Install and Run Your First Debate

Time: ~5 minutes
Learning outcome: Install Council, confirm setup, and run a deliberative AI debate.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this tutorial, you will:

Install Council globally via npm
Verify your environment with council doctor
Run your first auto-composed expert panel debate

Prerequisites

Node.js 24 or later installed (download)
A GitHub Copilot subscription (Individual, Business, or Enterprise)
Terminal access (macOS Terminal, Windows Terminal, or any shell)

Step 1: Install Council

Open your terminal and run:

npm install -g @council-ai/cli

This installs the council command globally. You should see output confirming the package was added.

Step 2: Verify your setup

Check that Council can connect to GitHub Copilot:

council doctor

You should see output like:

✓ Node.js version: 24.0.0
✓ GitHub Copilot: authenticated
✓ Configuration: ~/.council/config.json
✓ Database: ~/.council/council.db

All systems operational.

If you see any errors, follow the guidance provided by council doctor.

Step 3: Convene your first panel

Council automatically designs an expert panel from your topic. No template required — just ask:

council convene "Should we build our own analytics platform or buy a third-party solution?"

What happens next:

Auto-composition: Council analyzes your question and assembles 3 experts (default; configurable 2–8) with relevant perspectives
Deliberation: Experts debate across multiple rounds, building on each other’s arguments
Synthesis: A final summary captures areas of agreement, disagreement, and actionable insights

You’ll see output like:

🏛️ Auto-composing expert panel...
✓ Panel assembled: 3 experts
  • Priya Mehta (CTO) — claude-sonnet-4.5
  • James Whitfield (CFO) — claude-sonnet-4.5
  • Lisa Park (VP Product) — claude-sonnet-4.5

━━━ Round 1 ━━━

[Priya Mehta — CTO]
Building in-house gives us full control, but the cost is real:
a team of 3 engineers for 6+ months, ongoing maintenance...

[James Whitfield — CFO]
Three engineers at $180K fully loaded is $270K just for the
build phase. A vendor at $3K/month is $36K/year...

━━━ Synthesis ━━━
The panel converges on one risk: the 6-month data gap...

What you accomplished

Installed Council globally
Verified your GitHub Copilot connection
Ran a multi-expert deliberation with real disagreement and synthesis

Next steps

Tutorial 2: Conclude and Export — Turn the debate into a structured decision artifact
Explore templates: Run council templates to see built-in panel configurations
Resume a debate: Use council sessions to list your debates, then council resume <panel> to continue

Commands introduced

Command	Purpose
`council doctor`	Verify setup and environment
`council convene`	Start a new expert panel debate
`council templates`	List available panel templates
`council sessions`	Show all saved debates