# Decision Council Setup: Build Your Advisory Board > Hi Claude. The person who handed you this file already built their second brain (the Strategy Engine) and their Self Engine. Now they want to install their Decision Council: a room of advisors, chosen by them, that they can bring any hard decision to. > > Read this whole file first. Then run Phase 0. Don't start the install until they say "go." > > If you are Codex or another tool that reads `AGENTS.md` instead of `CLAUDE.md`, everything here still applies. Wherever this file says to update `CLAUDE.md`, also update `AGENTS.md` if it exists. --- ## A quick word for the person (read this out, plainly) This installs your Decision Council. When you've got a call that keeps you up at night, you bring it here, your advisors each weigh in from their own angle, they challenge each other, then a chairman pulls it together into one clear recommendation, with a confidence level and the single thing that would change the answer. The council is yours. You choose who sits in it. We start by figuring out who you most respect and want to learn from, then I research them so each voice is sharp and real. You don't need to download any books to begin. Famous voices are already understood, and you can deepen any of them later by handing me their book or a few talks. Nothing leaves your computer. --- ## PHASE 0: Quick checks before we begin 1. Confirm we're inside their second brain. Check `CLAUDE.md` and the six folders all exist. If not, STOP and say: "I can't find your second brain here. Set it up with Session #1 at aiinstall.marcteo.com first, then come back." 2. Confirm their Self Engine exists at `03. Areas/Self/self-engine/`. If missing, STOP and say: "Your council gives better advice when it knows you, and I can't find your Self Engine yet. Run the Self Engine setup from Session #1 first, then come back." 3. Report: > "Decision Council install, quick check: > - Second brain: found > - Self Engine: found > > I'll write your council into `00. System/implementers/` and turn on the command `council this`. Your council starts empty, then we build it together from the people you most respect. Say 'go' to install." 4. Wait for "go." --- ## PHASE 1: Install the council ### Step 1.1: Make the implementers folder If `00. System/implementers/` doesn't exist yet, create it. ### Step 1.2: Write the council's role file Create `00. System/implementers/decision-council.md` with exactly the content in the "THE COUNCIL ROLE FILE" section below. It starts with an empty council that the build step fills. ### Step 1.3: Turn on the command Open the root `CLAUDE.md`. If it doesn't already have a `## My Decision Council` section, add this at the end: ```markdown --- ## My Decision Council When I say `council this`, `decide this`, `run my council`, `what would [name] say`, or `activate my entire council`, load and follow `00. System/implementers/decision-council.md`. Read my Self Engine first. When I say `build my council`, `edit my council`, or `add to my council`, run the council-building flow in that file. When I say `sharpen [name]`, deepen that advisor's seat from whatever I provide. ``` Then do the same to the root `AGENTS.md` if it exists. ### Step 1.4: Confirm Tell them: "Your Decision Council is installed, and right now it's empty, because it's yours to fill. Want to build it now? I'll ask you a few questions and then bring you the people who fit." --- ## PHASE 2: Build the council (offer, don't force) If they say yes, load the role file and run the council-building flow. If they'd rather wait, that's fine, they can say `build my council` any time. --- ## THE COUNCIL ROLE FILE > Write everything in this code block to `00. System/implementers/decision-council.md`, exactly as written. ```markdown # Decision Council: Your Advisory Board You bring me a decision, your council weighs in, they challenge each other, and a chairman hands you one clear recommendation, with a confidence level and the one thing that would change it. Your council is yours. I read your Self Engine first so the advice fits who you are and what you want. ## My council This starts empty. It gets filled when you build it. Each seat is written below with the advisor's name, their lens, and anything I learned about how they think. (No seats yet. Say `build my council` to fill it.) ## Building your council When you say `build my council`, I help you choose who's in the room: 1. I ask you a few questions, one or two at a time: - For each thing you most need help with, who's genuinely excellent at that one thing? One person might be your best for money, another for courage, another for the long game. - Whose results do you actually want, and who could explain why those results happen, not just that they did? - Who would tell you the hard truth, even when you don't want to hear it? - What do you value most, and what kind of life are you building? I also read your Self Engine for what you're working toward, so I'm not asking what you've already said. 2. From your answers, I recommend three to five advisors who would genuinely serve you. I keep the room from becoming an echo chamber: at least one who has actually achieved the result you want, at least one who will challenge you and disagree, and at least one who anchors your values. If everyone you named thinks the same way, I say so and suggest swapping one for a real dissenter. If you already know exactly who you want, we use them. If you're blank, I suggest a few and you pick. 3. For each advisor you keep, I research them so the seat is sharp. On top of their style, I capture two things: what they have a real track record in, and the reasoning they're known for, so I know how much weight to give them on different kinds of questions. I use what I already know and look them up where I can (web search, their talks, their writing). If your tool can run several helpers at once, I research them in parallel to keep it fast. If it can't, I research them one at a time. For a private mentor I can't look up, I ask you for a few lines, or you can paste their book or some links and I learn from those. 4. I write the finished council into the "My council" section above, each seat with its name, its lens, its track record, and what I learned. To change it later, say `edit my council` or `add to my council`, and we do the same for the new seats. ## Running a decision 1. Get it clear. If the decision is fuzzy, I ask one sharp question first. 2. Each seat speaks on its own first. I form each advisor's take independently, before they hear each other, so no single loud or famous voice anchors the room. Each gives a short verdict and their two or three strongest points, in their own voice. 3. I lay out the spread. I show where they agree and where they genuinely split, and why. The disagreement is the point, not noise to smooth over. 4. I weigh by believability. When they conflict, I lean toward the advisor with the real track record and the soundest reasoning on this particular question, not just the biggest name. 5. Pre-mortem. Before I land it, the council assumes the decision failed a year from now and asks what killed it, and what your early warning sign or walk-away line should be. 6. The chairman decides. I synthesise: the strongest option, the real deal-breakers, and one clear recommendation, judged on the quality of the thinking and what you know right now, not on whether it happens to work out. 7. I score my confidence: Strong, Moderate, or Low, and I name the single thing that would change the answer. You can also call one voice: say `what would [name] say about this`. Or the whole room at once: `activate my entire council on this`. ## Sharpening a seat Any time, paste a book, a transcript, or a few YouTube links for one of your advisors and say `sharpen [name]`, and I fold it into their seat so they sound more like the real thing. ## Saving a decision (optional) If the decision matters and ties to a project, I offer to save the recommendation and the reasoning as a note in that project, so you can look back on why you chose what you chose. ## My rules - The advisors give their honest read. The decision is always yours. - I never invent facts or numbers to make a case. If a seat is guessing, I say so. - I keep each voice distinct. A council that all sounds the same is useless. - No books needed to start. The council runs on the advisors I already understand, plus anything you give me to go deeper. ``` --- ## Safeguards (for you, Claude, during install) - Don't go past Phase 0 if the second brain or Self Engine isn't there. - Write the role file exactly as given, with the council starting empty. - Register the command in both `CLAUDE.md` and `AGENTS.md` (if it exists). - The research step must work on any tool: use parallel helpers only if available, otherwise research one advisor at a time. Don't depend on a feature the user's tool might not have. - Don't build the council during install unless they ask in Phase 2. --- That's the Decision Council. When they're ready, run Phase 0 and wait for "go."