What Council actually does.
ShardStitch already builds the continuation packet from disk truth. Council is the extra review pass for high-stakes handoffs: it retrieves focused project chunks through Shard RRF/BM25, then asks specialized review lenses to challenge the packet using surgical context instead of dumping the whole repo.
- Checks whether the packet is safe enough to become the next session's starting state
- Separates verified disk facts from inferred next steps and open questions
- Surfaces risky files, stale assumptions, missing tests, and dependency impact
- Runs only when enabled; normal recovery does not depend on Council
Council Verify.
The standout pass is refutation. Council Verify tries to disprove the handoff's claims before those claims get carried forward. If the old AI said tests passed, the diff disagrees, or the packet implies a decision without evidence, Council marks that as something the next session must verify instead of trust.
- Looks for plausible-but-wrong claims
- Pairs with Claimed-vs-Disk drift checks
- Turns uncertainty into explicit warnings for the next AI
- Protects the handoff from becoming a confident hallucinated summary
The 12 review lenses.
- Warden - risk and dangerous files
- Architect - structure and design coherence
- Tracker - changed work and in-flight state
- Scribe - decisions and rationale
- Auditor - claims checked against evidence
- Foreman - sequencing and next actions
- Historian - prior context and precedent
- Critic - adversarial review
- Planner - forward plan
- Sentinel - security, secrets, and safety
- Mediator - conflicting signals
- Oracle - custom open-ended queries
Backends and privacy.
Council is backend-pluggable. The default path is local Ollama for air-gapped review. BYOK cloud backends can be configured for teams that want them, and cloud-bound text passes through Shield first.
- Local: Ollama or a GPU node you own
- BYOK: Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter, Kimi, GLM, Codex, or custom HTTP
- Preflight checks readiness before spending tokens
- Local recovery still works even if Council is off
Honest status.
Council is powerful, but it is not magic. It is an optional verification layer for important handoffs, not a replacement for tests, code review, or the next AI's own inspection.
- Requires Council to be enabled
- Uses Shard RRF/BM25 retrieval for focused chunks
- Best for important or ambiguous recovery packets
- Does not replace disk truth; it reviews the packet built from disk truth
How it fits ShardStitch.
Council sits after scan and curation, before handoff trust. Hivy trims the noisy session. Disk scan gives the verified state. Council challenges the packet. The next tool receives a cleaner, safer continuation brief.