ADR Consultation Skill

Multi-agent architecture consultation that dispatches 3 specialized reviewers in parallel against an ADR and synthesizes their findings into a PROCEED or BLOCKED verdict. This is the gate between feature-lifecycle plan and implement phases for Medium+ decisions because challenging architecture decisions before implementation prevents costly post-implementation rework.

Reference Loading Table

Signal	Load These Files	Why
Phase 2 DISPATCH: consultation agent prompt templates	agent-prompts.md	Loads detailed guidance from agent-prompts.md.
orchestration corrections: dispatch, artifact, and verdict aggregation fixes	consultation-preferred-patterns.md	Loads detailed guidance from consultation-preferred-patterns.md.
core consultation patterns and Phase 3 artifact templates	consultation-patterns.md	Loads detailed guidance from consultation-patterns.md.
errors, error handling	error-handling.md	Loads detailed guidance from error-handling.md.

Instructions

Phase 1: DISCOVER

Goal: Identify the ADR and prepare the consultation directory.

Step 1: Locate the ADR

Check for ADR path in this order:

1. User-provided path (e.g., adr/intent-based-routing.md)
2. Active session context from adr-system hook (.adr-session.json)
3. Ask the user which ADR to consult on

Do not guess which ADR to consult on because an incorrect guess wastes a full consultation cycle. Reject absolute, traversing, or prose-derived paths. Register the exact repository-relative path through adr-query.py, compute its hash, then require the shared resolver/containment/registration check to pass:

python3 scripts/adr-query.py register --adr 'adr/{adr-name}.md'
python3 scripts/adr-query.py hash --adr 'adr/{adr-name}.md'
python3 scripts/adr-query.py validate-registration \
  --repo-root . \
  --adr 'adr/{adr-name}.md' \
  --hash 'sha256:{digest}'

Keep that exact path and hash as consultation provenance. Stop if the resolver rejects the path, the content hash changes, or .adr-session.json names a different registration.

Even if this ADR was discussed informally, run the formal consultation because undocumented discussion produces no persistent artifacts and cannot be referenced by future sessions.

Step 2: Check for prior consultation

Before dispatching, scan adr/{adr-name}/ for existing agent files because silently overwriting prior consultation work destroys the audit trail. Reuse a prior synthesis only when its ADR Path and ADR Hash match the validated provenance; otherwise it is stale and cannot satisfy a feature gate.

ls adr/{adr-name}/ 2>/dev/null

If existing files are found, report them and their timestamps. Ask the user whether to overwrite (re-run consultation) or use existing results.

Step 3: Read the ADR

Read the full ADR content. Extract: the decision being made, key components/changes proposed, any stated risks or consequences, and the ADR name (filename without .md) for the consultation directory.

Step 4: Create consultation directory

mkdir -p adr/{adr-name}

Gate: ADR content has been read, canonical path/hash registration has been validated, the consultation directory has been created, and the ADR name has been confirmed. Dispatch agents only after this gate passes.

---

Phase 2: DISPATCH

Goal: Launch all consultation agents in a single message for true parallel execution.

All three Task calls MUST appear in ONE response because sequential dispatch triples wall-clock time with no cross-perspective benefit. The value of this skill is simultaneous independent judgment.

Dispatch all 3 agents even if the ADR "seems simple" because partial consultation gives false confidence. Let agents report "no concerns" if genuinely clean.

Even when there is time pressure, do not skip consultation because blocking concerns discovered post-implementation cost dramatically more to fix.

Standard mode (3 agents): Always dispatch all three. See references/agent-prompts.md for the full prompt template for each agent.

Complex mode (5 agents): For Complex decisions (new subsystem, major API change), add reviewer-system and a second domain expert. Enable with "complex consultation" or "full consultation". See references/agent-prompts.md § Complex Mode.

Each agent receives:

1. The full ADR content as context
2. Its specific lens and analysis focus
3. Explicit output path: adr/{adr-name}/{agent-name}.md
4. The structured output format from references/agent-prompts.md

Gate: All Task calls dispatched in a single message. Proceed to Phase 3 only when all agents have returned and written their files to adr/{adr-name}/.

---

Phase 3: SYNTHESIZE

Goal: Read all agent responses from the consultation directory and produce a synthesis.

Step 1: Read all agent responses from files

Read the response files from disk, not from Task return context, because files persist across sessions while context does not -- synthesis from context is not reproducible.

cat adr/{adr-name}/reviewer-perspectives-contrarian.md
cat adr/{adr-name}/reviewer-perspectives-user-advocate.md
cat adr/{adr-name}/reviewer-perspectives-meta-process.md

Step 2: Extract all concerns

Track every concern raised by any agent in adr/{adr-name}/concerns.md. See references/consultation-patterns.md § Phase 3 Artifact Templates for the concerns.md format. Structured tracking prevents concerns from being lost during synthesis.

Step 3: Identify verdict agreement

Do not treat NEEDS_CHANGES as equivalent to PROCEED. Multiple NEEDS_CHANGES aggregates to a higher concern level, not a softer approval.

Pattern	Meaning
All 3 PROCEED	Strong consensus -- proceed with confidence
2 PROCEED, 1 NEEDS_CHANGES	Soft consensus -- address changes, then proceed
Any BLOCK	Hard block -- must resolve before proceeding
Mixed NEEDS_CHANGES	Significant concerns -- address before proceeding

The synthesizer can also identify cross-cutting concerns that individual agents missed. Document any orchestrator-level concern in concerns.md and factor it into the verdict.

Step 4: Write synthesis

Write adr/{adr-name}/synthesis.md using the template from references/consultation-patterns.md § Phase 3 Artifact Templates. Include the validated ADR Path and ADR Hash so the pre-IMPLEMENT consumer can reject stale or cross-ADR results.

Gate: All concerns extracted to concerns.md, synthesis.md written. Proceed to Phase 4 only when both files exist in adr/{adr-name}/.

---

Phase 4: GATE

Goal: Issue a final PROCEED or BLOCKED verdict and communicate it clearly.

Step 1: Check for blocking concerns

Read adr/{adr-name}/concerns.md. If any concern has **Severity**: blocking, the verdict is BLOCKED. This is a hard gate, not advisory.

Do not rationalize blocking concerns as "theoretical" because theoretical risk is still risk, and the gate exists specifically to prevent implementation from proceeding with unresolved blocking issues.

Step 2: Issue verdict

Use the BLOCKED or PROCEED verdict display format from references/consultation-patterns.md § Phase 4 Verdict Display.

Gate: Verdict issued, artifacts confirmed written to disk. Consultation is complete.

---

Phase 5: LIFECYCLE (optional -- run when consultation is no longer needed)

Goal: Clean up consultation artifacts after an ADR's implementation is complete and merged.

1. Keep: adr/{name}/synthesis.md (permanent record of verdict)
2. Keep: adr/{name}/concerns.md (permanent record of concerns + resolutions)
3. Delete: adr/{name}/reviewer-*.md (agent responses -- value extracted into synthesis)
4. Update: ADR status to reflect implementation completion

rm adr/{name}/reviewer-*.md
ls adr/{name}/synthesis.md adr/{name}/concerns.md

The consultation directory is auto-created by Phase 1 (mkdir -p adr/{adr-name}). No .gitkeep is needed because the adr/ directory is gitignored.

---

Error Handling

See references/error-handling.md for full error recovery procedures.

Error	Quick Resolution
No ADR found / ADR path unclear	ls adr/*.md, ask user to specify
Agent times out or fails to write file	Re-run failed agents individually; do not synthesize until all 3 files exist
All agents PROCEED but synthesizer detects deeper issue	Document as orchestrator-level concern in concerns.md; factor into verdict
Consultation directory already exists with prior agent files	Report timestamps; ask user whether to overwrite or use existing results

---

Reference Loading

Signal	Load
Dispatching agents, structuring Task calls	references/agent-prompts.md
Complex mode (5-agent) dispatch	references/agent-prompts.md
Synthesizing verdicts, aggregating PROCEED/BLOCK/NEEDS_CHANGES	references/consultation-patterns.md
Classifying concern severity, writing concerns.md or synthesis.md	references/consultation-patterns.md
Issuing BLOCKED or PROCEED verdict display	references/consultation-patterns.md
Agent file missing, consultation incomplete, prior work overwritten	references/consultation-preferred-patterns.md
Rationalizing a blocking concern, treating NEEDS_CHANGES as PROCEED	references/consultation-preferred-patterns.md
Agent times out, empty file, output written to wrong path	references/error-handling.md
concerns.md has blocking severity but synthesis says PROCEED	references/error-handling.md

References

• ADR: Multi-Agent Consultation -- The architecture decision this skill implements
• parallel-code-review -- Fan-out/fan-in pattern this skill adapts
• reviewer-perspectives -- Perspectives agent (contrarian, user-advocate, meta-process lenses)
• references/agent-prompts.md -- Full prompt templates for all 3 standard agents + complex mode
• references/consultation-patterns.md -- Correct patterns, artifact templates, verdict display formats
• references/consultation-preferred-patterns.md -- Failure modes with detection commands
• references/error-handling.md -- Error recovery by phase