the-council

The Council

Parallel minds. Singular clarity.

Security advisory (2026-05-25): Versions 1.2.0 and 1.2.1 do NOT enforce read-only on the Gemini advisor as their docs claim — agy's --dangerously-skip-permissions auto-approves tool calls rather than withholding them, and a 2026-05-24 incident saw agy ghost-write 8 files into a project directory. Upgrade to 1.3.0 or later for real OS-level sandbox enforcement (sandbox-exec on macOS) and a pre/post-invocation diff safety net. See SKILL.md → Permissions and Safety for the full incident note.

A Claude Code skill that convenes OpenAI Codex and Google Gemini as an advisory board. Both run in parallel via their CLIs, with full project context, and return independent analyses that Claude synthesizes into a unified recommendation.

What It Does

When you say "ask the council" or request a second opinion, Claude:

1. Syncs your project context (CLAUDE.md) to both advisors
2. Composes a prompt using the appropriate template (code review, architecture, debugging, or general)
3. Invokes Codex and Gemini in parallel, both in read-only sandboxes
4. Synthesizes the responses — highlighting consensus, divergence, and Claude's own recommendation

Both advisors run at maximum capability (Codex with xhigh reasoning effort, Gemini with HIGH thinking level) and have full codebase access in read-only mode.

Learning Loop

After each council session, Claude reflects on what the advisors revealed — gaps, blind spots, or better approaches — and generalizes those learnings into CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md. This means future sessions in the same repository start with lessons from previous council deliberations already loaded.

Installation

Via Claude Code Plugin Marketplace

/plugin marketplace add DantesPeak85/the-council
/plugin install the-council@the-council-marketplace

Manual Installation

Clone this repo and register it as a local plugin in your Claude Code configuration.

Prerequisites

You need at least one of these CLIs installed and authenticated:

OpenAI Codex CLI

npm i -g @openai/codex
codex auth

Google Gemini CLI

npm i -g @google/gemini-cli
gemini   # Authenticates via OAuth on first run

Enable experimental plan mode in ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{ "experimental": { "plan": true } }

Graceful Degradation

The Council runs a preflight check on first invocation. If only one CLI is available, it operates in single-advisor mode and notes this in the synthesis. If neither is available, it shows installation instructions.

Usage

Just tell Claude:

• "Ask the council to review this PR"
• "Get a second opinion on this architecture"
• "Council review" on any code changes
• "Debug this with the council"

The council is also invoked proactively during high-stakes architectural decisions or security-sensitive code reviews.

Recommended Configuration

For maximum advisor capability:

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

model_reasoning_effort = "xhigh"

Gemini (~/.gemini/settings.json):

{
  "modelConfigs": {
    "customAliases": {
      "council": {
        "modelConfig": {
          "model": "gemini-3-pro-preview",
          "generateContentConfig": {
            "thinkingConfig": { "thinkingLevel": "HIGH" }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
CODEX_MODEL	auto (CLI default)	Model for Codex advisor
GEMINI_MODEL	gemini-3-pro-preview	Model for Gemini advisor
COUNCIL_TIMEOUT	300	Max seconds per advisor
GEMINI_MAX_TURNS	50	Max Gemini session turns

Safety

Both advisors run in read-only mode and cannot modify your project:

• Codex: --sandbox read-only
• Gemini: --approval-mode plan + --policy deny list (write/execute tools removed from model memory)

Author

Created by Tom Wolinitz with Claude Code

More projects at github.com/DantesPeak85

License

MIT