---
name: council
description: "Convene a council of AI advisor agents with distinct perspectives to deliberate on a topic, then synthesize their views into a verdict. Use when: (1) user asks for multi-perspective analysis, (2) wants to brainstorm with diverse viewpoints, (3) requests a council or advisors opinion, (4) needs a balanced decision on a complex question. Supports parallel (default), sequential, and debate flows. NOT for: simple factual lookups, single-perspective tasks, or quick one-liner answers."
---

# Council Skill

Spawn a council of 3 advisor subagents + 1 referee subagent to deliberate on a topic.
Each advisor has a distinct personality/lens. The referee synthesizes their output into a
final verdict with collapsed advisor perspectives.

## Advisor Roster (default)

| Role         | Lens                            | System stance                    |
|--------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| Pragmatist   | Feasibility, cost, effort       | "Can we actually do this?"       |
| Visionary    | Long-term potential, innovation | "What if we went bigger?"        |
| Skeptic      | Risk, failure modes, edge cases | "What could go wrong?"           |

The referee is a separate agent: balanced, fair, synthesis-oriented.

## Flows

Three deliberation flows are available. Default is **parallel**.

### 1. Parallel + Synthesis (default)

1. Spawn all 3 advisors simultaneously via `sessions_spawn` (mode=run).
2. Each advisor receives the same topic prompt with their personality instructions.
3. Wait for all 3 to complete (push-based — they announce when done).
4. Spawn the referee with all 3 advisor outputs as context.
5. Referee produces the final verdict.

### 2. Sequential Rounds

1. Spawn advisors one at a time, each seeing prior advisor outputs.
2. After all advisors, spawn referee with full thread.
3. Optionally run a rebuttal round (advisors respond to each other).

### 3. Debate

1. Spawn advisors in parallel for initial takes.
2. Share outputs across advisors for rebuttals (1-2 rounds).
3. Referee moderates and calls convergence.

## Model Selection

Pick model tier based on topic complexity:

- **Light topics** (casual brainstorm, simple pros/cons): use default model for advisors and referee.
- **Medium topics** (architecture decisions, strategy): use default model for advisors, stronger model for referee.
- **Heavy topics** (critical decisions, deep analysis): use stronger model for all agents.

The caller (main agent) determines tier before spawning.

## Prompt Templates

See `references/prompts.md` for full advisor and referee prompt templates with placeholders.

## Implementation

Read `scripts/council.sh` for the orchestration logic.
For programmatic invocation, the main agent can also call `sessions_spawn` directly
following the patterns above.

## Configuration

Advisor personalities can be customized per-invocation by overriding the roster.
Default roster and prompt templates live in `references/prompts.md`.

## TODO (revisit later)
- Revisit subagent personality depth — richer backstories, communication styles
- Revisit skill name — "council" works for now