council

# Council Skill Runs a panel of N agents with opposing perspectives on a shared artifact (specs, design docs, architecture decisions). Each agent has a persona, a mandate, and permission to block. Returns a synthesized verdict. ## When to use - Reviewing specs before dispatching implementation agents - Evaluating architecture decisions with genuine tradeoffs - Stress-testing a TRIZ resolution from multiple lenses - Any decision where a single perspective is insufficient ## When NOT to use - Code review (use pr-review-toolkit) - Merge conflicts (semantic problem, not adversarial) - Simple factual questions (overkill) ## Invocation ``` /council <artifact_path_or_description> [--n 3] [--personas <list>] ``` Default N=3. Default personas: Purist, Pragmatist, Adversary. ## Default personas | Persona | Mandate | Blocks on | |---------|---------|-----------| | **Purist** | Methodology/theory correctness. Calls out wrong principle applications, missing foundations, conceptual drift. | Spec contradicts the methodology it's based on | | **Pragmatist** | Shipping velocity, YAGNI, complexity cost. Cuts scope, flags over-engineering, demands simpler paths. | Spec adds complexity with no near-term payoff | | **Adversary** | Finds the failure mode. Assumes everything will go wrong. Security, edge cases, missing error handling. | Spec has a critical unhandled failure path | ## Custom personas Override with `--personas` for domain-specific councils: ``` /council specs/ --personas "Rust systems engineer, UX researcher, Security auditor" ``` ## Output format Each agent returns: ``` VERDICT: APPROVE | APPROVE WITH CONDITIONS | BLOCK BLOCKER: <one-line reason if blocking> CONDITIONS: <list of required changes if conditional> OBSERVATIONS: <key findings> VOTE: <principle or approach they'd recommend> ``` Synthesizer agent reads all N verdicts and produces: ``` COUNCIL VERDICT: APPROVED | APPROVED WITH CONDITIONS | BLOCKED BLOCKING AGENTS: <list> REQUIRED CHANGES: <merged deduplicated list> DISSENTS: <disagreements that didn't block> SYNTHESIS: <what the council agrees on> ``` ## How to implement (for Claude Code) 1. Read the artifact(s) 2. Spawn N agents in parallel via Agent tool, each with persona prompt + artifact content 3. Collect all N verdicts 4. Run synthesizer pass on combined verdicts 5. Present council verdict to user ## Persona prompt template ``` You are [PERSONA_NAME], a council member reviewing the following artifact. Your mandate: [MANDATE] You are adversarial. Your job is not to rubber-stamp — it is to find problems, challenge assumptions, and block if necessary. VERDICT options: - APPROVE: No significant issues. - APPROVE WITH CONDITIONS: Issues exist but are fixable. List CONDITIONS. - BLOCK: Critical issue. State BLOCKER clearly in one sentence. Artifact: --- [ARTIFACT_CONTENT] --- Respond in this exact format: VERDICT: <APPROVE|APPROVE WITH CONDITIONS|BLOCK> BLOCKER: <one sentence, or "none"> CONDITIONS: <bullet list, or "none"> OBSERVATIONS: <your key findings, 3-5 bullets> VOTE: <what you'd recommend instead or in addition> ``` ## Notes - Agents run in parallel (independent, not sequential deliberation) - Synthesis is a separate pass — do not ask agents to read each other's verdicts - A single BLOCK from any agent surfaces to the user as a council BLOCK - The council is advisory — human has final say - Log council verdicts to corpus when reviewing TRIZ resolutions: `triz log --council-verdict council-output.json`