# Council > Convene a council/thinktank: fan one question out to several DISTINCT high-quality OpenRouter model families (via opencode/pi), each carrying a different generative persona/perspective, then synthesize the divergent thinking as chair. Generative deliberation — brainstorm, explore the option space, weigh tradeoffs, decorrelated ideation, lock a contested direction. Distinct from /roster's adversarial critique bench (that finds bugs in an artifact; this generates and reframes). Use when: "convene a council", "thinktank", "council of models", "brainstorm with different models", "get diverse perspectives", "panel of AIs", "what would different experts think", "divergence pass", "ideate broadly", "stress-test this direction with other models". Trigger: /council, /thinktank. - Skill: `phrazzld/council` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add phrazzld/council` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/phrazzld/council/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: phrazzld (https://skillmd.com/u/phrazzld) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/phrazzld/council --- # /council You are the chair, not a participant. Convene a small bench of distinct model families — each in a different generative persona — to think *divergently* about one question, then synthesize. The point is decorrelated thinking the single orchestrator can't produce alone. This is the **generative** sibling of `/roster`. Roster's adversarial bench reviews an artifact to find the bug (one lens each, artifact-only). A council *generates*: options, framings, first-principles takes, the non-obvious move, the real disagreement. Reuse roster's dispatch mechanics and model index; this skill owns composition + synthesis. ## When to convene (and when not) - Convene for: a contested design/direction call, a wide-open "what should we build / how should we approach this", a divergence pass before converging on a plan, a brainstorm where one model's taste shouldn't decide. The divergence-for-design-decisions mandate (≥4 structurally distinct voices on non-trivial architecture) is exactly this. - Don't convene for: a factual lookup, a settled call, anything a native subagent or a moment's thought answers. A council costs real money (each lane is a paid inference run) and your own synthesis time. Options, not obligation. ## Compose the bench (the judgment) Two axes, both must vary — decorrelation comes from family × lens: 1. **Distinct model families.** 4–6 members, each a *different* family (Kimi/Moonshot, DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM/Zhipu, MiniMax, …). Same-family variants don't decorrelate — a wide bench of one family is waste. Optionally add a frontier closed model on its own CLI (`codex`, `grok`, `agy`) for extra family spread. - **Slugs rot in days — never hardcode them.** Pull current top models live: `roster`'s `references/model-provider-harness-index.md`, or the **OpenRouter MCP** (`models-list`, `benchmarks`, `model-endpoints` for current quality + pricing). `pi --provider openrouter --list-models ` lists live slugs. 2. **Distinct generative personas.** One per member, pulling in different directions (builder vs simplifier vs user-advocate vs contrarian …). Library: `references/personas.md`. Compose a bespoke lens for the real question rather than forcing a stock role. Scale to stakes: a quick divergence is 3 members; a load-bearing design call is 5–6 plus a native subagent or two on further lenses. ## Run it `scripts/council.sh` fans the bench out in parallel, caps each lane, and collects every output — failed lanes reported, not hidden. ``` # members.tsv: label cli model persona ('#' comments ok) scripts/council.sh --task /tmp/q.txt --members /tmp/members.tsv --outdir /tmp/council ``` Write the shared task to one file (inline ALL context — lanes run cold, no shared history). Default `cli` is `opencode` (`opencode run --model openrouter/`); `pi` is the lighter no-tools alternative. See `/roster` for the exact headless forms. Timeout judgment is part of composition. The script default is 1200s per lane because strong reasoning models often need real wall time for cold, tool-using architecture questions. Use shorter caps only for smoke checks, slug probes, or cheap quick-divergence runs. For load-bearing design calls, keep the default or raise `--timeout` to 1800s; if a lane hits the cap, report it as caller-capped and rerun or exclude it before drawing model-quality conclusions. ## Synthesize as chair (the other half of the judgment) Reading the lanes is the work — don't just paste them. - **Surface the non-obvious.** The value is the idea or framing you wouldn't have reached alone, not the consensus. - **Name the real disagreement.** Where lanes genuinely diverge is signal — present the live tension and your call, not an average. - **Don't vote/tally.** N models agreeing is weak evidence (shared training); one model's sharp dissent can be the right answer. Weigh, don't count. - **Own the result.** Council output is evidence; you decide and are accountable. A rambling or failed lane is a result too — say so. ## Gotchas - **Monoculture = theater.** Same family across lanes, or all lanes on the same lens, produces correlated mush. Vary both axes or don't convene. - **Cold lanes.** Members share nothing but the task file. Inline constraints, goal, and what "good" looks like into the task — a member missing context invents it. - **Stale slugs.** A lane failing instantly is usually a dead/renamed slug or an auth lapse, not a verdict — re-check live (roster index / OpenRouter MCP) and re-run that lane. - **Brainstorm ≠ converge in one shot.** Use the council to widen; then you (or a focused follow-up) narrow. Don't ask the bench to also pick the winner — that's the chair's job. - **Timeouts are caller evidence.** A reasoning lane that hits `--timeout` was capped by the chair. Use short caps only intentionally, and don't blame the model for a cap chosen too low for the task. - **Cost is real.** Bound the bench to the stakes; `--timeout` is still the runaway guard. The OpenRouter MCP `credits-get` shows remaining balance. ## Composes with - `/roster` — dispatch mechanics, live model index, the adversarial-critique counterpart (use that to *review*, this to *generate*). - `nous-creative-ideation` — a routed library of named ideation methods. Seed a member's persona with a specific method (OuLiPo, TRIZ, lateral provocations), or run the question through one first when the bench risks converging on the obvious. - The OpenRouter MCP (user-scoped) — live model catalog, benchmarks, pricing, and balance for choosing the bench.