Use cases

Reach for it when getting it wrong is expensive.

Most prompts don't need a council. This is for the ones where a confident, wrong answer costs you a rollback, a migration, or a bug your users hit first.

Architecture decisions

Weigh two designs, draw the module boundaries, and settle the rollback plan before you commit to one of them.

Risky diffs

Hand it a patch and ask what breaks: regressions, missing tests, the edge case that pages you at 3am.

Frontend and UX

Let Leonardo tear into the UX, then have Bob drive the browser before anyone says "it works".

Performance proposals

Seymour goes after latency, memory, and database load — and the question everyone skips: how will you measure it?

Plugins and skills

Skill-review mode checks whether people will find your tool, use it, and not trip over rules you already wrote.

Release readiness

Trade "I think it's fine" for a list: blockers, open disagreements, what's tested, what's still unknown.

Frontend review

Leonardo critiques. Bob verifies.

UI bugs hide in behavior, not screenshots — the focus trap that won't release, the background that stays clickable, the modal that falls apart on a phone. So frontend runs get a stricter path.

  • Leonardo is the critic, and he isn't kind about confusing design.
  • Bob runs the browser. He gathers evidence; he doesn't get a vote.
  • Nothing is called "verified" until Bob, or a real browser, has reproduced it.

Mode selection

Pick the smallest mode that catches the risk.

Situation Mode Why
Small, reversible decision fast A quick Chairman pass, none of the full-council cost.
Implementation or architecture choice standard Six reviewers and a scoring pass. Enough for most calls.
Security, migration, data loss, a close tie deep When the downside is real, the extra scrutiny pays for itself.
Frontend, UX, modals, forms, navigation standard --frontend-review Leonardo on the experience, Bob on the browser when there's something to click.
Skill or plugin usability --type skill --skill-review Compact lenses for how the tool is built and whether anyone can use it.

Don't overuse it

Plenty of the time, plain Codex wins.

  • Use plain Codex for small edits, quick questions, and anything you can check yourself in a minute.
  • Use the council when the failure is expensive: a migration you can't undo, a regression users will see, a tradeoff you can't call alone.
  • Use expanded only when you mean it. It burns through usage, so the plugin won't start it without a confirmation.