Panel YAML Format

Panel definitions specify a reusable group of experts with shared defaults. Store them as .yaml files in ~/Council/panels/ (user panels) or use bundled templates that ship with Council.

Schema

Top-Level Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	Yes	Panel name (e.g., `code-review`, `architecture-review`).
`description`	string	No	Human-readable summary of the panel’s purpose.
`defaults`	object	No	Panel-level defaults. See Defaults Object.
`experts`	array	Yes	List of expert entries. Min 1, max 8. See Expert Entries.

Defaults Object

Field	Type	Required	Description
`mode`	`freeform` \| `structured`	No	Debate mode. Defaults to `freeform`.
`maxRounds`	integer	No	Maximum debate rounds (1–20). Falls back to global config default (4).
`model`	string	No	Provider-agnostic model override (e.g., `claude-sonnet-4.5`).

Expert Entries

Each entry in the experts array is either:

Slug reference (string): References an expert from your library by slug (e.g., senior, cto). Council resolves it from ~/Council/experts/.
Inline definition (object): A full expert definition embedded directly in the panel. See Expert YAML Format for the schema.

Constraint: All expert slugs within a panel must be unique (no duplicates).

Example: User Panel

name: code-review
description: Multi-perspective code review with separated concerns.
defaults:
  mode: freeform
  maxRounds: 3

experts:
  - senior      # slug reference
  - security    # slug reference
  - slug: maintainer
    displayName: Future Maintainer
    role: The engineer who will inherit this code in 6-12 months
    expertise:
      weightedEvidence:
        - Implicit assumptions encoded in arg order or magic strings
        - Error messages that explain why, not just what
      notExpertIn:
        - this PR's specific business context
    epistemicStance: >
      You will inherit this code, and you will not have the context
      the author has today.

Panel Precedence

User panels in ~/Council/panels/ override bundled templates with the same name. This lets you customize stock panels without modifying the package.

Bundled Templates

Council ships several pre-configured panels:

code-review — Senior Dev, Security Auditor, Performance Engineer, Future Maintainer
architecture-review — System Architect, SRE, Security Architect, Business Analyst
incident-postmortem — Incident Commander, Site Reliability Engineer, Security Analyst, Customer Success
career-coaching — Career Advisor, Mentor, Skills Coach
startup-validation — Market Analyst, Product Strategist, Financial Advisor

List all available templates:

council panel list --templates