# Council > Multi-model council (claude + codex + agy + grok). Independent answers, anonymized cross peer-review with self-exclusion, then chairman synthesis. Use for architecture decisions, contested technical questions, and high-stakes judgments where a genuinely independent second opinion matters. Invoke as "/council ". - Skill: `epicsagas/council` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add epicsagas/council` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/epicsagas/council/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: epicsagas (https://skillmd.com/u/epicsagas) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/epicsagas/council --- # Council Three-stage deliberation: independent answers from multiple model families, anonymized peer review among them, synthesis by a chairman. Pattern ported from the mcp-council Rust MCP server (see the `rust-legacy` git tag); the plumbing is now native agent tooling, no MCP server required. ## Panel Default councilors. Each is dispatched as one headless, read-only CLI invocation from the host session, in parallel from a single message: | Councilor | Channel | |---|---| | claude | `claude --permission-mode plan -p ""` | | codex | `codex exec -s read-only ""` | | agy (Gemini) | `agy --mode plan -p ""` | | grok | `grok --permission-mode plan -p ""` | Every channel starts a fresh process, prints the reply to stdout, and exits. No MCP server is required; the host session, on any agent host with a shell, performs all dispatch and all file writes. If the user names a panel, use theirs. Otherwise use the default four. ## Procedure ### 0. Setup 1. Question = the user's argument. If empty, ask for the question first. 2. Slug: lowercase the question, spaces to `-`, keep only `[a-z0-9-]`, trim and cap at 40 chars. 3. Workspace: `.council//` in the current project. If it exists, append `-2`, `-3`, ... Create the directory. ### 1. Stage 1 — Independent answers Dispatch all councilors in ONE message (parallel). Each receives the question verbatim and nothing from the other councilors. Councilor prompt template: ``` Answer the following question thoroughly and independently. You may use tools to inspect the project as needed, but your final message must be the complete, self-contained answer. Do not mention your identity, model name, or vendor anywhere in the answer. Question: ``` Save each reply as `.council//-answer.md` with this header: ```markdown # answer - date: - question: --- ``` The main session performs ALL file writes. Councilors never write council files. ### 2. Anonymize Build the label map in memory: surviving answers become `Response A`, `Response B`, ... in dispatch order. Reviewer prompts contain labels only, never model names. ### 3. Stage 2 — Peer review (self-exclusion) For each councilor, dispatch (parallel, same channel it used in Stage 1) the review prompt: the anonymized packet with that councilor's own response REMOVED. After removal, relabel the remaining responses so labels stay consecutive. Every channel is a single-shot process, so each dispatch is fresh by construction. Never resume a councilor's Stage 1 session (codex `exec resume`, agy `--conversation`, or any session-bridge tool): a reviewer that can see its own Stage 1 answer defeats self-exclusion. ``` You are evaluating different responses to the following question: Question: Here are the responses from different models (anonymized): : ... : ... Your task: 1. First, evaluate each response individually. For each response, explain what it does well and what it does poorly. 2. Then, at the very end of your response, provide a final ranking. IMPORTANT: Your final ranking MUST be formatted EXACTLY as follows: - Start with the line "FINAL RANKING:" (all caps, with colon) - Then list the responses from best to worst as a numbered list - Each line should be: number, period, space, then ONLY the response label (e.g., "1. Response A") - Do not add any other text or explanations in the ranking section Do not speculate about which model produced each response; judge the content only. ``` Save each review verbatim as `.council//peer-review-by-.md`. No trimming, no cleanup. ### 4. Stage 3 — Chairman synthesis The current session acts as chairman; no dispatch. Apply the chairman prompt to the full record (de-anonymized): > You are the Chairman of an LLM Council. Multiple AI models answered a question, then ranked each other's responses. Synthesize everything into a single, comprehensive, accurate final answer. Consider: the individual responses and their insights, the peer rankings and what they reveal about response quality, and patterns of agreement or disagreement. Write the synthesis to `.council//final-answer.md`. ### 5. Report Reply in chat: the verdict in 3 to 5 lines (chairman's bottom line, strongest consensus, sharpest disagreement), then the workspace file list. ## Degradation Before dispatch, check each councilor's CLI with `command -v`; a missing CLI, a non-zero exit, or empty stdout is a failure. Quota and auth errors count as failures for that run. Log every failure to `.council//run-log.md` and drop that councilor. - 2+ survivors: normal flow. - 1 survivor: skip Stage 2. The chairman critically reviews the single answer itself (strengths, gaps, corrections) before synthesizing; note the degraded mode in `final-answer.md` and the report. - 0 survivors: report the backend errors, write nothing else. ## Rules - Stage 1 councilors never see each other's answers. Independence is the whole point. - The reviewer's own response is always excluded from its review packet. - Model names never appear in Stage 2 prompts. Labels only. - Reviews and answers are stored verbatim. The chairman may disagree with rankings but may not edit them. - All council artifacts live in `.council//`. The project's `.gitignore` should contain `.council/`.