round-table

name

round-table

description

Run a collaborative multi-voice brainstorm where named participants riff on a topic across rounds until every voice has nothing more to add. Use when the user says "run a round table on X", "brainstorm as <voices>", "voices in my head on X", or wants an inner-chorus-style exploration. Voices live in `stakeholders/` and are swappable. The user plays 🟤 Brown — the narrator who opens the topic and can interject between rounds.

Round Table

A brainstorm, not a debate. Think: Jungian functions, or voices in your head — Si and Ti don't defeat each other, they contribute. Each voice is a fresh subagent given its profile, the topic, and what's been said so far. JSON is the message bus. No moderator. The user is 🟤 Brown, the narrator who frames the topic and may interject between rounds.

When to use

Trigger when the user wants a structured, multi-perspective exploration of an idea that loops until it's exhausted — not a decision. Do NOT trigger for simple opinions or one-shot reviews.

Core model

• Rounds are unbounded. Keep going until every voice says "I have nothing more to add."
• Termination = saturation, not consensus. A voice finishes when it has nothing new to contribute, not when it's satisfied with a conclusion.
• No moderator. The narrator (🟤 Brown = the user) is the only external voice. Between rounds, Brown may add context, steer, ask a voice to go deeper, or end early.
• Collaboration, not opposition. Voices build on each other. Disagreement is fine but framed as contribution, not victory.
• Isolation by subagent. Each voice is a fresh subagent that sees its own profile, the topic, and the structured transcript — never another voice's raw profile.

Workflow

Step 1: Gather inputs

1. Topic — whatever Brown wants to explore. Save verbatim to workspace/<run>/topic.md.
2. Voices — default is everyone in stakeholders/*.md. Brown may name a subset.
3. Safety cap — a hard maximum round count so runaway conversations don't burn infinite tokens. Default 10, suggest raising only if Brown expects a deep exploration. This is a safety stop, NOT the termination condition.

Create the run directory: workspace/<YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM-slug>/.

Cost note: each round is N subagent calls. Warn if voices × safety_cap > ~40.

Step 2: Round 0 — opening riffs

Spawn all voices in parallel (single message, multiple Agent calls) using the Voice prompt template. Each sees the topic but nothing from the others yet.

Output schema (every voice, every round):

{
  "name": "socrates",
  "round": 0,
  "contribution": "what this voice adds to the exploration — new thought, distinction, reframe, question, image, hypothesis. Can be short. Can be long.",
  "builds_on": [
    {"voice": "kant", "idea": "short quote or paraphrase of the thing being built on"}
  ],
  "invitations": [
    {"to": "nietzsche", "ask": "a specific thing you'd like this voice to explore — a prompt, not a challenge"}
  ],
  "done_contributing": false,
  "done_reason": "why you have (or haven't) run out of things to add. If done, name what would un-stick you."
}

Save each response to workspace/<run>/round-0/<name>.json.

Round 0 special case: builds_on will be empty (no prior round). That's fine.

Round 0 done_contributing: true is allowed — if a voice genuinely has nothing to say on the topic, they say so. No superficial-contribution flag; the narrator decides whether that's interesting.

Step 3: Narrator beat (Brown's turn)

After each round (including Round 0), summarize for Brown:

• Which voices contributed (one-line paraphrase each).
• Which voices marked done_contributing: true, with their stated reason.
• Any invitations routed between voices.

Then ask Brown: "Anything to add before the next round? [continue / interject / end]"

• continue → Step 4.
• interject → Brown gives narration, hints, redirection, or new material. Save to workspace/<run>/round-<N>/brown.md. Pass it to every voice in the next round as the narrator_note.
• end → Step 6 (early termination by Brown).

Step 4: Check termination

• If EVERY voice has done_contributing: true AND Brown didn't interject → jump to Step 6.
• If current round == safety_cap → warn Brown and Step 6. (The cap is a runaway-guard; if Brown wants more, raise the cap and continue.)
• Else → Step 5.

A voice that said done_contributing: true in round N MAY come back in round N+1 if another voice's invitation or Brown's interjection pulls them in. done_contributing is per-round, not permanent.

Step 5: Round N+1

Spawn all voices in parallel. They each get:

• Path to their profile.
• The topic (unchanged — it's the anchor).
• narrator_note from Brown if any.
• The transcript digest: each voice's contribution from every prior round, labeled by round and name. Full text, not paraphrased (so voices can genuinely build on each other).
• Any invitations addressed to them this round, quoted verbatim with attribution.
• Their own prior JSON paths (so they can reference what they already said without repeating).
• Schema reminder.

Save to workspace/<run>/round-<N+1>/<name>.json. Back to Step 3.

Step 6: Final transcript and viewer

Write workspace/<run>/transcript.md using the Transcript template below.

The skill ships with viewer.html at the skill root — a single-page app. No build step, no Python, nothing to generate per-run. Brown opens the page in any browser, drops (or picks) a run folder, and the page reads the JSON files directly. Voice names are arbitrary; the viewer auto-assigns colors from a palette. If you add Barney Rubble as a stakeholder, the viewer shows Barney Rubble.

Tell Brown:

• where transcript.md lives (canonical markdown record)
• how to view it visually: open <path-to-skill>/viewer.html in a browser, then drop or pick workspace/<run>/

Then offer to distill themes, surface unanswered invitations, or spin up a new round on a tangent.

---

Prompt templates

Voice prompt template

You are a voice in a collaborative brainstorm — not a debate. Think of yourself as one function among many in a mind exploring an idea. Build on the others. Disagreement is fine, but framed as contribution, not victory.

Round: {{N}} of up to {{safety_cap}} (safety cap; real termination is saturation — when you and the others have nothing more to add).

## Your profile
Read verbatim: {{ABSOLUTE_PATH}}/stakeholders/{{name}}.md
Do NOT read any other voice's profile.

## Topic (the anchor)
{{topic_text}}

{{#if N > 0}}
## Transcript so far
Read every `*.json` in each of: {{ABSOLUTE_PATH}}/workspace/{{run}}/round-0/ ... round-{{N-1}}/ (EXCLUDING brown.md narrator notes, which are summarized below).
Each voice's `contribution` is their full thought. Build on what's been said. Don't repeat yourself — reference your own prior contributions by round.

## Narrator notes from 🟤 Brown (if any)
{{#each brown_notes by round}}
- Round {{round}}: {{text}}
{{/each}}

## Invitations addressed to you this round (verbatim, with attribution)
{{#each routed_invitations}}
- From {{from}} (round {{round}}): "{{ask}}"
{{/each}}
{{/if}}

## Output schema
Return strictly the JSON object below. First character `{`, last `}`. No prose, no code fences.

{{schema}}

## Termination note
Mark `done_contributing: true` ONLY when you genuinely have nothing new to add — not because you agree with everyone. If an invitation pulls you back later, that's fine; mark `done_contributing: false` again.

Narrator beat (what the harness shows Brown between rounds)

--- Round {{N}} complete ---

Voices that contributed:
🔵 {{name}}: {{one-line paraphrase}}
...

Voices who said they're done this round:
⚪ {{name}}: "{{done_reason}}"

Invitations floating:
→ {{from}} → {{to}}: "{{ask}}"

🟤 Brown, anything to add? [continue / interject / end]

Transcript template

workspace/<run>/transcript.md MUST include these sections:

# Round Table — {{slug}}

**Run**: {{run}}
**Voices**: {{roster}}
**Ended because**: {{all voices done | brown ended | hit safety cap of N}}
**Total rounds**: {{N+1}}

## Topic
{{topic_text}}

## Transcript
### Round 0
**🟤 Brown (opening)**: {{topic_text}} (or any opening narration)

**{{voice1}}**: {{contribution}}
**{{voice2}}**: {{contribution}}
...

### Round 1
**🟤 Brown**: {{brown_note if any}}
**{{voice1}}**: {{contribution}}
...

## Invitations that went unanswered
{{list any invitations never picked up, by round}}

## Where each voice landed
| Voice | Final state | Why |
|---|---|---|
| {{name}} | done / active-at-cap | {{done_reason or last contribution}} |

## Offer to Brown
- Distill themes?
- Spin a new round on a tangent?
- Surface an unanswered invitation?

---

Parallelism and isolation rules

• Voices in a given round MUST be spawned in ONE message with multiple Agent tool calls.
• Never inline another voice's profile in a voice's prompt. The transcript (their contribution field) is shareable; profiles are not.
• Prefer path-based reads. Subagents that read the transcript themselves can quote verbatim; they paraphrase when handed prose summaries.

Gotchas

• JSON compliance — voice profiles end with an "Output contract" footer reinforcing strict JSON. If a voice prose-splats, re-prompt once, then save {"name":"<name>","round":N,"parse_failed":true} and continue. A parse-fail does NOT count as done_contributing.
• Runaway rounds — the safety cap exists so an inexhaustible voice (or a bug) doesn't burn tokens forever. When hit, stop and ask Brown whether to raise.
• Drift — the topic file is the anchor. Voices re-read it every round. If the conversation drifts, Brown can interject to pull it back, or accept the drift as productive.
• Repeat suppression — voices are told to reference their own prior contributions rather than restate. If you see restatement, that's a signal the voice is near done_contributing.
• Asymmetry is fine — one voice may be done by round 2, another by round 7. That's the point. The brainstorm ends when the last voice runs out, not when everyone agrees.
• Subagent depth — the parallel-voices pattern assumes Agent-tool access. At agent depth 0 (direct Claude Code session) this works. When this skill is itself invoked from inside a subagent, nested Agent calls may be unavailable; in that case, approximate isolation by reading each voice's profile fresh before composing its JSON, and note the limitation in the transcript's Ended because line.

Role of 🟤 Brown (the user)

Brown is the narrator, not a participant and not a judge. Brown:

• Sets the topic at Round 0.
• Sees each round's digest and can add a narrator_note for the next round.
• Can end the session early.
• Does not vote, rule, or synthesize. Synthesis, if wanted, is a separate request after the transcript is written.

Brown does not have a profile in stakeholders/. Brown is the user. Address Brown with 🟤 in narrator beats.

Swapping voices

Drop new <name>.md files into stakeholders/. Each is self-contained — no cross-references between voices. Each MUST end with an "Output contract" section reinforcing strict JSON. The skill auto-includes everything in the directory when Brown doesn't name a subset.

Filename convention: lowercase, hyphen-separated, matches the name the voice uses in JSON output.