opencue vc:predict — Multi-Persona Pre-Analysis
Five expert personas independently analyze a proposed change, then debate conflicts to produce a consensus verdict before a single line of code is written.
When to Use
- Before implementing a major or high-risk feature
- Before a significant refactor or architecture change
- Evaluating competing technical approaches
- Stress-testing assumptions in a proposed design
When NOT to Use
- Trivial or low-risk changes (use
debuggerfor bugs,generate-plan/plan-agentfor already-decided tasks) - Already-approved work with no open design questions
- Pure dependency upgrades with no API changes
The 5 Personas
| Persona | Focus | Core Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Architect | System design, scalability, coupling | Does this fit the architecture? Will it scale? What new coupling does it introduce? |
| Security | Attack surface, data protection, auth | What can be abused? Where is data exposed? Are auth boundaries respected? |
| Performance | Latency, memory, queries, bundle size | What is the latency impact? N+1 queries? Memory leaks? Bundle bloat? |
| UX | User experience, accessibility, error states | Is this intuitive? What does the error state look like? Accessible on mobile? |
| Devil's Advocate | Hidden assumptions, simpler alternatives | Why not do nothing? What is the simplest alternative? Which assumption could be wrong? |
Debate Protocol
- Read the proposed change/feature description from the argument
- Read relevant code if file paths are provided (grep for affected areas)
- Each persona analyzes independently — do not let personas influence each other during this phase
- Identify agreements — points where all (or 4+) personas align
- Identify conflicts — points where personas meaningfully disagree
- Weigh tradeoffs — for each conflict, evaluate which concern has higher impact
- Produce verdict — GO / CAUTION / STOP with actionable recommendations
Output Format
## Prediction Report: [proposal title]
## Verdict: GO | CAUTION | STOP
### Agreements (all personas align)
- [Point 1 — what they all agree on]
- [Point 2]
### Conflicts & Resolutions
| Topic | Architect | Security | Performance | UX | Devil's Advocate | Resolution |
|-------|-----------|----------|-------------|-----|-----------------|------------|
| [Issue] | [View] | [View] | [View] | [View] | [View] | [Recommendation] |
### Risk Summary
| Risk | Severity | Mitigation |
|------|----------|------------|
| [Risk description] | Critical/High/Medium/Low | [Concrete action] |
### Recommendations
1. [Action item — rationale]
2. [Action item — rationale]
3. [Action item — rationale]
Verdict Levels
| Verdict | Meaning |
|---|---|
| GO | All personas aligned, no critical risks, proceed with confidence |
| CAUTION | Concerns exist but are manageable — mitigations identified, proceed carefully |
| STOP | Critical unresolved issue found — needs redesign or more information before proceeding |
STOP Triggers (any one is sufficient)
- Security persona identifies auth bypass or data exposure with no viable mitigation
- Architect identifies fundamental design incompatibility requiring significant rework
- Performance persona identifies unacceptable latency or query explosion with no workaround
- Devil's Advocate exposes a false assumption that invalidates the entire approach
Integration with Other Skills
| Workflow Step | Skill | How |
|---|---|---|
| Deepen risk scenarios | vc:scenario |
Feed Risk Summary rows as feature description |
| Create implementation plan | generate-plan / plan-agent |
Attach Recommendations as constraints to the canonical planning path |
| High-risk feature implementation | execute-agent |
Reference CAUTION/STOP items as acceptance gates |
Example Invocations
/vc:predict "Add WebSocket support for real-time notifications"
/vc:predict "Migrate authentication from JWT to session cookies"
/vc:predict "Add multi-tenancy to the database layer"
/vc:predict "Replace REST API with GraphQL" --files src/api/**/*.ts