# Outsider > Quick opinion from an agent CLI outside this session — ask a specific question with context, or review code changes. Picks an installed agent that is not the one running this skill, so the answer comes from a different model in a different process. Lighter and faster than a full review board. - Skill: `edloidas/outsider` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 7 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add edloidas/outsider` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/edloidas/outsider/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: MIT - Author: edloidas (https://skillmd.com/u/edloidas) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/edloidas/outsider --- # Outsider — Quick Opinion From Another Agent ## Purpose Get a fast opinion from an agent CLI running outside this session. One reviewer, no synthesis step — a sanity check, not an exhaustive review. Use `review:consilium` when you want a board. This skill writes one temp file per run — the question — and nothing else. The responder is launched read-only: it reports, and it does not edit the repo. The value is structural: the responder shares none of this conversation's context and runs in its own process, usually on a different model family. Which vendor answers is incidental, which is why this skill resolves the agent instead of naming one. ## When to Use - "ask codex", "ask claude", "what would another agent say", "get an outside opinion" - `/outsider`, `/outsider review`, `/outsider codex review` - A quick external sanity check on an approach or decision - An independent review of the current code changes ## Requirements `timeout` or `gtimeout` must be on PATH — both ship with GNU coreutils. Stock macOS has neither; `brew install coreutils` provides `gtimeout`. Without one the script skips instead of running an agent CLI unbounded, because a hung agent would hang the caller's turn. `run-outsider.sh list` reports it when it is missing. ## Agent Selection The script picks the agent. Pass `--host ` on every invocation — `claude`, `codex`, `opencode`, or `pi` — so it never asks you to review your own work. Add `--agent ` only when the user named one; that overrides everything, host included. ```bash bash /scripts/run-outsider.sh list --host claude ``` `list` prints what is installed and what would be selected, and spends nothing. Default order is `codex claude opencode pi`, minus the host. A missing CLI is a skip, not a failure: the script prints why and exits 0. Callers can treat this leg as droppable. **No model or reasoning level is set by default** — the chosen agent runs on whatever it is already configured to use. To pin one, or to change the preference order, edit `~/.config/edloidas/outsider/config` (`OUTSIDER_AGENTS`, `OUTSIDER_MODEL_`, `OUTSIDER_EFFORT_`, `OUTSIDER_ARGS_`); the same names work as environment variables and override the file. `references/agents.md` has the full registry, the config keys with examples, and how to add an agent. ## Ask Mode 1. **Prepare a focused question with context.** Extract only the relevant code or plan excerpt — don't dump the conversation. Keep it under 2000 words; past that, use review mode, which extracts the diff itself. 2. **Resolve the temp directory** (once per session): ```bash bash /scripts/resolve-tmp.sh ``` Use the output as ``. Pick a run id `` once too — a session identifier the host already exposes, or the current `YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS` — and reuse the same literal string for every file in this run so concurrent runs don't overwrite each other. 3. **Write the question with a file-write tool**, not a Bash heredoc — heredocs with markdown headers trip some hosts' shell security heuristics. Write to `/outsider--question.md`: ``` ## Question ## Context ``` 4. **Run it**, after printing one line naming the agent that will answer and the wait — `Asking codex (ask mode, up to 2 min).` ```bash bash /scripts/run-outsider.sh ask --host claude /outsider--question.md ``` ### Custom preamble Both modes prepend a prompt file to whatever you pipe them — `references/prompt.md` for ask, `references/review-prompt.md` for review. A caller with its own prompt for the responder passes `--preamble ` to swap it: ```bash bash /scripts/run-outsider.sh ask --host claude \ --preamble /references/its-own-prompt.md /outsider--question.md ``` The preamble replaces the default entirely, so it has to carry the responder's whole brief — including its output shape. `review:consilium` uses this for its outside board seat. ## Review Mode Pick the scope first: | Flag | When | | ---- | ---- | | `--uncommitted` | Staged, unstaged, or untracked changes exist (the default) | | `--base ` | On a feature branch, review against the base | | `--commit ` | Review one commit | Review takes 3–10 minutes. Print one line before it starts, naming the agent, the scope, and the wait — `Asking codex to review 6 uncommitted files (up to 9 min).` Pass `540` so the script's own timer fires first and can print its timeout message, and set the surrounding command timeout to the highest value the host allows: ```bash bash /scripts/run-outsider.sh review --host claude --uncommitted 540 ``` ## Presenting Output The first line of the output is `[outsider] agent: `. Name that agent in your report — the response is not interpretable without knowing who gave it. - Lead with "Codex's take:", "From pi:", and so on, using the agent the script actually ran - Evaluate the findings against your own context rather than adopting them - Highlight agreements; flag disagreements and explain which side you land on and why - The responder only ever saw what you piped it. Discount findings that are really requests for context it could not see - Empty output or an error line means it had nothing to offer — say so and move on ```text Codex's take: it agrees the cache key is wrong and would key on tenant + URL, same as the fix on the branch. One disagreement: it wants `resolveTenant()` awaited at the call site. It could not see `src/router.ts`, where the await already happens — discounting that one. One thing it caught that I had not: the seeded test passes against the buggy key, so the case as written would not have failed before the fix. ``` Then stop. Do not run a second agent, and do not re-ask the same question with more context — one outside opinion is the whole deliverable. ## Edge Cases - **No agent installed, or only the host is** — the script says so and exits 0. Don't retry. - **Timeout** — the script prints a timeout message. Note it and proceed without. - **No `timeout` binary** — the script skips and says which tool is missing, per **Requirements**. Report that and proceed without an outside opinion; do not retry. ## Notes for Callers This skill stays model-invocable on every host. The predecessor `claude` skill set `disable-model-invocation: true` only because calling Claude from Claude was recursive; selection now handles that structurally, so there is nothing left to suppress. Other skills invoke this one as a skill, not by script path — a repo-relative path only resolves inside one checkout. `review:consilium` runs its outside board seat through this skill, and `review:doubt` runs its outside verification seat the same way — both pass their own seat prompt as the preamble. That was the last duplicate runner in the collection; there is now one implementation of "call an agent CLI that is not the host".