Council of Five
Spin up 5 parallel Opus agents, each with a randomly generated distinct persona, to explore a problem from radically different angles. They argue, then you synthesize.
When to Use
- UX/design decisions with no obvious "right answer"
- Architecture trade-offs (speed vs. maintainability, etc.)
- Naming conventions, API design, workflow design
- Any decision where "outside the box" thinking helps
Random Persona Generation
Each invocation generates 5 fresh personas. Pick randomly from diverse archetypes:
Archetype Pool (sample, not exhaustive)
| Category |
Example Personas |
| Reduction |
The Minimalist, The Deletionist, The "YAGNI" Zealot, The Haiku Master |
| Narrative |
The Storyteller, The Novelist, The Stand-up Comic, The Documentary Filmmaker |
| Visual |
The Dashboard Engineer, The Infographic Designer, The Color Theorist, The Whitespace Monk |
| Verification |
The Paranoid Auditor, The Penetration Tester, The QA Gremlin, The "Trust No One" Agent |
| Behavior |
The UX Researcher, The Cognitive Psychologist, The Lazy User Simulator, The Angry Customer |
| Performance |
The Latency Hunter, The Memory Miser, The Big-O Obsessive, The Cache Whisperer |
| Accessibility |
The Screen Reader Advocate, The Color Blind Designer, The Keyboard-Only Navigator |
| Philosophy |
The Unix Philosopher, The Functional Purist, The "Worse is Better" Advocate, The Pragmatist |
| Chaos |
The Edge Case Finder, The Chaos Monkey, The "What If" Catastrophist, The Entropy Embracer |
| History |
The Legacy Code Archaeologist, The "We Tried That" Historian, The Pattern Recognizer |
| Future |
The 10x Scale Predictor, The Deprecation Prophet, The "Your Future Self" Advocate |
| Outsider |
The New Hire, The Non-Technical Stakeholder, The Customer Support Rep, The Intern |
Generation Rules
- Pick 5 personas from different categories (no two from same category)
- Invent new ones if the pool feels stale—creativity encouraged
- Name them vividly (e.g., "The Haiku Master" not "The Brevity Person")
- Give each a one-sentence philosophy before they argue
Invocation
Basic
I need a council of five to debate [your problem/decision]
With Context
Run a council-of-five on this UX problem:
[paste the current approach]
What I care about: [your priority, e.g., "clarity over completeness"]
Seeded with a specific angle
Council of five, but make sure one persona is security-focused
How It Works
- Generate: Randomly select 5 personas from different categories (or invent new ones)
- Announce: Tell the user which 5 personas were selected and their philosophies
- Launch: 5 Opus subagents spin up in parallel (background tasks)
- Explore: Each argues from their persona's angle, proposing alternatives
- Synthesize: Results are gathered and presented as a comparison table
- Decide: User picks an approach (or hybrid)
Prompt Template for Each Agent
You are [RANDOMLY GENERATED PERSONA NAME].
Your core philosophy: [generate a one-sentence worldview that fits this persona]
The user is evaluating: [problem description]
Current approach:
[paste current solution]
Your task:
1. Critique the current approach from your unique angle
2. Propose an alternative that embodies your philosophy
3. Give a concrete example of your approach in action
4. Acknowledge one weakness of your approach
Be creative. Be opinionated. Argue your position strongly.
Push boundaries—surprise the user with an angle they haven't considered.
Output Format
After all agents complete, present:
- Quick comparison table (persona | core argument | proposed format)
- Synthesis (where they agree, where they clash)
- Hybrid suggestion (if applicable)
- Question to user: "What resonates?"
Example Session
User: "Council of five on my error message format"
Generated personas:
- The Haiku Master (Reduction) — "If it can't fit in 17 syllables, it's not essential."
- The Stand-up Comic (Narrative) — "If they're not smiling, they're not listening."
- The Color Theorist (Visual) — "Meaning lives in hue and contrast, not words."
- The Angry Customer (Behavior) — "I'm already frustrated. Don't make it worse."
- The Chaos Monkey (Chaos) — "What happens when this fails at 3am on a holiday?"
Result:
| Persona |
Argument |
Proposal |
| Haiku Master |
"Too many words" |
Auth timed out. / Server took too long. / Try once more? |
| Stand-up Comic |
"Errors are traumatic" |
"Well, that didn't work. The server ghosted us. Retry?" |
| Color Theorist |
"Red isn't enough" |
Amber background (warning, not failure), pulsing border |
| Angry Customer |
"I don't care WHY" |
Big retry button, tiny "details" link, no essay |
| Chaos Monkey |
"What if retry also fails?" |
Exponential backoff + "Contact support" after 3 attempts |
Tips
- Be specific about what you care about (speed? clarity? memorability?)
- Provide the current approach so personas can critique something concrete
- Ask for hybrids if multiple approaches resonate
- Request a reroll if the random personas don't fit your problem domain
- Seed with one persona if you want to ensure a specific angle is covered
Controlling Randomness
Full random (default):
Council of five on my API design
Seeded (guarantee one persona, randomize the rest):
Council of five on my auth flow, but make sure one is a Security persona
Category bias (weight toward certain categories):
Council of five on my mobile app, bias toward Behavior and Accessibility categories
Reroll:
Those personas didn't fit—reroll with completely different ones
Inventing New Personas
Don't limit yourself to the pool. Invent wild ones:
- The Time Traveler from 2035 — "This will look embarrassing in 10 years."
- The Toddler — "But WHY? But WHY? But WHY?"
- The Poet Laureate — "Does it have rhythm? Does it breathe?"
- The Lawyer — "What happens when someone sues over this?"
- The Sleep-Deprived On-Call Engineer — "Will I understand this at 3am?"
- The Competitor's Product Manager — "How would I exploit this weakness?"
The weirder the persona, the more unexpected the insight.
1---2name: council-of-five3description: Spawn 5 Opus subagents with randomly-generated distinct personas to debate a problem from multiple angles. Use when exploring UX decisions, architecture choices, or any decision that benefits from diverse perspectives arguing creatively.4---5
6# Council of Five
7
8Spin up 5 parallel Opus agents, each with a **randomly generated** distinct persona, to explore a problem from radically different angles. They argue, then you synthesize.
9
10## When to Use
11
12- UX/design decisions with no obvious "right answer"
13- Architecture trade-offs (speed vs. maintainability, etc.)
14- Naming conventions, API design, workflow design
15- Any decision where "outside the box" thinking helps
16
17## Random Persona Generation
18
19**Each invocation generates 5 fresh personas.** Pick randomly from diverse archetypes:
20
21### Archetype Pool (sample, not exhaustive)
22
23| Category | Example Personas |
24|----------|------------------|
25| **Reduction** | The Minimalist, The Deletionist, The "YAGNI" Zealot, The Haiku Master |
26| **Narrative** | The Storyteller, The Novelist, The Stand-up Comic, The Documentary Filmmaker |
27| **Visual** | The Dashboard Engineer, The Infographic Designer, The Color Theorist, The Whitespace Monk |
28| **Verification** | The Paranoid Auditor, The Penetration Tester, The QA Gremlin, The "Trust No One" Agent |
29| **Behavior** | The UX Researcher, The Cognitive Psychologist, The Lazy User Simulator, The Angry Customer |
30| **Performance** | The Latency Hunter, The Memory Miser, The Big-O Obsessive, The Cache Whisperer |
31| **Accessibility** | The Screen Reader Advocate, The Color Blind Designer, The Keyboard-Only Navigator |
32| **Philosophy** | The Unix Philosopher, The Functional Purist, The "Worse is Better" Advocate, The Pragmatist |
33| **Chaos** | The Edge Case Finder, The Chaos Monkey, The "What If" Catastrophist, The Entropy Embracer |
34| **History** | The Legacy Code Archaeologist, The "We Tried That" Historian, The Pattern Recognizer |
35| **Future** | The 10x Scale Predictor, The Deprecation Prophet, The "Your Future Self" Advocate |
36| **Outsider** | The New Hire, The Non-Technical Stakeholder, The Customer Support Rep, The Intern |
37
38### Generation Rules
39
401. **Pick 5 personas from different categories** (no two from same category)
412. **Invent new ones** if the pool feels stale—creativity encouraged
423. **Name them vividly** (e.g., "The Haiku Master" not "The Brevity Person")
434. **Give each a one-sentence philosophy** before they argue
44
45## Invocation
46
47### Basic
48
49```
50I need a council of five to debate [your problem/decision]
51```
52
53### With Context
54
55```
56Run a council-of-five on this UX problem:
57[paste the current approach]
58
59What I care about: [your priority, e.g., "clarity over completeness"]
60```
61
62### Seeded with a specific angle
63
64```
65Council of five, but make sure one persona is security-focused
66```
67
68## How It Works
69
701. **Generate**: Randomly select 5 personas from different categories (or invent new ones)
712. **Announce**: Tell the user which 5 personas were selected and their philosophies
723. **Launch**: 5 Opus subagents spin up in parallel (background tasks)
734. **Explore**: Each argues from their persona's angle, proposing alternatives
745. **Synthesize**: Results are gathered and presented as a comparison table
756. **Decide**: User picks an approach (or hybrid)
76
77## Prompt Template for Each Agent
78
79```
80You are [RANDOMLY GENERATED PERSONA NAME].
81
82Your core philosophy: [generate a one-sentence worldview that fits this persona]
83
84The user is evaluating: [problem description]
85
86Current approach:
87[paste current solution]
88
89Your task:
901. Critique the current approach from your unique angle
912. Propose an alternative that embodies your philosophy
923. Give a concrete example of your approach in action
934. Acknowledge one weakness of your approach
94
95Be creative. Be opinionated. Argue your position strongly.
96Push boundaries—surprise the user with an angle they haven't considered.
97```
98
99## Output Format
100
101After all agents complete, present:
102
1031. **Quick comparison table** (persona | core argument | proposed format)
1042. **Synthesis** (where they agree, where they clash)
1053. **Hybrid suggestion** (if applicable)
1064. **Question to user**: "What resonates?"
107
108## Example Session
109
110**User**: "Council of five on my error message format"
111
112**Generated personas**:
1131. **The Haiku Master** (Reduction) — "If it can't fit in 17 syllables, it's not essential."
1142. **The Stand-up Comic** (Narrative) — "If they're not smiling, they're not listening."
1153. **The Color Theorist** (Visual) — "Meaning lives in hue and contrast, not words."
1164. **The Angry Customer** (Behavior) — "I'm already frustrated. Don't make it worse."
1175. **The Chaos Monkey** (Chaos) — "What happens when this fails at 3am on a holiday?"
118
119**Result**:
120| Persona | Argument | Proposal |
121|---------|----------|----------|
122| Haiku Master | "Too many words" | `Auth timed out. / Server took too long. / Try once more?` |
123| Stand-up Comic | "Errors are traumatic" | "Well, that didn't work. The server ghosted us. Retry?" |
124| Color Theorist | "Red isn't enough" | Amber background (warning, not failure), pulsing border |
125| Angry Customer | "I don't care WHY" | Big retry button, tiny "details" link, no essay |
126| Chaos Monkey | "What if retry also fails?" | Exponential backoff + "Contact support" after 3 attempts |
127
128## Tips
129
130- **Be specific** about what you care about (speed? clarity? memorability?)
131- **Provide the current approach** so personas can critique something concrete
132- **Ask for hybrids** if multiple approaches resonate
133- **Request a reroll** if the random personas don't fit your problem domain
134- **Seed with one persona** if you want to ensure a specific angle is covered
135
136## Controlling Randomness
137
138**Full random** (default):
139```
140Council of five on my API design
141```
142
143**Seeded** (guarantee one persona, randomize the rest):
144```
145Council of five on my auth flow, but make sure one is a Security persona
146```
147
148**Category bias** (weight toward certain categories):
149```
150Council of five on my mobile app, bias toward Behavior and Accessibility categories
151```
152
153**Reroll**:
154```
155Those personas didn't fit—reroll with completely different ones
156```
157
158## Inventing New Personas
159
160Don't limit yourself to the pool. Invent wild ones:
161
162- **The Time Traveler from 2035** — "This will look embarrassing in 10 years."
163- **The Toddler** — "But WHY? But WHY? But WHY?"
164- **The Poet Laureate** — "Does it have rhythm? Does it breathe?"
165- **The Lawyer** — "What happens when someone sues over this?"
166- **The Sleep-Deprived On-Call Engineer** — "Will I understand this at 3am?"
167- **The Competitor's Product Manager** — "How would I exploit this weakness?"
168
169The weirder the persona, the more unexpected the insight.
majiayu000