diff --git a/guardrails/guard.py b/guardrails/guard.py
index 9f95c451d..b41b45af1 100644
--- a/guardrails/guard.py
+++ b/guardrails/guard.py
@@ -979,7 +979,12 @@ def __call__(
         """
         instructions = instructions or self._exec_opts.instructions
         prompt = prompt or self._exec_opts.prompt
-        msg_history = msg_history or kwargs.get("messages", None) or []
+        msg_history = (
+            msg_history
+            or kwargs.get("messages", None)
+            or self._exec_opts.messages
+            or []
+        )
         if prompt is None:
             if msg_history is not None and not len(msg_history):
                 raise RuntimeError(
diff --git a/guardrails/schema/rail_schema.py b/guardrails/schema/rail_schema.py
index 2aaa04ec4..2071f6b01 100644
--- a/guardrails/schema/rail_schema.py
+++ b/guardrails/schema/rail_schema.py
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ def rail_string_to_schema(rail_string: str) -> ProcessedSchema:
                 role = message.attrib.get("role")
                 content = message.text
                 extracted_reask_messages.append({"role": role, "content": content})
-        processed_schema.exec_opts.messages = extracted_reask_messages
+        processed_schema.exec_opts.reask_messages = extracted_reask_messages
 
     return processed_schema