When Ask refuses

If ZLens cannot answer a question safely, it does not guess. It runs no query and tells you why. A refusal with a clear reason is a correct answer: it means the data or the definitions you need are not in the project yet.

A refusal with a reason Asked for an employee churn rate, Ask runs no query and says why: none of the sample's tables hold employee data. How it was answered lists the tables it searched.

1. Open Ask from the left rail.
2. Ask "What is our employee churn rate?".
3. The answer is labelled Couldn't run this query.
4. The reason says no table holds employee or HR data and lists the tables it searched.
5. Open How it was answered to see each step and where it stopped.

What you see

Ask the sample project What is our employee headcount by department?:

1. The trust line reads Couldn't run this query.
2. The reason follows, for example: No query was run because the tables Ask searched do not hold it: no listed table or column holds employee or department information …
3. The status line reads No answer, with the steps Ask took and what it looked for and missed.

No draft block is saved for a refusal.

Common reasons

Ask says	What to do
Nothing in this project answers this question	Add or review the missing metric, dimension, relationship or table, then ask again.
No matching data, for a period, a name or a set of filters	The query would run, but nothing matches. Check the spelling or widen the filter.
One detail is missing	Answer the question Ask asks (shown as Needs clarification), and it carries on.
A certified relationship or approved allocation is needed	Ask will not invent a join between tables. Define the relationship in Modeling.
No AI model is configured	Set up an AI provider. Ask needs one to read the question.
AI-written SQL is turned off for this project	Only certified blocks and semantic metrics can answer. Certify a block for the question.
Policy or permissions blocked this query	The query touches data your project's policy excludes.
Ask is scoped to a domain that no longer exists	Clear the Scope or pick another domain.

See exactly why

Click How it was answered. Each step shows whether it was done or skipped, and the last step, No answer, gives the reason. For example, a step can say No certified block matches this question. or The semantic layer has no metric or dimension for part of this question.

See How Ask answered.

Turn a refusal into an answer

1. Find the gap in How it was answered.
2. Add what is missing: a dbt model or column, a semantic metric, a relationship in Modeling, or a certified block.
3. Run npm run sync if you changed dbt.
4. Ask again.