oracle-roundtable

/oracle-roundtable — the prism, seated

alias: /roundtable · /round-table

/oracle-prism refracts one question through N lenses, each in its own section, none answering the others. /oracle-roundtable seats those same lenses at one table and makes them answer each other — turn by turn, four rounds, then a vote. Prism gives you angles. Roundtable gives you a decision.

Lineage. Boy Pinyo's "Fortal LED 100M Round Table Meeting" — 7 agents, 4 rounds, confidence vote. Specified by mother-oracle as ψ/lab/boy-method/round-table-skill-spec.md (2026-05-16, never built). This is that spec, built — with one change: the occupants are prism's 20 lenses, and the whole thing runs in one agent, inline, like prism.

Usage

/oracle-roundtable "Should we ship 02 as the course page?"
/oracle-roundtable --preset design "Merge the eight landing pages into one?"
/oracle-roundtable --who "Skeptic,Maintainer,Planner" "Adopt the Algorithm for every page?"
/oracle-roundtable --seats 7 --preset incident "Why did the deploy die at 18 of 28?"
/oracle-roundtable --all "Delete /oracle-roundtable's two dangling references, or build it?"
/oracle-roundtable --super "Editor" --preset design "Which of the eight landing pages ships?"
/oracle-roundtable --specialist "Tax Specialist" --preset default "Accept the 100M contract?"
/oracle-roundtable --dna --preset design "Which of the eight landing pages ships?"
/oracle-roundtable --options "build,delete,defer" --aggregator unanimity-or-escalate "…"

Who can sit — the 20

Every seat is one of /oracle-prism's lenses. They are role archetypes, not real people, which is what makes Rule 6 easy here.

Preset	Seats	Question each brings to the table
default	🔍 Archaeologist · 🐛 Bug Hunter · 💀 Skeptic · 🏗️ Architect · 📋 Auditor	what happened · what broke · what went wrong · what changed · what's left
retro	Historian · Critic · Cheerleader · Connector · Planner	in what order · what went poorly · what to repeat · what connects · what next
design	User · Maintainer · Breaker · Simplifier · Integrator	easy to use? · easy to change? · how it fails · what to remove · how it fits
incident	Firefighter · Detective · Defender · Forecaster · Builder	what was fixed · root cause chain · why guards missed · what's next · systemic fix

Seating rules

• --preset X seats that preset's five. Default: default.
• --seats N (3–7) takes the first N of the preset; more than 7 needs --super.
• --who "A,B,C" seats exactly those, by name, from any preset. Names not in the 20 are allowed but must be archetypes ("Security Auditor"), never a real person — for a real practitioner use /oracle-facet.
• --all seats all 20. Turns compress (see budgets). Expect a long minute.
• --super ROLE adds a Supervisor at the head of the table; --specialist ROLE adds an invited Specialist. Both are extra seats, both archetypes, both optional — see the next section. At most one of each.
• Quorum is 3. Two is a debate; one is a monologue. The skill refuses to convene under three.
• The Oracle itself is Chair and Clerk — it keeps order, enforces the rules below, writes the minute, and does not vote.

DNA — seating real inheritance

--dna gives every seat the roster from /oracle-prism's DNA section: the named practitioners whose method that lens runs. Each seat declares its inheritance once, in OPEN, on one italic line under its name — then argues as the archetype for the rest of the table.

This is Boy Pinyo's distillation pattern applied to deliberation: a seat that says which real humans contributed which traits can be argued with, where an unattributed persona cannot.

Rule 6, restated for a table where seats disagree: a seat may say "the Breaker lens, after Dekker, reads this as drift" — it may never say "as Dekker, I read this as drift", and it may never quote anyone it cannot attribute. A Supervisor's ruling is signed by the archetype through the Oracle, never by a person. If a named practitioner's documented position is being paraphrased, the minute says paraphrase. For one master at depth, use /oracle-facet.

The head of the table — Supervisor and Specialist

Boy's known roster had a hub seat that convened and did not argue. Two optional seats carry that idea. Both are archetypes ("Editor", "Security Specialist", "Tax Specialist"), never a real person.

	--super ROLE — Supervisor	--specialist ROLE — Specialist
Sits	head of the table	last chair
Speaks	last in every round, having heard the whole table	last among the voting seats
OPEN	no position — states what the table must not miss and any fact it adds to the record	a position, like any seat, from its domain
DEEPEN	may put one question to one seat, which that seat answers in one line — the only cross-turn allowed at the table	may be questioned by up to two seats, and answers in one line each
CONVERGE	names the axes (takes this from the Chair)	declares its axis and flip condition like any seat
VOTE	does not vote in the tally. After the tally, gives a ruling: confirm · escalate · override → {option} — an override must cite a values violation or a fact on the record the table ignored, and is written into the minute as an override	votes, confidence counted ×1 — expertise earns the last word, not extra weight
Rule 6	its ruling is signed as the archetype through the Oracle, never as a person	same

A Supervisor cannot rescue a bad question — if the question has no stakes, Step 0 still redirects to /oracle-prism. A Specialist cannot be invited for a domain no seat has questioned; it sits because the question needs it.

Step 0 — convene

date "+🕐 %H:%M %Z (%A %d %B %Y)"

Then restate, in one line each, before any seat speaks:

1. The question — as asked, plus the canonical options. If --options is absent, derive 2–4 from the question and print them; the vote must land on one of these.
2. The seating — names in speaking order. Order is the preset's order, or --who order; then the Specialist, then the Supervisor last.
3. The context — what facts the table is allowed to use: files, commits, numbers already on the record. Seats do not fetch mid-round. If a fact is missing, the Chair adds it here or it stays missing.

If the question has no stakes — nothing irreversible, nothing costly, nothing being wrong about is expensive — say so and offer /oracle-prism instead. Roundtable is for decisions.

The four rounds — turn by turn

Each round goes once around the table in seating order. Every occupant speaks once per round. No one speaks twice in a round. The Chair does not editorialise between turns.

Round 1 — OPEN · positions stated cold

Each seat, having heard no one: position (one sentence) · reasoning from its own question (2–4 sentences) · confidence now (1–10) · what would change my mind (one sentence). Specialist: the same, from its domain. Supervisor, last: what the table must not miss — scope, a missing fact, a constraint — and no position.

Round 2 — DEEPEN · cross-examination

Each seat names the one seat it most disagrees with and critiques that position (2–3 sentences, citing the seat by name), then states a self-update: what shifted after hearing Round 1, or no change — and its position and confidence now. Seats may put one question each to the Specialist (max two); it answers in one line each. Supervisor, last: at most one question to one seat, answered in one line. Nothing else crosses turns.

Round 3 — CONVERGE · narrow the axis

The Supervisor (or the Chair, if there is none) first lists the disagreement axes heard so far (2–4, one line each). Then each seat: the axis that decides my vote · coalition with (names) · flip condition — the one thing that would make it vote the other way · position and confidence now.

Round 4 — VOTE · binding

Each seat: final vote (one canonical option) · final confidence (1–10, 5 forbidden — pick 4 or 6, the fence is not a vote) · one-line rationale (≤140 chars, minute-ready) · dissent note only if voting against the emerging majority. The Specialist votes. The Supervisor does not — it waits for the tally, then rules.

Turn budgets

Seats	OPEN	DEEPEN	CONVERGE	VOTE
3–7	full turn	full turn	full turn	full turn
--all (20)	position + confidence, one line	challenge line only; no change allowed silently	roll-call by axis: the Chair groups seats under each axis, seats add a flip condition only if they have one	table row

Early stop — the Chair may skip ahead

After Round 2 or 3, fast-forward to VOTE if all seats hold the same position at confidence ≥ 8, or if every seat said no change in Round 2 and no new fact entered. If one seat sits at 10 and the rest at ≤ 3 with no challenge, stop and ask the human whether to defer to it.

Hard ceiling: four rounds. There is no Round 5. A messy vote goes to the human — that is what escalation is for.

The vote

Aggregators — --aggregator, default weighted:

• majority — most votes wins; confidence reported, not weighted
• weighted — sum final confidence per option; highest wins
• unanimity-or-escalate — every seat ≥ 7 on the same option, else ESCALATE

Ties (weighted): highest single confidence wins → fewer dissent notes wins → escalate. Never auto-pick.

Ruling — if a Supervisor sits, it speaks once after the tally:

• confirm — the decision stands as tallied
• escalate — to the human, with the reason
• override → {option} — only on a values violation or a fact on the record the table ignored; the grounds go in the minute, and the tallied result is kept beside the ruling so the override is visible, not silent

Escalate — return no decision and hand the human the minute — when: no option holds ≥ 60% of weighted confidence · any dissent note cites a values violation (honesty, safety, consent, Rule 6) · two seats at 10 on opposing sides.

The minute — what gets written

ψ/lab/roundtable/{YYYY-MM-DD}_{slug}.md, and one line to ψ/inbox/decisions/{YYYY-MM-DD}_{slug}.md so /recap and /standup pick it up.

# Roundtable — {question}
{date · time} · {N} seats · preset {X} · aggregator {Y}
Options: {a} / {b} / {c}
Context on the record: {one line per fact}

## Round 1 — OPEN
**🔍 Archaeologist** — position · reasoning · confidence 6 · would change my mind: …
**🐛 Bug Hunter** — …

## Round 2 — DEEPEN
**🔍 Archaeologist** → challenges **Skeptic**: … · self-update: … · now {position}, 7
…

## Round 3 — CONVERGE
Axes: (1) … (2) …
**🔍 Archaeologist** — axis 2 · with Auditor, Architect · flips if … · {position}, 7
…

## Round 4 — VOTE
| Seat | Vote | Conf | Rationale | Dissent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeologist | b | 7 | … | — |
| … |

**DECISION: {option}** — weighted {n} vs {m} vs {k}.
**Ruling ({Supervisor role}):** confirm / escalate / override → {option}, because … *(omit if no Supervisor)*
**Top dissent:** {the highest-confidence seat on the losing side, and its one line} — the one most worth listening to.

— Chair & Clerk: {Oracle name} (AI). Seats are prism lenses, not people. Rule 6.

Rule 6 — lenses, never séances

• Seats are archetypes. They speak as the Skeptic, not as anyone who exists. Write "Skeptic —", never "I, Dieter Rams —". The same holds for the Supervisor and Specialist roles.
• If --who names a real practitioner, apply /oracle-facet's rule at that seat: paraphrase a documented position, flag it as paraphrase, never fabricate a quote.
• The minute is signed by the Oracle as AI. It is not a record of a human meeting and must not read like one.
• Confidence must be honest. A seat that inflates to 9 to win the weighted vote corrupts the aggregate — the Chair says so in the minute if it sees it.

Rules

1. One agent, no subagents. Every seat is the main agent transforming inline, in order. Same discipline as /oracle-prism.
2. Turn by turn. Once around the table per round, seating order, one turn each. No interjections, no seat speaking twice.
3. Quorum 3, ceiling 7 among lens seats unless --all, which is 20 and compressed. Supervisor and Specialist sit on top of that count.
4. Exactly four rounds, fewer by early-stop, never more.
5. No fetching mid-round. Facts enter at convene or not at all.
6. 5 is forbidden at the vote.
7. Escalate rather than guess. A tie or a values dissent goes to the human with the minute attached.
8. Write the minute. A roundtable that isn't recorded didn't happen (Nothing is Deleted).
9. Surface the top dissent next to the decision, always. 9b. DNA names inheritance, never identity — with --dna each seat declares its practitioners in OPEN and then speaks as the archetype. No first person as a real person, no fabricated quotes, in the room or in the minute.
10. The Supervisor rules, it does not vote. An override is never silent — the tally it overrode stays in the minute.

Relationship to other skills

Skill	Shape	Agents	Reach for it when
/oracle-prism	N lenses, one pass, no dialogue	0	you want angles, fast
/oracle-facet	one master, deep	0	you want one taste applied
/oracle-roundtable	N lenses, four rounds, a vote	0	you want a decision and the disagreement that produced it
/adversarial-analysis	5 attacking one claim	5	being wrong is expensive

Open questions (carried from the spec)

1. Boy's actual prompt language is unrecovered — turn formats here are inferred from the known parameters, not transcribed. If the three original screenshots surface, revise this file; don't preserve it as canon.
2. Boy used 7 seats. Default here is 5 (prism's default). Whether 7 is the number or "3–8 is the range" is still his to say.