Council Orchestration Protocol

Overview

Three-phase consensus protocol coordinating multiple LLMs for collaborative decision-making.

Architecture:

• Phase 1: Parallel opinion collection from available LLMs
• Phase 2: Cross-examination peer review
• Phase 3: Chairman synthesis of consensus

Council Members:

• Claude CLI (required minimum)
• OpenAI Codex CLI (optional, enhances consensus)
• Google Gemini CLI (optional, enhances consensus)

Quick Start

Prerequisites Check

# Resolve path to council_utils.sh
if [[ -n "${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
elif [[ -n "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
else
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
fi

source "$UTILS_PATH"
get_cli_status

Quorum Requirements:

• Minimum: 1 CLI (Claude) - single-model mode for testing
• Recommended: 2+ CLIs - enables peer review and synthesis
• Optimal: All 3 CLIs - full consensus protocol

See detailed prerequisites for CLI installation.

Execution Flow

Phase 1: Opinion Collection

Quick Start:

# Initialize working directory
council_init

# Validate user input (security)
validate_user_input "$user_query" || exit 1

# Execute parallel opinion collection
PLUGIN_ROOT=$(get_plugin_root)
"${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_parallel.sh" "$query" .council

What it does:

• Consults all available LLMs in parallel
• Captures opinions to .council/stage1_*.txt
• Validates outputs and marks absent members
• Checks quorum for proceeding

Output Files:

• .council/stage1_claude.txt (required)
• .council/stage1_openai.txt (if Codex available)
• .council/stage1_gemini.txt (if Gemini available)

Manual Execution: See Phase 1 detailed guide

Phase 2: Peer Review

Quick Start:

PLUGIN_ROOT=$(get_plugin_root)
"${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_peer_review.sh" "$original_question" .council

What it does:

• Each LLM reviews peers' responses anonymously
• Uses structured review template from templates/review_prompt.txt
• Executes reviews in parallel
• Outputs to .council/stage2_review_*.txt

Cross-Review Matrix:

Output Files:

• .council/stage2_review_claude.txt
• .council/stage2_review_openai.txt
• .council/stage2_review_gemini.txt

Manual Execution: See Phase 2 detailed guide

Phase 3: Chairman Synthesis

Quick Start:

# Generate chairman invocation prompt
PLUGIN_ROOT=$(get_plugin_root)
CHAIRMAN_PROMPT=$("${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_chairman.sh" \
    "$original_question" \
    .council)

# Invoke chairman sub-agent
# Use Task tool: council-chairman agent

Prompt for Chairman:

Use the council-chairman agent to synthesize the council's responses.

$CHAIRMAN_PROMPT

After chairman completes:

# Retrieve final report for this run
cat .council/final_report.md

What it does:

• Chairman agent reads all Stage 1/2 files
• Analyzes for consensus and disagreements
• Generates comprehensive verdict report
• Writes to .council/final_report.md

Context Isolation:

• Chairman operates in isolated context
• Only has Read/Write tools (no Bash, no external CLIs)
• Ensures unbiased synthesis based solely on files

Manual Execution: See Phase 3 detailed guide

Error Handling

Graceful Degradation:

• Council proceeds with available members (minimum 1 required)
• Absent members are noted in final report
• Peer review skipped if <2 responses
• Single-model mode if only Claude available

Security Best Practices

⚠️ Important: This skill executes external CLI tools with user-provided input. Follow security guidelines to prevent command injection and ensure safe operation.

Key Security Measures

• Input Validation: All user queries validated before passing to external CLIs
• CLI Verification: Ensure external CLIs (codex, gemini, claude) are from trusted sources
• Temporary Files: All data in .council/ is stored in a dedicated working directory. By default, files are preserved after synthesis so users can review or reuse the final report. Use council_cleanup or /council-cleanup to explicitly remove these files when no longer needed.
• Proper Quoting: All bash scripts use proper variable quoting to prevent injection

Usage

# Always validate user input before processing
# Resolve path to council_utils.sh
if [[ -n "${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
elif [[ -n "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
else
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
fi

source "$UTILS_PATH"
validate_user_input "$user_query" || {
    error_msg "Invalid input - aborting for security"
    exit 1
}

Detailed Security Information

For comprehensive security guidance including:

• Input sanitization patterns
• CLI authenticity verification
• Threat model and mitigations
• Security audit checklist

See SECURITY.md

Output Format

The final output is the Chairman's Markdown report containing:

Report Structure

1. Executive Summary

   • Concise answer to original question
   • Key consensus points
   • Critical recommendations

2. Council Debate Summary

   • Table of significant divergences
   • Resolution of disagreements
   • Attribution to specific models

3. Detailed Analysis

   • Technical accuracy synthesis
   • Code quality assessment (if applicable)
   • Security considerations
   • Alternative approaches

4. Final Recommendation

   • Synthesized best practice
   • Implementation guidance
   • Caveats and edge cases

5. Participation Notes (if applicable)

   • Absent members
   • Degraded council mode notice

Additional Resources

Documentation

• REFERENCE.md - Detailed bash implementation and manual execution guide
• EXAMPLES.md - Usage scenarios, troubleshooting, and integration examples
• SECURITY.md - Security best practices and threat mitigation
• METADATA.md - Version history, compatibility, and licensing

Templates

• templates/review_prompt.txt - Peer review prompt template
• templates/chairman_prompt.txt - Chairman invocation template

Scripts

• scripts/council_utils.sh - Shared utility functions
• scripts/run_parallel.sh - Automated Phase 1 execution
• scripts/run_peer_review.sh - Automated Phase 2 execution
• scripts/run_chairman.sh - Chairman prompt generation
• scripts/query_claude.sh - Claude CLI wrapper
• scripts/query_codex.sh - Codex CLI wrapper
• scripts/query_gemini.sh - Gemini CLI wrapper

Common Usage Patterns

Full Automated Run

# Resolve path to council_utils.sh
if [[ -n "${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
elif [[ -n "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
else
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
fi

source "$UTILS_PATH"

# Phase 0: reset working directory for this run
council_cleanup || true
council_init

# Phase 1
validate_user_input "$query" || exit 1
PLUGIN_ROOT=$(get_plugin_root)
"${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_parallel.sh" "$query" .council

# Phase 2
"${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_peer_review.sh" "$query" .council

# Phase 3
CHAIRMAN_PROMPT=$("${PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/run_chairman.sh" "$query" .council)
# [Invoke chairman agent with $CHAIRMAN_PROMPT]

# Output
cat .council/final_report.md

Check Council Status

# Resolve path to council_utils.sh
if [[ -n "${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${COUNCIL_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
elif [[ -n "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-}" ]]; then
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
else
    UTILS_PATH="${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/skills/council-orchestrator/scripts/council_utils.sh"
fi

source "$UTILS_PATH"
get_cli_status
count_available_members
can_council_proceed && echo "Council ready" || echo "Install more CLIs"

Configuration Management

# View current config
config_list

# Set custom quorum
config_set "min_quorum" "3"

# Enable only specific members
config_set "enabled_members" "claude,gemini"

For more examples see EXAMPLES.md