Collab Deliberation

Use this skill when the user asks for brainstorming, tradeoffs, option comparison, or decision support before implementation. This skill is for ideas and decisions, not coding.

Terminology + feature gate (required)

• In this skill, "collab" means multi-agent tool usage (spawnagent / wait / closeagent).
• Codex CLI feature gating is features.multi_agent=true; treat collab as legacy naming in some env/artifact keys.
• For symbolic orchestration, existing key names remain RLMSYMBOLICCOLLAB and manifest.collabtoolcalls.

Deliberation Default v1 (required)

• Keep MCP as the lead control plane. Use collab/delegated subagents to generate and challenge options.
• Run full deliberation when any hard-stop trigger is true:

- Irreversible/destructive change with unclear rollback. - Auth/secrets/PII boundary touched. - Direct production customer/financial/legal impact. - Conflicting intent on high-impact work.

• Otherwise compute a risk score (0..2 each): reversibility, external impact, security/privacy boundary, blast radius, requirement clarity, verification strength, time pressure.
• Run full deliberation when score >=7 or two or more criteria score 2.
• Use these time budgets for auto-deliberation:

• On soft cap: stop branching and execute the best current plan.
• On hard cap: disable auto-deliberation for that stage and continue execution.

Auto-trigger cadence (required)

• Run deliberation at task bootstrap for non-trivial work.
• Re-run deliberation after each meaningful chunk (default: behavior change or about 2+ files touched).
• Re-run deliberation when external feedback lands (PR review, bot findings, CI failures).
• Re-run deliberation when ambiguity/risk increases mid-flight (new constraints, conflicting evidence, high-signal P1 or any P0 finding).
• Re-run deliberation at least every 45 minutes during active implementation.
• If orchestration uses symbolic RLM, keep runtime auto-deliberation enabled:

- RLMSYMBOLICDELIBERATION=1 (default) - RLMSYMBOLICDELIBERATIONINTERVAL (default 2) - RLMSYMBOLICDELIBERATIONMAXRUNS (default 12) - RLMSYMBOLICDELIBERATIONMAXSUMMARYBYTES (default 2048) - RLMSYMBOLICDELIBERATIONINCLUDEIN_PLANNER=1 (default)

Workflow (required)

1. Frame the decision.

• Write a one-sentence decision statement.
• Capture goals, constraints, non-goals, and success criteria.
• List assumptions and label each confirmed or unconfirmed.

1. Close critical context gaps.

• Ask up to 3 targeted questions only if answers could change the recommendation.
• If delegation is available, prefer a subagent for context gathering before asking the user.
• If collab spawning fails (for example agent thread limit reached), proceed solo and explicitly note the limitation; do not block on spawning.

1. Generate distinct options.

• Produce 3-5 materially different options.
• For each option include approach, prerequisites, blast radius, and time/risk profile.

1. Evaluate and stress test.

• Use a tailored rubric (3-5 dimensions relevant to the decision).
• For each option include one likely failure mode and one mitigation.

1. Recommend or defer explicitly.

• Recommend one option when confidence is sufficient.
• If uncertainty is high, defer with explicit decision gates.

1. Close with decision-driving questions.

• List 1-3 prioritized open questions that could change the recommendation.
• End with one concrete next step that improves decision quality without implementation.

Output contract

• Decision: one sentence.
• Context: goals, constraints, non-goals, assumptions.
• Options: 3-5 concise options.
• Tradeoffs: rubric and comparative rationale.
• Recommendation: chosen option or explicit defer with decision gates.
• Open questions: prioritized items only.
• Next step: single highest-leverage action.
• Confidence: high | medium | low.

Guardrails

• Separate facts from assumptions.
• Do not implement or modify code unless explicitly asked.
• Do not present uncertainty as certainty.
• Keep outputs concise and action-oriented.
• If collab subagents are used, close lifecycle loops per id (spawnagent -> wait -> closeagent) before finishing.
• If collab subagents are used, always set explicit agenttype (omission defaults to default) and prefix spawned prompts with [agenttype:<role>].
• If you cannot close collab agents (missing ids) and spawn keeps failing, restart the session and re-run deliberation; keep work moving by doing solo deliberation meanwhile.

Related skills

• collab-subagents-first: for implementation-phase stream ownership and lifecycle after deliberation.
• delegation-usage: for delegation MCP orchestration when decisions require delegated execution.
• docs-first: for turning chosen option into PRD/TECHSPEC/ACTIONPLAN before edits.
• agent-first-adoption-steering: for non-coercive option framing and advanced-feature nudges.