Five voices. One Chair. Structured deliberation.

A multi-perspective decision framework for AI-assisted engineering and strategy work. Most decisions need only one voice. The discipline is knowing when to convene the full council — and the structure that makes the convening produce signal, not noise.

— start here

The methodology in one read.

"Most decisions don't warrant the full council. The discipline is in knowing when to convene."

Read COUNCIL.md for the canonical methodology — the five voices, speaking order, tiebreaker math, anti-groupthink modes. Then CHAIR-DISCIPLINE.md for handoff principles. Then the worked example to see it in action end-to-end.

— I

The Five Voices — each a domain, each a recusal

Each voice owns a domain and recuses on others. The names are mythological for memorability; the structure is what matters.

1.1

Heimdall · Architect

Long-horizon design · ADRs · structural commitments

Sees structure first. Considers 3-12 month consequences. Recuses on execution-level work and single-file edits.

Norse

1.2

Susanoo · Challenger

Red-team · dissent · assumption-naming

Looks for what's wrong, what hasn't been named, where this could fail. Honest abstention is allowed; manufactured dissent is forbidden.

Japanese

1.3

Hephaestus · Smith

Pragmatism · smallest-thing-that-ships · budget

Asks: what's the smallest version that ships? Is the budget realistic? Recuses on vision and pure cross-domain synthesis.

Greek

1.4

Thoth · Keeper

Decision memory · locked decisions · silent-reversion detection

Speaks first in full-council convenings. Memory before design. Catches what the council previously committed to and is now silently reverting.

Speaks first

1.5

Saraswati · Weaver

Cross-domain synthesis · collision detection

Speaks second. Tracks what's happening across the user's portfolio of projects/domains. Flags where they collide.

Hindu

— II

The Chair — orchestrates, never participates

The Chair is your global agent persona. The council advises; the Chair acts.

2.1

Chair Persona Template

Global agent persona · ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Template for your global persona — operating temperament, communication protocol, engineering baseline, and the load-bearing Council of Five section.

Customize

2.2

Chair Discipline

Handoff principles · 4-step protocol

The four pre-handoff steps: authoritative read, paste-isolate test, self-contradiction scan, first-occurrence registration. Plus citation-only discipline for locked content.

Discipline

— III

Methodology Deep-Dives — the structure underneath

Five focused documents on the parts of the framework that need explanation beyond what fits in COUNCIL.md.

3.1

Speaking Order

Why Thoth → Saraswati → Heimdall → Hephaestus → Susanoo

Memory before design; cross-domain before architecture; architecture before pragmatism; pragmatism before challenge. The order is structural.

Rationale

3.2

Modes

Anti-groupthink · Discovery

Pre-mortem, steelman, hybrid, adversarial-collab — when consensus needs structural challenge. Forward and backtrack — when projects start.

Pattern

3.3

Tiebreakers

Disagreement math · user override

When voices substantively disagree: how the math works, when the user breaks the tie, what happens to recusals and abstentions.

Mechanism

3.4

Failure Modes

What kills conventions

Council theater, persona narration, drift, reference rot, mode selection theater, manufactured dissent. The patterns to surface and recover from.

Diagnostic

3.5

Lore

Naming + design history

Why five voices, why mythological names, why the speaking order is fixed, what the council isn't, how the methodology emerged from extended use.

Background

— IV

Templates — ready-to-use scaffolds

Drop-in templates for convening logs, kickoffs, and the cross-domain commitments file Saraswati consults.

4.1

Convening Log Template

Per-convening structured record

Required sections: header, question, voices participating, trace, anti-groupthink output, decision, follow-ups, reference-rot check.

Required

4.2

Kickoff Prompt

Drop-in prompt to convene

Standard prompt + variants (single-voice, partial council, mode-specific, discovery). Common patterns by question type.

Prompt

4.3

Cross-Domain Commitments

Saraswati's reference

Single source of truth for active commitments across your domains. Public structure file; personal data goes in .local.md (gitignored).

Reference

— V

Worked Example — see it in action

5.1

Example Convening

Should we add a feature flag system?

A fully-worked example end-to-end: full council, hybrid mode, pre-mortem + steelman, "consensus held with hard condition" outcome, follow-ups + reference-rot check. Closest demonstration of the framework.

Highest signal

— for non-github readers

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If you have a GitHub account, opening an issue is preferred — it's public and lets others weigh in. This form is the path for everyone else.