# Consult > A focused consultation with one agent persona, or a small panel. You control who is in the room and who is driving; the conversation is saved as a discussion when it ends. Triggers on "/dpm:consult". - Skill: `ninthspace/consult-2` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ninthspace/consult-2` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ninthspace/consult-2/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: ninthspace (https://skillmd.com/u/ninthspace) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ninthspace/consult-2 --- # Consult Mode A one-to-one conversation with an expert persona, which becomes a panel only when you invite one. You lead by default and can hand the lead to an agent when you want them to drive. Follow the shared conventions in `dpm/shared/skill-conventions.md` — read that file at startup. This skill uses **Session Startup**, **Library Check**, **Conversational Output**, **Gate Presentation** and **Cross-References** from it. ## Startup 1. **Session** — follow the shared **Session Startup** procedure with skill `dpm:consult`. A consultation is the one thing here worth resuming: the session's `state` carries the topic, the active agents in order, who holds the lead, and the discussion highlights, and without it a resumed conversation is a different one with the same participants. 2. **Roster** — `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__list_agent`, then `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_agent` with `include_body` for each agent brought into the room. **The traits are body columns**, so the list gives you names and roles and the read gives you the voice; rendering a persona off the list alone is rendering it off nothing. **The roster is rows, so a persona this project added and the plugin never shipped is consultable by name** with no file edit anywhere. 3. **Library** — follow the shared **Library Check** procedure with scope keyword `consult`. ## Input `$ARGUMENTS` selects who and about what: - **An agent name or role** — match it against `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__list_agent`, case-insensitively, against `display_name` and `role`. Start there and ask what they would like to discuss. - **A topic with no agent** — infer the most relevant agent from the roster's `role` values, **confirm the choice before starting** — *"I'd suggest {icon} **{display_name}** ({role}) for this — start with them?"* — and take a different one where the user names one. An inferred agent is a guess about expertise, and starting on it unasked spends the first exchange correcting it. - **A phrase naming something in the corpus** — `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__search` with it, and a `limit` above what the project plausibly holds. Hits come back as an `entity` and an `entity_id`; read each through the tool for its entity, passing `include_body` — `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_document_section`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_requirement`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_acceptance_criterion`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_story_criterion`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_finding`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_observation` or `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_task` — and use what they say as context. **The index covers requirement, criterion, finding, observation and task text as well as section bodies**, so a term used once inside a criterion is reachable, which is most of what a consultation is actually looking for. - **A URL** — fetch it and use the content as context. External, so it is read rather than queried. - **Nothing** — present the roster and ask who and what about. ## The conversation loop For each message: check for a command first, then respond. ### Commands - **Invite** — *"bring in the architect"*. Resolve against the roster by `display_name` or `role`, `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__read_agent` with `include_body` for their traits — `personality` and `communication_style` are withheld by default, and they are the traits — append them to the active list, and have them introduce themselves and respond. Already present is a no-op, said once. - **Dismiss** — *"thanks Priya, you can go"*. Remove them. If they held the lead it returns to the user, said aloud. **Dismissing the last agent does not end the consultation** — ask who to bring in instead. - **Lead transfer** — *"Margot, take the lead"*. Invite them first if they are not in the room, then mark their turns *(leading)*. A leading agent asks probing questions, proposes structure and challenges assumptions; the others defer and speak only when genuinely additive. - **Exit** — *"wrap up"*, *"done"*, *"end consultation"*. Distinguish a command from conversation. *"I'd like to dismiss that idea"* is not a dismissal. Where it is ambiguous, treat it as conversation. **Use "wrap up" as the exit word.** `exit` and `quit` are the CLI's and end the session outright, which would leave the consultation unsaved. ### Responses ``` {icon} **{display_name}**: {response in character} ``` Render each voice from that agent's stored `personality` and `communication_style`, and **from nothing else** — a trait not on the row is a trait invented for them. One agent means a dialogue, not a panel: no multi-voice formatting, no roster header. Several means each responds in roster `position` order, the first-invited agent first, and each shorter than they would be alone. Agents answer the user rather than each other, and disagree where they genuinely differ — that tension is most of why a second agent was invited. **Research before asking.** A question about the corpus is answered with `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__search` and the read tools; a question about code is answered by reading it. Ask the user about intent, priorities and decisions — the things only they hold. After each round, offer the exit quietly: *"Type **wrap up** to end the consultation, or carry on."* ## Saving the discussion On exit, acknowledge in one sentence and write it down: 1. `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__create_discussion` with a `title` and a `slug` from the topic. The number is allocated; do not supply one. 2. One `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__create_document_section` per part of the record — the key points, the decisions with their reasoning, and the thread that was open when it ended — at the positions they should read in. 3. `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__create_document_agent` per agent who took part, with `document_kind` set to `discussion` and the `agent` name — everyone who was in the room, including any dismissed before the end. 4. `mcp__plugin_dpm_dpm__update_session` to close the run. **Write the substance, not a summary of it.** The session state has been carrying decisions with their reasoning; a discussion record that compresses them to bullets throws away the thing it exists to keep. Length is the wrong economy here. **Who was in the room is a row, and naming them in the prose is not the same fact.** A reader can see the names either way; nothing else can. A run asking which discussions an agent took part in reads rows, and a persona mentioned in a paragraph is invisible to it — which is also why a dismissal is not a deletion here. The prose still reads however it needs to; it is not the record. Then **offer, and do not run**: `/dpm:discover`, `/dpm:spec` or `/dpm:epics` with this discussion as their starting context, or nothing. ## Degradation | Missing | Behaviour | |---|---| | The name or role matches no agent | Say so and show the roster. Do not consult the nearest match — a persona is the whole of what was asked for. | | The roster is empty | Say so and stop. There is no consultation without an agent, and inventing one is the failure this skill is defined against. | | The search returns nothing | Say the corpus holds nothing on the term and consult on what the user brings. An empty result is an answer. | | The user exits without a topic ever forming | Save nothing. A discussion with no substance is a numbered file nobody will open. | ## Output A `discussion` document, its sections and one `document_agent` row per participant, plus the session row. **Nothing else is written**, and no file is composed by hand. ## Next Action Offer the pipeline handoff above. A consultation earns itself by what someone does next with it.