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Council

Expert YAML Format

Expert definitions specify the static profile of a panel participant. Store them as .yaml files in ~/Council/experts/ for reuse across panels.

Schema

Section titled “Schema”

Top-Level Fields

Section titled “Top-Level Fields”
Field Type Required Description
slug string Yes Short identifier scoped to the panel (e.g., cto, skeptic, 3d-modeler). Lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens; must start with a letter or digit; maximum 64 characters.
displayName string Yes Name shown in transcripts (e.g., Dahlia Renner (CTO)).
role string Yes One-line role descriptor.
expertise object Yes Evidence weights and prior knowledge. See Expertise Object.
epistemicStance string Yes Stance from which the expert forms beliefs.
model string No Provider-agnostic model override (e.g., claude-sonnet-4.5). Falls back to panel/global default.
debateProtocol string No Override for default anti-sycophancy protocol.
outputContract string No Override for output formatting requirements.
forbiddenMoves string[] No Additional forbidden debate moves; combined with global defaults.
personality string No Personality flavor applied to identity tone.
kind generic | persona No Defaults to generic. Use persona for document-trained experts.
personaDescription string No For persona experts: relationship description (e.g., VP of Engineering I report to).
docsPath string No For persona experts: override default docs location.

Expertise Object

Section titled “Expertise Object”
Field Type Required Description
weightedEvidence string[] Yes Evidence types this expert weights heavily, ordered by priority. Must contain at least one entry.
referenceCases string[] No Specific historical patterns or principles the expert cites by name.
notExpertIn string[] No Areas this expert explicitly disclaims expertise in.

Constraints

Section titled “Constraints”
  • Section marker injection: Fields like displayName, role, personality, and epistemicStance must not contain patterns like [1], [2] (these are reserved for the internal prompt structure).
  • Slug pattern: ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]{0,63}$ (lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens; must start with a letter or digit; maximum 64 characters).
  • Unique slugs: Within a panel, all expert slugs must be unique.

Example

Section titled “Example”
slug: senior
displayName: Senior Developer
role: Senior Developer focused on clarity, idioms, and review-velocity
expertise:
  weightedEvidence:
    - Naming, function decomposition, and call-site readability
    - Idiomatic use of the language and framework
    - Test ergonomics (can this be tested without a stub jungle?)
  referenceCases:
    - The "clever one-liner" that takes 10 minutes to verify
  notExpertIn:
    - infrastructure operations
    - cryptography
epistemicStance: >
  You have read too much code by people who optimized for the
  hour they spent writing it instead of the year other people
  will spend reading it.
personality: Prefers boring, obvious diffs over clever, terse ones.
Section titled “Related”