| name | Council Integration |
| description | Supreme Council integration with GSD plan/execute and audit workflows; verdict-handling rules (PROCEED/SIMPLIFY/RETHINK/SKIP) |
Council Integration Skill
Load this skill whenever the user invokes a GSD workflow command with
--council, when running an audit that needs Council confirmation, or
when SKIP/RETHINK verdict handling is required.
Rule
Council is a hard gate, not a suggestion.
When /council returns SKIP or RETHINK on a plan, halt the workflow and
surface the verdict to the user. Do NOT proceed to plan-checker, executor,
or merge step until the user either revises the plan or explicitly
overrides the verdict.
When This Skill Activates
| Trigger | What it means |
|---|
/gsd-plan-phase --council <N> | Run Council between research and plan-checker |
/gsd-execute-phase --council <N> | Run Council before invoking gsd-executor |
/audit ... --council-review | Audit's Phase 5 Council pass (already mandatory in v4.2+) |
| User asks "should I run Council on this plan?" | Yes — Council is cheap with caching |
Integration Pattern: gsd-plan-phase
When the user types /gsd-plan-phase <N> --council (or attaches --council
to any GSD plan invocation), inject a Council review between research and
plan-checker. Read the phase goal from .planning/phases/<N>-*/goal.md
or .planning/phases/<N>-*/PLAN.md frontmatter, then:
brain "<phase goal text + key constraints from RESEARCH.md>"
Read the verdict from the Council report at
.claude/scratchpad/council-report.md:
| Verdict | Action |
|---|
PROCEED | Continue to plan-checker as normal |
SIMPLIFY | Surface concerns to user, ask whether to (a) replan with reduced scope, (b) proceed with the existing plan, (c) abort |
RETHINK | Halt. Print the Skeptic + Pragmatist verdicts. Ask the user to revise the plan. Do not invoke plan-checker. |
SKIP | Halt. Print verdicts and ask whether the phase should be cancelled or rescoped. |
If the user revises the plan, re-run brain (the cache will hit on
identical text — re-prompt the user to bypass with --no-cache if the
revisions are subtle).
Integration Pattern: gsd-execute-phase
For high-risk phases (security work, schema migrations, irreversible
changes), the user attaches --council to invocation. Run Council on
the plan content before spawning the executor:
PHASE_DIR=$(ls -d .planning/phases/<N>-*/ | head -1)
brain "$(cat "$PHASE_DIR/PLAN.md")"
Verdict semantics are the same as plan-phase. RETHINK/SKIP halts execute
before any code changes happen.
Integration Pattern: audit
/audit runs Council mandatorily in Phase 5 (since v4.2). The
--council-review flag noted in older PLAN documents is now the default.
The audit report lands at .claude/audits/<type>-<TIMESTAMP>.md with a
placeholder Council slot:
_pending — run /council audit-review_
Replace it by running:
brain --mode audit-review --report .claude/audits/<type>-<timestamp>.md
run_audit_review() rewrites the slot in place with the verdict table
(REAL / FALSE_POSITIVE / NEEDS_MORE_CONTEXT / disputed). Do NOT manually
edit the slot — the rewrite is atomic and signed.
Reading Verdicts
The display block printed by brain follows this shape:
============================================================
📋 SUPREME COUNCIL REPORT
============================================================
🧐 THE SKEPTIC (Gemini ...):
<full Skeptic prose>
VERDICT: PROCEED|SIMPLIFY|RETHINK|SKIP
🔨 THE PRAGMATIST (ChatGPT ...):
<full Pragmatist prose>
VERDICT: PROCEED|SIMPLIFY|RETHINK|SKIP
------------------------------------------------------------
Skeptic: <verdict>
Pragmatist: <verdict>
Final: <verdict> — <one-line reason>
------------------------------------------------------------
✅|💡|🔄|⛔ VERDICT: <final>
============================================================
Final verdict is the more conservative of the two. Always read
the Final: row, not the individual reviewer rows, when deciding to
halt or proceed.
Cache Behavior
Identical plan text within TTL (default 7 days) replays the cached
report. The display starts with:
♻️ [cached <ts>] Returning previous Council report — no API calls.
(use --no-cache to force a fresh run)
When the user says "the verdict is stale" or "I tweaked the plan",
either:
- Suggest
brain --no-cache "<plan>" for a one-off bypass.
- Or run
brain clear-cache (via /council clear-cache) to wipe the
whole cache directory.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|
Config not found: ~/.claude/council/config.json | Council not installed | Run bash <(curl -sSL .../setup-council.sh) |
Gemini CLI mode selected but 'gemini' is not in PATH | Gemini CLI missing | npm install -g @google/gemini-cli or switch to API mode in config |
OpenAI CLI mode selected but 'codex' is not in PATH | Codex CLI missing | npm install -g @openai/codex or switch to API mode |
No reviewers available — aborting | Both providers unavailable | Configure at least one of Gemini or OpenAI |
| Verdict feels "off" / outdated | Cache hit on stale plan | brain --no-cache "<plan>" or brain clear-cache |
record_usage not logging | COUNCIL_NO_USAGE_LOG=1 set | Unset the env var |
| Cost gate blocks the call | COUNCIL_COST_CONFIRM_THRESHOLD exceeded | Confirm at the prompt or raise the threshold |
When NOT to Use Council
- Single-file bug fixes or typo corrections.
- Routine refactors with no architectural impact.
- Doc-only PRs.
- When the user has already approved a plan via a different review process.
Council is best for plan justification and approach validation, not
line-level code review. Use /audit for code review and /council audit-review for confirming audit findings.
Checklist Before Halting on RETHINK/SKIP
