LLM Council Skill Skill

LLM Council Skill

Multi-model council: parallel drafts → adversarial critique → validated synthesis.

Prerequisite: This skill requires the the-llm-council Python package to be installed. The skill provides IDE integration but the actual council runs via the installed CLI. If you see command not found: council, run pip install the-llm-council first.

Setup

1. Install

pip install the-llm-council>=0.5.0

# With specific provider SDKs
pip install the-llm-council[anthropic,openai,google]

2. Configure API Keys

| Provider | Environment Variable | Notes | |----------|---------------------|-------| | OpenRouter | OPENROUTER_API_KEY | Recommended - single key for all models | | OpenAI | OPENAI_API_KEY | Direct GPT access | | Anthropic | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | Direct Claude access | | Google | GOOGLE_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY | Direct Gemini access |

# Minimum setup (OpenRouter)
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-key"

3. Verify

council doctor

Usage

council run <subagent> "<task>" [options]

CLI Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --mode | Agent mode (e.g., impl/arch/test for drafter) | | --json | Output structured JSON | | --verbose, -v | Verbose output | | --models, -m | Comma-separated model IDs | | --providers, -p | Comma-separated provider list | | --no-artifacts | Disable artifact storage (faster) |

Other Commands

council doctor    # Check provider health
council config    # Show current configuration

Subagents (v0.5.0)

Core Agents

| Subagent | Modes | Use For | Details | |----------|-------|---------|---------| | drafter | impl, arch, test | Code, architecture, tests | See below | | critic | review, security | Code review, security audit | See below | | synthesizer | - | Merge and finalize outputs | See subagents/synthesizer.md | | researcher | - | Technical research | See subagents/researcher.md | | planner | plan, assess | Roadmaps, decisions | See subagents/planner.md | | router | - | Task classification | See subagents/router.md |

Agent Modes

drafter modes:

--mode impl - Feature implementation, bug fixes (default)
--mode arch - System design, API schemas
--mode test - Test suite design

critic modes:

--mode review - Code review with CWE IDs (default)
--mode security - Security threat analysis

planner modes:

--mode plan - Execution roadmaps (default)
--mode assess - Build vs buy decisions

Deprecated Aliases (Backwards Compatible)

The following legacy agent names still work but will be removed in v1.0:

| Old Name | Use Instead | Removed In | |----------|-------------|------------| | implementer | drafter --mode impl | v1.0 | | architect | drafter --mode arch | v1.0 | | test-designer | drafter --mode test | v1.0 | | reviewer | critic --mode review | v1.0 | | red-team | critic --mode security | v1.0 | | assessor | planner --mode assess | v1.0 | | shipper | synthesizer | v1.0 |

Multi-Model Configuration

Run multiple models in parallel for adversarial debate:

# Via CLI flag
council run drafter --mode arch "Design caching layer" \
  --models "anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet,openai/gpt-4o,google/gemini-pro"

# Via environment variable
export COUNCIL_MODELS="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet,openai/gpt-4o,google/gemini-pro"

Model Pack Overrides

Fine-tune which models handle specific task types:

export COUNCIL_MODEL_FAST="anthropic/claude-3-haiku"      # Quick tasks
export COUNCIL_MODEL_REASONING="anthropic/claude-3-opus"  # Deep analysis
export COUNCIL_MODEL_CODE="openai/gpt-4o"                 # Code generation
export COUNCIL_MODEL_CRITIC="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet" # Adversarial critique

Config File

Optional YAML configuration:

# ~/.config/llm-council/config.yaml
providers:
  - name: openrouter
    api_key: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}
    default_model: anthropic/claude-3-opus

defaults:
  providers:
    - openrouter
  timeout: 120
  max_retries: 3
  summary_tier: actions

Python API

from llm_council import Council
from llm_council.protocol.types import CouncilConfig

config = CouncilConfig(
    providers=["openrouter"],
    mode="impl"  # Optional: set agent mode
)
council = Council(config=config)
result = await council.run(
    task="Build a login page with OAuth",
    subagent="drafter"
)
print(result.output)

When to Use

Use council for:

Feature implementation requiring production quality
Code review with security analysis (CWE IDs)
Architecture design decisions
Technical research informing decisions
Build vs buy assessments
Security threat modeling

Skip council for:

Quick file lookups
Single-line fixes
Simple questions

Examples

# Feature implementation (new v0.5.0 syntax)
council run drafter --mode impl "Add pagination to users API" --json

# Code review
council run critic --mode review "Review the authentication changes" --json

# Multi-model architecture design
council run drafter --mode arch "Design caching layer" \
  --models "anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet,openai/gpt-4o" --json

# Security threat model
council run critic --mode security "Analyze auth system vulnerabilities" --json

# Build vs buy decision
council run planner --mode assess "Should we build or buy a payment system?" --json

# Legacy syntax (still works, shows deprecation warning)
council run implementer "Add pagination" --json
council run reviewer "Review changes" --json

Security Notes

API Keys: Never embed secrets in task descriptions or skill files. Use environment variables.
Data Sensitivity: Avoid sending files containing secrets (.env, credentials) to the council. Context is sent to external LLM providers.
Skill Integrity: Treat SKILL.md and subagents/*.md as configuration code. Keep under version control.

Troubleshooting

# Check all providers
council doctor

# Verbose output for debugging
council run drafter --mode impl "task" --verbose

# Faster runs (skip artifact storage)
council run drafter "task" --no-artifacts

Agent Skills: LLM Council Skill

Skill Files