How the Verdict Synthesis Process Handles Unresolved Questions in Council of High Intelligence

The verdict synthesis process surfaces unresolved questions by instructing the Chairman model to lead the final verdict with knowledge gaps, explicitly extracting missing answers from Round 3 stances and tie-breaking splits into a dedicated Unresolved Questions section.

The Council of High Intelligence repository implements a structured multi-agent deliberation system where transparency about knowledge limitations is a core design principle. During the synthesis phase, the system analyzes the complete deliberation transcript to identify questions that council members could not definitively answer, then renders these gaps as first-class outputs in the final verdict.

How the Chairman Surfaces Knowledge Gaps During Synthesis

The synthesis process delegates responsibility to a single Chairman model that operates independently from the deliberation rounds. This separation ensures objective analysis of the council's limitations without participation bias.

STEP 7: The Chairman's Synthesis Prompt

According to SKILL.md (lines 998–1000), the Chairman receives explicit instructions to prioritize uncertainty:

You are the Chairman of the Council of High Intelligence. ...  
- Lead with what the council does NOT know (Unresolved Questions).  
- Produce the Council Verdict using the template that follows. ...

This directive ensures the Unresolved Questions section appears before any conclusions, preventing false confidence in the output. The Chairman scans the full transcript to identify concrete gaps observed during the three deliberation rounds.

Round 3 Analysis and Missing Stances

During Round 3 (Final Crystallization), each council member emits a concise STANCE: line without introducing new arguments. If any member cannot produce a decisive stance for a specific option, the synthesis engine records this deficiency.

The Chairman detects these gaps by analyzing the final stance lines in agents/council-socrates.md and similar member files. When a member's output lacks a definitive position, the system flags the corresponding question as unresolved.

Tie-Breaking and Split Outcomes

STEP 6 implements weighted tallying with a 2/3 threshold requirement. When no option reaches this threshold, the system reports a split decision. The synthesis process explicitly includes these splits as unresolved tensions in the final verdict, acknowledging that the council could not achieve consensus despite completing all deliberation rounds.

Structure of the Unresolved Questions Section

The final verdict template defined in SKILL.md (lines 702–704) contains a dedicated ### Unresolved Questions block. This section lists the exact inputs required from the user or external data sources before the council can render a definitive decision.

The template structure ensures that unresolved items appear prominently, typically following the initial summary of what the council does know. This design implements the repository's principle of "Know what the council can't answer" as documented in README.md.

Code Examples: Extracting Unresolved Questions from Verdicts

When invoking the council in full mode, the system automatically generates the unresolved questions section if any member lacked a definitive stance:

# Full-mode invocation – the final verdict will always contain

# an “Unresolved Questions” section if any member lacked a definitive stance.

/council --triad architecture Should we adopt a monorepo?

To programmatically extract these questions for downstream processing:

# Extract just the Unresolved Questions from the rendered verdict (JSON-friendly)

grep -A3 "### Unresolved Questions" verdict.md

Key Implementation Files

The verdict synthesis mechanism relies on specific source files that define the execution sequence and templates:

• SKILL.md: Defines the entire execution sequence including the Chairman's synthesis prompt (lines 998–1000) and the "Unresolved Questions" clause in the verdict template (lines 702–704).
• README.md: Documents the design principle "Know what the council can't answer" and explains why unresolved questions appear first in the verdict.
• agents/council-socrates.md: Representative member file showing how individual agents may fail to produce a decisive STANCE, triggering the unresolved-question handling in the synthesis stage.

Summary

• The Chairman model performs synthesis in STEP 7 without participating in deliberation rounds, ensuring objective gap analysis.
• The process leads with uncertainty by explicitly instructing the Chairman to populate the Unresolved Questions section before any conclusions.
• Round 3 stance lines are scanned for missing positions, while tie-breaking splits (failure to reach 2/3 threshold) are recorded as unresolved tensions.
• The verdict template in SKILL.md reserves a dedicated block for these questions, making the council's limitations explicit to users.
• Unresolved questions are first-class outputs rather than afterthoughts, prompting further investigation instead of false confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the Chairman identify which questions are unresolved?

The Chairman analyzes the Round 3 transcript to detect member outputs that lack definitive STANCE lines. According to the source code in SKILL.md, any position that cannot be crystallized into a clear stance or any option that fails to achieve the 2/3 threshold during tie-breaking is automatically flagged as unresolved.

Can the council produce a verdict without resolving all questions?

Yes. The system is designed to deliver partial verdicts that distinguish between what the council knows and what remains uncertain. The Unresolved Questions section explicitly lists the gaps, allowing users to receive partial intelligence while understanding the boundaries of the council's analysis.

What happens if only one member fails to provide a stance?

Even a single member's inability to crystallize a position triggers the unresolved question mechanism. The Chairman's synthesis prompt requires documenting any instance where the council could not answer definitively, regardless of whether other members reached consensus. This ensures transparency about the deliberation's completeness.

Where is the Unresolved Questions section located in the output?

The section appears immediately after the Chairman's introduction, before any consensus findings or recommendations. As defined in SKILL.md (lines 702–704), the template uses the markdown header ### Unresolved Questions to ensure these gaps are prominently visible to users reviewing the verdict.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}