Consensus

The consensus plugin uses provider-CLI-backed AI peers for three related workflows: converging artifacts through peer deliberation, single-round panel responses with side-by-side attribution, and one-shot advisory takes that the host dispositions. The peers are invoked through the generated consensus CLI; the converging wrappers parse your document, run the peers through structured verdict rounds, and write a markdown deliberation artifact with the final output, resolution metadata, and a deliberation log.

The scope is intentionally narrow. v0.1 ships seven skills: five converging skills, one panel skill, and one advisory skill.

• create — creates a new artifact from a brief with independent_draft, parallel_synthesized, maximum agency, a deliberation log, and a consensus-resolution block.
• decide — chooses between documented options with independent_draft, parallel_synthesized, minimal agency, required decision headings, explicit ## Dissent / Unresolved Disagreement, and a consensus-resolution block.
• plan — turns a goal and inline constraints into a structured markdown plan with independent_draft, parallel_synthesized, moderate agency, required ## Steps, ## Dependencies, and ## Risks headings, and a consensus-resolution block.
• refine — refines a markdown draft by asking two peers to deliberate toward a converged artifact with an audit trail.
• evaluate — judges an artifact against a rubric, with unified findings, per-peer reasoning, and dissent preserved in the deliberation log.
• panel — asks multiple provider-backed panelists the same question and writes side-by-side attributed responses while the host stays a neutral moderator.
• phone-a-friend — asks one other provider-backed peer for a structured advisory take, then leaves the host responsible for agreeing, applying, ignoring, or following up.

For the deepest reference — operator-QA walkthroughs, exact commands, and example inputs — see the consensus plugin README.

Iteration modes

The shipped consensus skills support three iteration modes, selected with --iteration:

• alternating (default for refine) — one peer revises and the other responds, turn by turn. Lowest cost: one peer call per round.
• parallel_revision (default for evaluate) — both peers revise the same input simultaneously each round, each critiquing its own and the peer's previous revision; the run converges on emergent agreement. Costs 2x peer calls per round.
• parallel_synthesized — parallel revision plus a per-round synthesis call that merges both revisions into the next round's shared input. Costs 2x peer calls plus one synthesis call per round.

Parallel modes disclose their per-round call multiplier in the run_started JSONL event (calls_per_round) and report actual peer_calls / synthesis_calls totals at completion.

Synthesizer, agency, and escalation

• Synthesizer — in parallel_synthesized mode, a synthesis call merges both peers' revisions each round. It defaults to the first configured peer's provider and can be overridden with --synthesizer <provider-id>. The synthesizer must be present in the provider inventory, and the flag is warned-and-ignored outside parallel_synthesized.
• Agency — --agency controls who resolves a stuck section. At minimal agency, unresolved peer disagreement is surfaced to the user rather than silently decided.
• Escalation — when a parallel-mode section gets stuck (persistent disagreement, oscillation, budget exhaustion, or near-done drift), the wrapper emits an escalation_required JSONL event routed by --agency to the user or the host. A user decision re-enters with --user-direction; a host decision re-enters with --host-direction and records as an attributed orchestrator round.

See Configuration for peer selection, the provider floor, diagnostics, and permissions, and the per-skill pages for the full command set.

Limitations

• v0.1 ships the create, decide, plan, refine, evaluate, panel, and phone-a-friend skills. The standalone session-observer and export-session-transcript skills ship alongside the consensus plugin but are not part of it.
• Remaining consensus-family skills are future work: consensus-research.
• Three iteration modes ship (alternating, parallel_revision, parallel_synthesized); parallel_revision and parallel_synthesized disclose their per-round call multiplier (2x peer calls, plus 1 synthesis call for synthesized) and escalate stuck states through the agency-gated ladder.
• The independent-draft cold-start strategy is exposed through create, decide, and plan. refine and evaluate remain shared-input only.
• Sections converge independently; whole-document harmonization and deliberation metrics / cost caps remain deferred.
• Verdict submission is best-effort by default: successful submit sidecars are preferred, then wrappers fall back to final-message parsing. Strict require-submission mode remains future work.
• Cursor is supported as a host runtime and as a first-floor peer when its local CLI is authenticated. Treat auth_required inventory/preflight results as a local setup issue, not a retryable consensus failure.
• Codex public marketplace submission is not assumed; Git/local install is the v0.1 path.
• skills.sh listing should not be claimed until indexing has been verified after publication.
• Prompt injection inside input artifacts is mitigated by prompt framing, filtering, and schema validation where applicable, but peer CLIs may still produce structurally valid bad advice. Review the audit trail before publishing outputs.
• This plugin adds no telemetry. Configured provider CLIs may have their own behavior; review those tools separately.

Contents

• Create - create usage: brief inputs, independent_draft defaults, output contract, and input handling.
• Decide - decide usage: options input, minimal-agency defaults, required headings, dissent surfacing, and output contract.
• Plan - plan usage: goal and inline constraints, moderate-agency defaults, required headings, and output contract.
• Refine - refine usage: sequential default, iteration modes, resume, escalation, and host-mediated parallel sections.
• Evaluate - evaluate usage: artifact-vs-rubric command, defaults, output contract, and guided rubric creation.
• Panel - panel usage: single-round multi-peer questions, panelist selection, JSONL status, output contract, and neutral moderation.
• Phone-a-friend - phone-a-friend usage: one-shot advisory peer call, provider selection, advisory schema, and host disposition.
• Configuration - Shared configuration: peer and panelist selection, provider floor, config paths, diagnostics, synthesizer, agency, and permissions.