Council
Council is multi-model deliberation: several reviewers each weigh in independently, read each other's takes, and a chairman synthesizes a final answer. Use it for high-stakes decisions where one model's opinion isn't enough.
What this page is for
For a tricky decision — an architecture call, a risky plan, a contested review — a single model’s answer can be confidently wrong. Council convenes a panel: multiple reviewer models (API or CLI-backed) deliberate in rounds and produce a synthesized verdict.
How a session runs
A council session runs in three phases:
- First opinions — each member answers the question independently, without seeing the others.
- Cross-review — members read the other opinions and revise or push back.
- Chairman synthesis — a chair model reconciles the panel into a single answer, noting where members agreed and disagreed.
Members can be any configured model, including CLI-backed agents. Each member runs on its own timeout (MemberTimeoutSeconds), and the session reports which members succeeded so a slow or failed reviewer doesn’t silently skew the result.
Using it
Open Council from the sidebar, pose the question, and pick the panel. Agents can also escalate to the council programmatically via the council_consult tool when a decision crosses a complexity bar.
Self-hosting note: CLI-backed council members run as subprocesses and need generous timeouts. If members time out at ~100s with zero tokens, raise the timeout environment variables in your CLI tool’s own settings — the subprocess inherits them.
Related
- Built-in agents — the specialist roster council members can draw on.
- AI models — configuring the models a panel can use.