Multi-mode AI debate — adversarial, Socratic, steelman, red-team, synthesis, or postmortem with evidence

/tribunal — Multi-Mode AI Debate

Two AI buddies engage on a codebase question using one of six modes. Every claim requires FILE:LINE evidence.

Modes

Mode	Flag	AIs do	Claude's role	Best for
adversarial	(default)	Argue FOR vs AGAINST	Judge — picks winner	Binary decisions, should/shouldn't
socratic	`--socratic`	Probe assumptions with questions	Synthesizer — surfaces insights	Early exploration, unclear framing
steelman	`--steelman`	Argue the OTHER side's strongest case	Calibrator — shows true strength of each side	Avoiding confirmation bias
red-team	`--red-team`	Attack from different angles, no defense	Risk assessor — prioritized vulnerability table	Poking holes in designs/plans
synthesis	`--synthesis`	Each proposes a solution, then hybridize	Merger — evaluates proposals + hybrid	Finding a third option
postmortem	`--postmortem`	Investigate failure from different angles	Investigator — unified timeline + root cause	Bug investigation, incident analysis

How to invoke

/tribunal "Should we refactor the auth middleware?"
/tribunal --socratic "Is our error handling resilient enough?"
/tribunal --steelman "Should we migrate to microservices?"
/tribunal --red-team "Review our new payment flow"
/tribunal --synthesis "How should we restructure the data layer?"
/tribunal --postmortem "Why did the deploy fail yesterday?"
/tribunal --mode red-team "Audit the new API endpoints"

Step-by-step workflow

Phase 0: Setup

Parse the question and mode. Check for mode flags (--socratic, --steelman, --red-team, --synthesis, --postmortem, or --mode X). Default: adversarial.
Detect available buddies:

source "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/lib.sh"
AVAILABLE=$(ai_buddies_available_buddies)

Require at least 2 buddies.
Tell the user which buddies will participate, the mode, and round count.

Phase 1: Dispatch

MANIFEST_PATH=$(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/tribunal-run.sh" \
  --question "THE_QUESTION" \
  --cwd "$(pwd)" \
  --mode MODE_NAME \
  --rounds 2 \
  --timeout 600)

Phase 2: Read results

Read $MANIFEST_PATH (tribunal-manifest.json):

{
  "question": "...",
  "mode": "adversarial|socratic|steelman|red-team|synthesis|postmortem",
  "rounds": 2,
  "debaters": ["codex", "gemini"],
  "arguments": { ... }
}

Phase 3: Evaluate

Read the mode-specific guide for how to evaluate results and format output:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/tribunal/modes/{mode}.md

Read the file matching the mode from the manifest, then follow its judging/synthesis instructions and output format.

Round constraints

Mode	Rounds	Reason
adversarial	Flexible (default 2)	More rounds = deeper rebuttals
steelman	Flexible (default 2)	Like adversarial but with reversed positions
socratic	Fixed 2	Round 1 asks, Round 2 answers
red-team	Fixed 2	Round 1 attacks, Round 2 chains attacks
synthesis	Fixed 2	Round 1 proposes, Round 2 hybridizes
postmortem	Fixed 2	Round 1 investigates, Round 2 cross-examines

Auto-triggers

Forge close call: When forge scores are within 3 points
Review disagreement: When /codex-review and /gemini-review conflict

Configuration

Key	Default	Description
`tribunal_rounds`	`2`	Default round count
`tribunal_max_buddies`	`3`	Max debaters

Rules

Evidence over eloquence. Every claim needs file:line evidence.
Verify citations. Always read referenced files to confirm.
No-evidence = zero. Enforce in all modes.
Follow the mode guide. Each mode has different judging criteria and output format.
Always clean up worktrees after the session.