ai-consultants

name	ai-consultants
description	Consult Gemini, Codex, Mistral Vibe, Cursor, Claude, Kimi, Qwen, MiniMax, GLM, Grok, and DeepSeek as external experts for coding questions. Automatically excludes the invoking agent from the panel to avoid self-consultation. Use when you have doubts about implementations, want a second opinion, need to choose between different approaches, or when explicitly requested with phrases like "ask the consultants", "what do the other models think", "compare solutions", "get expert opinions", "I'm not sure about this approach", "what would other models say". Make sure to consult this skill whenever the user is weighing trade-offs, comparing architectures, validating complex solutions, or wants multiple perspectives on any non-trivial coding decision. Do NOT use for simple questions that only need one model's answer or when you already have high confidence in a solution.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires bash, jq, and at least 2 AI CLI tools (agy, codex, vibe, etc.). macOS and Linux.
metadata	{"author":"matteoscurati","version":"2.22.0"}

AI Consultants v2.22.0 - AI Expert Panel

A harness for every question. Convene a panel of AI "consultants" for coding questions — and let the engine pick how they deliberate: a quick read, a convergence loop, an adversarial refutation gate, a tournament, or an exhaustive sweep. Each consultant has a configurable persona that shapes its analysis.

Quick Start

/ai-consultants:consult "Your question here"

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/ai-consultants:consult	Main consultation - ask AI consultants a coding question
/ai-consultants:debate	Run consultation with multi-round debate
/ai-consultants:help	Show all commands and usage

Configuration (presets, strategies, features, personas, API keys) can be managed via natural language — just ask.

Consultants and Personas

Consultant	CLI	Persona	Focus
Google Gemini	agy	The Architect	Design patterns, scalability
OpenAI Codex	codex	The Pragmatist	Simplicity, proven solutions
Mistral Vibe	vibe	The Devil's Advocate	Edge cases, vulnerabilities
Cursor	agent	The Integrator	Full-stack perspective
Kimi K3	kimi	The Eastern Sage	Holistic, balanced perspectives
Claude	claude	The Synthesizer	Big picture, synthesis
Qwen	qwen	The Analyst	Data-driven, metrics
MiniMax	mmx	The Pragmatic Optimizer	Performance, efficiency, pragmatism

API-only consultants: GLM (The Methodologist), Grok (The Provocateur), DeepSeek (The Code Specialist)

CLI/API Mode: Gemini, Codex, Claude, Mistral, Qwen, and MiniMax can switch between CLI and API mode via *_USE_API environment variables. Gemini auto-selects API mode when GEMINI_API_KEY is set (no agy install needed) and the CLI otherwise.

Self-Exclusion: The invoking agent is automatically excluded from the panel. When invoked from Claude Code, Claude is excluded; when invoked from Codex CLI, Codex is excluded, etc.

Requirements

• At least 2 consultant CLIs installed and authenticated
• jq for JSON processing

Quick Install

# Option A: npx (recommended, no install needed)
npx ai-consultants doctor --fix
npx ai-consultants install  # Install slash commands for Claude Code

# Option B: curl | bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteoscurati/ai-consultants/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
~/.claude/skills/ai-consultants/scripts/doctor.sh --fix

For detailed CLI installation instructions, see Setup Guide.

Usage Examples

/ai-consultants:consult "How to optimize this SQL query?"
/ai-consultants:consult "Review this authentication flow" src/auth.ts
/ai-consultants:debate "Microservices or monolith for our new service?"

Presets: minimal, balanced, thorough, high-stakes, local, security, cost-capped. Strategies: majority, risk_averse, security_first, cost_capped, compare_only. See Reference Details for full tables, bash usage, and best practices.

Workflow

Query is classified, then sent to consultants in parallel. Responses are scored, voted on, and synthesized into a recommendation.

Dynamic orchestration (v2.16+): a planner picks an orchestration shape per question — quick (simple), converge (debate until consensus, not a fixed round count), adversarial (SECURITY: forced critique + peer-review refutation gate), tournament (compare approaches → pick a winner), exhaustive (find-all: loop until no new angle). Set ORCHESTRATION_MODE=fixed for the legacy pipeline. See configuration reference.

Features

Feature	Description	Toggle
Personas	Each consultant has a role that shapes responses	ENABLE_PERSONA
Synthesis	Auto-combine responses into recommendation	ENABLE_SYNTHESIS
Debate	Consultants critique each other's answers	ENABLE_DEBATE
Peer Review	Consultants anonymously rank each other	ENABLE_PEER_REVIEW
Smart Routing	Auto-select best consultants per question type	ENABLE_SMART_ROUTING
Cost Tracking	Track API usage costs	ENABLE_COST_TRACKING
Panic Mode	Auto-add rigor when uncertainty detected	ENABLE_PANIC_MODE
Stance Consensus	Panel picks from enumerated stances; agreement by exact match (opt-in, v2.21)	ENABLE_STANCE_CONSENSUS

Configuration

All settings use environment variables. Key toggles:

ai-consultants configure     # Auto-detect CLIs/API keys and persist all settings
ENABLE_DEBATE=true           # Multi-agent debate
ENABLE_SYNTHESIS=true        # Automatic synthesis
ENABLE_PANIC_MODE=auto       # Auto-rigor for uncertainty
ENABLE_BUDGET_LIMIT=false    # Budget enforcement (v2.4)

Use ai-consultants configure --show-parameters for the exact accepted keys, --set KEY=VALUE for repeatable automation, or --advanced to review all of them interactively.

CLI/API switching: GEMINI_USE_API, CODEX_USE_API, CLAUDE_USE_API, MISTRAL_USE_API, QWEN3_USE_API.

See Full Configuration Reference for all variables, model overrides, tiers, timeouts, and optimization settings.

Output

/tmp/ai_consultations/TIMESTAMP/
├── gemini.json        # Individual responses
├── codex.json
├── voting.json        # Consensus
├── synthesis.json     # Recommendation
└── report.md          # Human-readable

Doctor Command

Diagnose and fix issues:

./scripts/doctor.sh              # Full check (CLI installed?)
./scripts/doctor.sh --fix        # Auto-fix
./scripts/doctor.sh --json       # JSON output
./scripts/doctor.sh --live       # Real ping per consultant — catches installed-but-unauthenticated CLIs

Keep the consultant CLIs current with ai-consultants update-clis (--dry-run to preview, --only <cli> to target one) — it detects how each CLI was installed (brew/npm/uv/pipx/curl/self-update) and updates it.

When a consultant fails during a consultation, the run prints the captured reason (e.g. "CLI not found", "401 Unauthorized"). The run is also graded MET/DEGRADED/FAILED by how many responded (QUORUM_MIN), with a "Diagnosed Failures" section in the report. Set ENABLE_HEALTH_GATE=true to ping consultants and drop the dead ones before the run.

Interpreting Results

Scenario	Recommendation
High confidence + High consensus	Proceed confidently
Low confidence OR Low consensus	Consider more options
Mistral disagrees	Investigate risks
Panic mode triggered	Add debate rounds

Troubleshooting

Run ./scripts/doctor.sh to diagnose issues, or ./scripts/doctor.sh --fix to auto-fix.

Extended Documentation

• Reference Details - Presets, strategies, best practices, limitations
• Full Configuration - All environment variables, models, tiers, timeouts
• Configuration Recipes - Copy-paste workflows for debate, routing, budgets, and transport
• Setup Guide - Installation, authentication
• Cost Rates - Model pricing
• Smart Routing - Category routing
• JSON Schema - Output format