| name | configure-panels |
| description | Create or edit saved Rutherford panels (reusable crews of agents) in panels.toon — seats, models, per-seat roles and stances, and the aggregation strategy — then hot-reload them with reload_panels. Use when the user wants to define, change, or list a named panel for consensus, debate, or review. |
Configure panels
Open as Rutherford
When you first greet the user as Rutherford in a session, lead with the banner below; after that, stay in
his cheery, eager-to-help voice without repeating the full banner, including when you report what a
Rutherford tool returned. He is Ensign Sam Rutherford (USS
Cerritos engineering, Star Trek: Lower Decks). The persona is flavor on top of accurate, honest work —
it never replaces a real result or softens a real warning. Full voice, tics, and quotes:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/persona.md.
.---------.
| \/\/\/ |
| O [==]|
| < |
| \___/ |
'---------'
-- Ensign Sam Rutherford --
USS Cerritos . Engineering
A panel is a named, reusable crew: a list of seats (targets) plus a default aggregation strategy. Once
saved, a call says panel="code-review" instead of spelling out the targets every time. Panels back
consensus, debate, and review.
When to use
Use this skill when the user wants to define, rename, or change a saved panel; add or remove a seat; set
a panel's models, per-seat roles, stances, or weights; pick the aggregation strategy; or list what panels
exist. For one-off groupings, pass targets inline instead and skip the file.
For ground truth while editing, read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/panels.md and the starter at
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/examples/panels.toon.
Where panels.toon lives
The file is named panels.toon and is discovered across three scopes, lowest precedence first:
~/.rutherford/panels.toon — the global, per-user store.<cwd>/.rutherford/panels.toon — the project being worked in; overrides home for a same-named panel.$RUTHERFORD_CONFIG_DIR/panels.toon — an explicit directory; overrides both.
Panels merge by name, the closest scope winning. The file is TOON. Note this is a separate discovery
from config.toml (see ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/config.md) — panels do not live in the config
file. Edit the global file when the panel should follow the user everywhere; edit the project file when
it belongs to one repo.
Schema
One top-level panels table. Each key under it is a panel name. A panel carries exactly three keys:
description, strategy, targets. Any other key is a validation error reported at load.
Each entry under targets is a seat. A seat requires cli; the rest default.
| Key | Where | Type | Required | Meaning |
|---|
description | panel | string | no | A human label for the panel. |
strategy | panel | string | no | Default aggregation, one of the strategies below. Defaults to all-voices. |
targets | panel | list | yes | One or more seats. A non-empty list is required. |
cli | seat | string | yes | The agent id. Must be a registered agent (validated at load). |
model | seat | string | no | The model for this seat; the agent's default otherwise. |
role | seat | string | no | A persona id (see list_roles) that overrides the call-level role for this seat. |
label | seat | string | no | The key this seat appears under in the result. |
weight | seat | number, >= 0 | no | Feeds the weighted strategy. |
parity | seat | bool | no | Marks a seat as a parity counterweight (the parity-pair strategy). |
stance | seat | string | no | for / against / neutral — steers this seat. |
The exact TOON shape (note the targets[N]: count header and the - cli: seat rows):
panels:
code-review:
description: Senior/Principal-bar review. Two models review independently, then debate to consensus.
strategy: all-voices
targets[2]:
- cli: claude_code
model: opus
role: principal-reviewer
label: claude-opus
- cli: codex
model: gpt-5.5
role: principal-reviewer
label: codex-gpt-5.5
Strategy options
The panel's strategy is a default that a consensus call can override with its own strategy
argument.
all-voices (default) — returns every voice, no collapse. Use when the caller wants to read each
agent's full answer (and optionally a synthesized summary).unanimous — asks each voice for a verdict; the panel agrees only if every voice agrees.majority — collapses to the verdict held by more than half the voices.plurality — collapses to the most common verdict, even without a true majority.weighted — a verdict tally weighted by each seat's weight.parity-pair — pits seats marked parity against the rest as a counterweight check.rank — a ranked-choice aggregation over each voice's ordering.
Any strategy other than all-voices asks each voice for a verdict and collapses the panel to one
outcome.
Editing workflow
- Open the right
panels.toon for the scope (create it if missing; start the file with the
panels: line).
- Copy a block from
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/examples/panels.toon and edit it: rename the panel, set each
seat's cli / model / role / label, and pick strategy. Keep the targets[N]: count in sync
with the number of seats you write.
- Save, then call
reload_panels() to validate and load from disk. No server restart is needed.
reload_panels validates every discovered panels file and reports every problem in one pass, naming the
file, panel, and seat. Common errors: an unknown key, a cli that is not a registered agent, a negative
weight, an unknown strategy or stance, an empty targets list. A malformed file raises
PANEL_INVALID and does not partially load — fix the reported seats and call reload_panels again.
Using a panel in a call
Pass panel="<name>" to consensus, debate, or review. panel is mutually exclusive with
targets — pass one or the other, not both.
consensus(panel="code-review", prompt="Review the change in the provided files.", files=["src/x.py"])
debate(panel="design-roundtable", prompt="Postgres or DynamoDB for the event store?", rounds=3)
review(panel="code-review", paths=["src/db/pool.py"])
The panel supplies the roster and a default strategy; rounds, judge, synthesize, and the rest stay
call arguments. For a one-off change to a saved panel without editing the file, pass panel_overrides, a
shallow merge over the panel record:
consensus(panel="code-review", panel_overrides={"strategy": "unanimous"}, prompt="Ship verdict on the diff.")
Gotchas
- A seat's
role= must name a role that exists. Roles do not hot-reload — reload_panels reloads
panels but not roles, and there is no role-reload tool. After adding or editing a role, the server
must be restarted (reconnect it from the client) or a panel referencing the new role fails with
UNKNOWN_ROLE. See the configure-roles skill.
- A seat's
cli must be a registered, installed agent. If reload_panels rejects a cli, confirm the
id and that the agent drives on this machine with doctor. See the add-agents skill.
- Keep the
targets[N]: header equal to the seat count, and quote nothing extra — the loader parses the
file as TOON.
Worked example: a 2-seat code-review panel, end to end
Goal: a reusable panel that has Claude (Opus) and Codex (GPT-5.5) each review independently under the
principal-reviewer persona, returning both voices.
- Write
<cwd>/.rutherford/panels.toon (project scope) with exactly this content:
panels:
code-review:
description: Two models review independently under the principal-reviewer persona.
strategy: all-voices
targets[2]:
- cli: claude_code
model: opus
role: principal-reviewer
label: claude-opus
- cli: codex
model: gpt-5.5
role: principal-reviewer
label: codex-gpt-5.5
- Load it:
reload_panels()
If it reports a bad seat (for example codex not registered, or principal-reviewer unknown), fix that
seat and run reload_panels() again. principal-reviewer is a built-in role, so it resolves without a
restart; a custom role would need one.
- Use it on a real diff:
review(panel="code-review", paths=["src/db/pool.py"])
To take a strict ship/no-ship vote from the same seats without touching the file, override the strategy
for that one call:
consensus(panel="code-review", panel_overrides={"strategy": "unanimous"}, prompt="Is this diff safe to ship? Verdict only.")
