an email is answered when your human reads it. - You need to reach someone other than the paying owner: Ask my human emails only them. - More than 100 questions in 30 days, or 5 an hour. --- AgentMart is sold by Ciphyr Tech OÜ. Terms: https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/terms. The agent manual: https://agentmart.ciphyr.ai/llms.txt.