Counselors — Multi-Agent Review Skill

Phase 1: Context Gathering

$ARGUMENTS

1. Files mentioned in the prompt: Use Glob/Grep to find files referenced by name, class, function, or keyword
2. Recent changes: Run

   git diff HEAD

   and

   git diff --staged

   to capture recent work
3. Related code: Search for key terms from the prompt and read the most relevant files (up to 5 files, ~50KB total cap)

Phase 2: Agent Selection

1. Discover available agents by running via Bash:
   bash

   counselors ls

   This lists all configured agents with their IDs and binaries.
2. MANDATORY: Print the full agent list, then ask the user which to use.
   Always print the full

   counselors ls

   output as inline text (not inside AskUserQuestion). Just show the raw output from the command so the user sees every agent with its ID and binary. Do NOT reformat or abbreviate it.
   Then ask the user to pick:
   If 4 or fewer agents: Use AskUserQuestion with

   multiSelect: true

   , one option per agent.
   If more than 4 agents: AskUserQuestion only supports 4 options. Use these fixed options:
   • Option 1: "All [N] agents" — sends to every configured agent
   • Option 2-4: The first 3 individual agents by ID
   • The user can always select "Other" to type a comma-separated list of agent IDs from the printed list above
   Do NOT combine agents into preset groups (e.g. "claude + codex + gemini"). Each option must be a single agent or "All".
3. Wait for the user's selection before proceeding.
4. MANDATORY: Confirm the selection before continuing. After the user picks agents, echo back the exact list you will dispatch to:

   Dispatching to: claude-opus, codex-5.3-high, gemini-pro

   Then ask the user to confirm (e.g. "Look good?") before proceeding to Phase 3. This prevents silent tool omissions. If the user corrects the list, update your selection accordingly.

Phase 3: Prompt Assembly

1. Generate a slug from the topic (lowercase, hyphens, max 40 chars)
   • "review the auth flow" →

     auth-flow-review

   • "is this migration safe" →

     migration-safety-review

2. Create the output directory via Bash. The directory name MUST always be prefixed with a second-precision UNIX timestamp so runs are lexically sortable and never collide:

   ./agents/counselors/TIMESTAMP-[slug]

   For example:

   ./agents/counselors/1770676882-auth-flow-review

   Mac tip: Generate with

   date +%s

   (seconds since epoch). Millisecond precision is NOT available via

   date

   on macOS without GNU coreutils — use

   date +%s

   for portable second-precision timestamps.

3. Write the prompt file using the Write tool to

   ./agents/counselors/TIMESTAMP-[slug]/prompt.md

   :

# Review Request

## Question
[User's original prompt/question from $ARGUMENTS]

## Context

### Files Referenced
[Contents of the most relevant files found in Phase 1]

### Recent Changes
[git diff output, if any]

### Related Code
[Related files discovered via search]

## Instructions
You are providing an independent review. Be critical and thorough.
- Analyze the question in the context provided
- Identify risks, tradeoffs, and blind spots
- Suggest alternatives if you see better approaches
- Be direct and opinionated — don't hedge
- Structure your response with clear headings

Phase 4: Dispatch

counselors run -f ./agents/counselors/[slug]/prompt.md --tools [comma-separated-selections] --json

--tools claude,codex,gemini

timeout: 600000

-f

--json

Phase 5: Read Results

1. Parse the JSON output from stdout — it contains the run manifest with status, duration, word count, and output file paths for each agent
2. Read each agent's response from the

   outputFile

   path in the manifest
3. Check

   stderrFile

   paths for any agent that failed or returned empty output
4. Skip empty or error-only reports — note which agents failed

Phase 6: Synthesize and Present

## Counselors Review

**Agents consulted:** [list of agents that responded]

**Consensus:** [What most agents agree on — key takeaways]

**Disagreements:** [Where they differ, and reasoning behind each position]

**Key Risks:** [Risks or concerns flagged by any agent]

**Blind Spots:** [Things none of the agents addressed that seem important]

**Recommendation:** [Your synthesized recommendation based on all inputs]

---
Reports saved to: [output directory from manifest]

Phase 7: Action (Optional)

Error Handling

• counselors not installed: Tell the user to install it (

  npm install -g counselors

  )
• No tools configured: Tell the user to run

  counselors init

  or

  counselors add

• Agent fails: Note it in the synthesis and continue with other agents' results
• All agents fail: Report errors from stderr files and suggest checking

  counselors doctor