Consensus Voter

Overview

Runs a structured vote across two or more agents on a decision question, records confidence and rationale per option, and emits a voting matrix that the rest of the pipeline can read. The skill enforces a configurable consensus threshold, detects contested verdicts, and escalates to HITL when evidence is insufficient.

Core Principle

Consensus requires evidence, rationale, and a threshold. Without all three, escalate.

Immutable Constraints

ID	Rule	Enforcement
CONS-001	Vote MUST use the structured voting matrix format.	validateConsensusProtocol rejects entries with fewer than 2 options.
CONS-002	Every position MUST carry a rationale string.	Missing rationale rejects the entry.
CONS-003	Every confidence score MUST lie in [0.0, 1.0].	Out-of-range scores fail validation.
CONS-004	Every position MUST cite at least one evidence record.	Bare votes are rejected; evidence is non-optional.
CONS-005	Conflicts MUST be flagged with a severity level (critical / high / medium / low).	A conflict without severity is a protocol violation.
CONS-006	The vote MUST escalate to HITL when the top option's confidence is below the threshold (default 0.5).	Exit code 65 (HANDOFF_REQUIRED).
CONS-007	Manifest entry MUST set agent_type: "analysis".	Validator rejects any other value.

Voting Matrix Schema

Every consensus run produces a single JSON document that matches this shape:

{
  "questionId": "CONS-0042",
  "question": "Which ORM should the monorepo standardize on?",
  "options": [
    {
      "name": "drizzle-v1-beta",
      "confidence": 0.82,
      "rationale": "defineRelations unblocks the cascade query",
      "evidence": [
        { "file": "drizzle-release-notes.md", "section": "v1.0.0-beta", "type": "doc" },
        { "file": "packages/core/src/orchestration/protocol-validators.ts", "section": "validateArchitectureDecisionProtocol", "type": "code" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "kysely",
      "confidence": 0.41,
      "rationale": "cleaner long-term abstraction but invalidates migrations",
      "evidence": [
        { "file": "kysely-docs.md", "section": "migrations", "type": "doc" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "threshold": 0.5,
  "verdict": "PROVEN",
  "actualConsensus": 0.82,
  "conflicts": []
}

The full schema, including rarer verdicts and conflict records, is in references/matrix-examples.md.

Scoring Rules

Rule	Description
Score range	confidence ∈ [0.0, 1.0]; out-of-range scores are rejected.
Threshold	Default 0.5. Can be overridden per task; MUST be recorded in the matrix.
Top option	The option with the highest confidence; ties break by rationale length (deterministic).
Pass condition	Top option confidence > threshold and no conflict has severity: critical.
Fail condition	Top option confidence ≤ threshold, OR a critical conflict is present.

Verdicts

Verdict	Condition	Action
PROVEN	Top option ≥ threshold + reproducible evidence	Write manifest, exit 0, hand off to ct-adr-recorder
REFUTED	Counter-evidence invalidates the top option	Write manifest, exit 0, do not promote to ADR
CONTESTED	Top two options within 0.1 confidence	Flag as contested, exit 65 (HITL tiebreak)
INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE	No option reaches the threshold, OR fewer than 2 options have evidence	Exit 65, request additional research

Conflict Detection

A conflict exists when two options have confidence within 0.1 of each other and their rationales are mutually exclusive. The skill MUST record conflicts in the matrix:

{
  "conflicts": [
    {
      "conflictId": "c-0042-01",
      "severity": "high",
      "conflictType": "contradiction",
      "positions": [
        { "option": "drizzle-v1-beta", "confidence": 0.82 },
        { "option": "kysely", "confidence": 0.79 }
      ],
      "resolution": { "status": "pending", "resolutionType": "escalate" }
    }
  ]
}

Conflicts with severity: critical always escalate, regardless of top-option confidence. Severity is assigned by the skill based on the blast radius of each option (e.g., reversible tool choice = low; irreversible schema migration = high; security-impacting = critical).

HITL Escalation

The skill MUST escalate when:

1. Top option confidence < threshold.
2. Any conflict has severity: critical.
3. Top two options differ by less than 0.1 (contested).
4. Fewer than 2 options have evidence records.

On escalation:

1. Write the matrix to disk with verdict: CONTESTED or verdict: INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE.
2. Record the manifest entry with agent_type: "analysis" and verdict populated.
3. Exit with code 65 (HANDOFF_REQUIRED).
4. Do not attempt to re-run the vote in the same session.

Integration

Validate the matrix through cleo check protocol:

cleo check protocol consensus \
  --voting-matrix-file ./.cleo/rcasd/T4797/consensus/T4797-consensus.json \
  --task-id T4797

Exit code 0 = matrix is valid and verdict is PROVEN or REFUTED. Exit code 65 = HANDOFF_REQUIRED (contested or insufficient evidence). Exit code 61 = E_PROTOCOL_CONSENSUS (matrix shape is invalid).

This skill typically hands off to ct-adr-recorder on a PROVEN verdict so the decision can be formalized.

Anti-Patterns

Pattern	Problem	Solution
Binary votes without confidence scores	Loses nuance (violates CONS-003)	Every position carries a score in [0.0, 1.0]
Positions without evidence	Bare opinions cannot produce consensus (violates CONS-004)	Every position cites at least one file/section/type
Accepting unanimous consensus uncritically	May indicate groupthink	The skill MUST still record rationale and check for hidden assumptions
Skipping minority positions	Loses valid concerns	Record every option the agents considered, including rejected ones
Premature escalation	Wastes human attention	Only escalate on the four listed conditions, not on every low-confidence vote
Treating the threshold as advisory	Breaks CONS-006	The threshold is a hard gate; below it, escalate
Reusing a matrix across questions	Pollutes evidence chains	Each question gets its own questionId and its own matrix file

Critical Rules Summary

1. Every vote MUST produce a voting matrix with at least 2 options.
2. Every option MUST carry confidence, rationale, and at least one evidence record.
3. The threshold is a hard gate; below it, escalate to HITL with exit 65.
4. Conflicts within 0.1 confidence MUST be flagged as CONTESTED.
5. Critical-severity conflicts always escalate, regardless of top-option confidence.
6. Manifest entry MUST set agent_type: "analysis" and include the verdict.
7. On PROVEN, hand off to ct-adr-recorder; on CONTESTED or INSUFFICIENT_EVIDENCE, hand off to HITL.
8. Always validate via cleo check protocol consensus.

See also / References

This skill binds to the consensus LOOM lifecycle stage. Governing ADRs:

• ADR-015 — multi-contributor architecture — defines the consensus framework that this skill implements.
• ADR-023 — protocol validation dispatch — defines how consensus output is validated before downstream stages consume it.

LOOM coverage matrix: docs/skills/loom-coverage-matrix.md.