| name | council |
| description | Convenes multi-agent council deliberations for decisions requiring diverse perspectives. Use when the user asks "call a council", "gather specialists", "get a council opinion", or "what do the experts think". Also activate when the user wants a structured debate between domain-specific viewpoints. Not for single-perspective research (use research) or architectural decisions that don't need multi-agent deliberation (use architecture). |
| user-invocable | true |
| argument-hint | [topic] |
| version | 0.3.1 |
Council
Convene multi-agent councils for complex decisions requiring diverse expert perspectives.
Critical Rules
Always
- Select odd number of agents (5 or 7) — never even
- Spawn ALL agents in parallel in a single response
- Select and state the council composition, then proceed directly to spawning
- Document each perspective and create synthesis with consensus/disagreements
- Wait for explicit user decision — council advises, user decides
- Archive council after decision recorded in the journal
- Log decision to the project journal:
loaf journal log "decision(scope): council outcome and user's choice"
Never
- Use even number of agents (risks ties)
- Spawn agents sequentially — parallel only
- Pause for composition approval before spawning unless the user explicitly asks for it
- Make the decision yourself — present synthesis, let user choose
- Skip documenting minority perspectives
Verification
After work completes, verify:
- Council file created at
.agents/councils/{YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{topic}.md
- All 5-7 agents spawned and perspectives collected
- Synthesis includes consensus points, disagreements, trade-offs
- User decision recorded in council file
- Decision logged to the project journal
- Council archived after the decision is recorded in the journal
Quick Reference
Council Composition
Select 5-7 agents covering relevant domains:
- Technical domains (backend, frontend, infrastructure)
- Quality domains (security, performance, UX)
- Process domains (testing, DevOps, documentation)
Spawn Pattern
All agents in ONE response:
Spawn agent 1 (domain X) + agent 2 (domain Y) + agent 3 (domain Z) + ...
Each agent receives:
- Decision question and options
- Domain-specific analysis factors
- Instruction to focus on THEIR expertise only
Synthesis Structure
- Consensus points (all agents agree)
- Key disagreements (different perspectives)
- Trade-off analysis per option
- Overall recommendation with confidence level
- Explicit deferral if genuinely ambiguous
Spec and Linear Parent Linkage
Councils stay local. Even when the workspace uses Linear-native mode,
council files live in .agents/councils/ — they are deliberation artifacts,
not executable work, and belong with specs in git.
When a council resolves an issue's open questions:
- Include the issue ID in council frontmatter (e.g.,
issue: LOAF-42). This
is already the common pattern.
- If the issue is tracked in Linear (tracker authority), also include the
tracker key (e.g.,
linear_parent: ENG-198) in council frontmatter so a
reader on Linear can trace back to the deliberation.
- Do not post council content to the Linear parent issue. A brief one-line
reference ("Resolved via council 2026-04-21 — see .agents/councils/…") in
a sub-issue comment is sufficient if the council drove a specific task
decision.
Topics
| Topic | Reference | Use When |
|---|
| Council Template | templates/council.md | Creating council files |
| Composition | council/SKILL.md | Selecting council agents |
| Delegation | orchestration/references/delegation.md | Spawning subagents |
