# Council Mode > [LEGACY 2026-07-26 — retired upstream, shipped for reference only. Do NOT invoke against a live API key: the cloud path bills a real request against a beta unexercised since April 2026, on superseded model pins. The durable tier heuristic is preserved in the banner below.] Adversarial parallel comparison — runs the SAME task across multiple model tiers and/or providers in parallel, then surfaces where each model disagrees, fails, or hallucinates. Purpose is NOT consensus: the purpose is exposing failure modes so the operator can route around them. Built on top of advisor-mode. Trigger on: "assemble the council", "convene the council", "put it to the council", "what does the council say", "council mode", "run this on all tiers", "compare model outputs", "which model failed on this", "adversarial compare", "diff the models", "run the council", "parallel dispatch", "show me the disagreements". - Skill: `cerebrocybersolutions/council-mode` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 30 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cerebrocybersolutions/council-mode` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cerebrocybersolutions/council-mode/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: DevOps & Infra - Author: cerebrocybersolutions (https://skillmd.com/u/cerebrocybersolutions) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cerebrocybersolutions/council-mode --- > ## ⚠️ LEGACY — 2026-07-26 · NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NEW WORK > > **This skill is retired upstream and is shipped for reference and reversibility, not for use.** > > **Do not invoke it against a live API key.** Its cloud path issues a real, billable > `client.beta.messages.create` request using the `advisor_20260301` tool with > `betas=["advisor-tool-2026-03-01"]`, and hardcodes `"model": "claude-opus-4-7"`. That beta has > not been exercised since April 2026, so whether it still exists server-side is **unknown**, and > the model pins throughout this skill (`claude-opus-4-7`, `claude-sonnet-4-6`, `claude-haiku-4-5`) > are superseded. An invocation may bill your account for a request that cannot succeed. > > **Why it is here at all.** The tier *heuristic* below is the durable part and is model-agnostic: > > 1. Can a smart intern do this in one step? → **C** > 2. Does it need synthesis, structure, or multiple steps? → **B** > 3. Does it involve strategy, irreversibility, or cross-cutting impact? → **A** > 4. Would getting it wrong cost $10K+ or set a wrong direction for months? → **A+** > > Plus two disciplines worth keeping regardless of which models you run: **plan before act** — the > stronger model advises on the *plan*, the executor carries it out — and treat an advisor budget > as a **hard ceiling**, not a suggestion. > > **What replaced it upstream.** Modern agent harnesses route internally, so an explicit > classify-then-dispatch layer has no caller left. The advisor role became a dedicated reviewer > subagent; gate-and-escalate became a standing review norm. If you want the capability, wire the > heuristic into whatever harness you already run rather than reviving this dispatcher. > > Retired 2026-07-26. Scripts are preserved unmodified so nothing you may have built on them breaks. # Council Mode ### Adversarial Parallel Comparison | Failure-Mode Surfacing | Not Consensus Council mode dispatches the **same task** to multiple model tiers and/or providers in parallel, then produces a diff report surfacing where each output disagrees. The goal is not to pick a winner — the goal is to learn where each model breaks down, so future routing avoids known failure modes. **Core principle:** > The orchestration layer's job is to surface where each model FAILS so you can route > around it — NOT to pick the "best" model. Build as adversarial comparison > infrastructure, not consensus/coordination. This is the opposite of traditional LLM council patterns (majority vote, consensus synthesis). Those patterns wash out signal. Council mode preserves disagreement because disagreement IS the signal. --- ## BRAIN CHECK — Run Before Every Council Call Brain root: resolved from `$CEREBRO_ROOT` env var or `~/.cerebro/profile.yaml`. 1. Verify advisor-mode is installed and provider-aware (`--local`, `--compare` available) 2. **Local fleet (optional):** if `fleet_primary` is set, verify Ollama is reachable at that host on port 11434. Cloud-only deployments (no local fleet) skip this check — all tiers route to cloud providers. 3. Check `{brain_root}/skills/advisor-mode/logs/daily_usage.md` if present — is remaining advisor budget enough for the council roster? 4. Load task context from the relevant department Brain if the task references one --- ## WHEN TO USE COUNCIL MODE | Situation | Why Council | |-----------|-------------| | Strategic or irreversible decision | Cross-tier disagreement = hidden risk | | Adversarial drafting (contracts, pitches) | Want the failure scenario, not the best draft | | Prompt engineering | Find where each tier breaks | | Architecture review | Different tiers catch different failure modes | | Any task where you suspect the answer is wrong | Council exposes the wrong | **Do NOT use council mode for:** routine summaries, quick lookups, bulk drafting tasks, anything where parallel cost isn't justified by the decision weight. --- ## COUNCIL ROSTER (default) The roster is configured in `~/.cerebro/profile.yaml` under `council.roster`. Default tiers (cloud-only deployment): | Tier | Provider | Purpose | |------|----------|---------| | Frontier | Claude Opus (latest) | Highest reasoning — baseline | | Mid | Claude Sonnet (latest) | Speed/cost trade-off — compare | | Fast | Claude Haiku (latest) | Latency floor — find where it breaks | **With local fleet configured:** add `senior-advisor` (local Ollama model) to the roster via `council.local_tier: true` in profile. --- ## INVOCATION ```bash # Default roster (cloud tiers) python3 {brain_root}/skills/council-mode/Scripts/council_run.py "" # Include local fleet tier (requires fleet_primary set) python3 {brain_root}/skills/council-mode/Scripts/council_run.py --local "" # Custom roster python3 {brain_root}/skills/council-mode/Scripts/council_run.py \ --tiers frontier,mid "" ``` --- ## OUTPUT FORMAT Council mode emits a structured diff report: ``` === COUNCIL REPORT === Task: Roster: frontier | mid | fast [FRONTIER — Claude Opus] [MID — Claude Sonnet] [FAST — Claude Haiku] === DISAGREEMENTS === [Tier A vs Tier B] ... === FAILURE SIGNALS === [TIER] === ROUTING RECOMMENDATION === ``` --- ## PROFILE CONFIGURATION Council mode reads `~/.cerebro/profile.yaml` for: ```yaml council: roster: [frontier, mid, fast] # active tiers local_tier: false # true = include Ollama senior-advisor local_host: "" # fleet_primary value, if local_tier: true budget_cap: 10 # max USD per council run (advisory) ``` If no profile exists, council defaults to cloud-only 3-tier roster. --- ## SCOPE CONTRACT | Dimension | Scope | |-----------|-------| | Read paths | `{brain_root}/skills/advisor-mode/`, `~/.cerebro/profile.yaml` | | Write paths | `{brain_root}/skills/council-mode/logs/` (council run logs) | | MCP / tool surface | None beyond advisor-mode subprocess | | Network egress | Cloud provider APIs (Anthropic) + optional local Ollama at fleet_primary | | Surface | Claude Code | | Credentials | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` (env var); `LITELLM_MASTER_KEY` if routing via proxy | | Escalation trigger | Any tier returns empty / timeout / error → surface before reporting | ## References (auto-wikilinks) - [[daily_usage]]