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perspective-swarm

Protocol specification for multi-perspective brainstorming via 5 parallel agents with confidence-weighted synthesis. Executed by brainstorming-pm orchestrator.

personAuthor: jakexiaohubgithub
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perspective-swarm

Enable rapid multi-perspective brainstorming through parallel agent execution, producing a confidence-weighted synthesis that surfaces convergent insights and divergent alternatives.

Protocol Status

Document type: Protocol specification Orchestrator: brainstorming-pm/SKILL.md

This document defines the perspective-swarm protocol: the stages, archetypes, state machine, quality gates, and operational parameters for multi-perspective brainstorming. It is a declarative specification, not an executable skill.

For orchestration and execution, see brainstorming-pm/SKILL.md, which handles session management, tool selection, agent delegation, model selection, and user interaction.

Handoff metadata (discovery, categories, payload schema) is defined in the brainstorming-pm skill, which is the discoverable entry point for this workflow.

When to Use

  • You need diverse viewpoints on a decision, problem, or creative challenge
  • Time is limited (15-30 minutes) but you want rigorous multi-angle analysis
  • You want to identify both consensus themes and unique insights
  • The problem benefits from optimistic, critical, analytical, innovative, and pragmatic lenses

When NOT to Use

  • Deep literature review needed (use lit-pm instead)
  • Single-perspective analysis is sufficient
  • Implementation or execution is the goal (this produces analysis only)
  • Domain-specific expertise required (this uses general archetypes)

Workflow Overview

                  User
                  Prompt
                    |
           +-------v-------+
           | Stage 1:      | Frame problem, validate input
           | FRAMING       | Generate 5 agent prompts
           +-------+-------+
                   |
                   | [Optional: User confirms framing]
                   |
+------------------v-----------------------------------+
| Stage 2: DIVERGING (Parallel)                       |
| +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+             |
| |Opt. | |Crit.| |Anal.| |Innov| |Prag.|             |
| +--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+ +--+--+             |
+----+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----------------+
     +-------+-------+-------+-------+
                     |
              +------v------+
              | Stage 3:    | Identify convergent/divergent insights
              | CONVERGING  | Apply confidence weighting
              +------+------+
                     |
              +------v------+
              | Stage 4:    | Present synthesis
              | OUTPUT      | Accept / Refine / Handoff to workflow
              +-------------+

Detailed Workflow

Stage 1: Problem Framing (2-5 minutes)

State: FRAMING

  1. Validate user prompt:

    • Minimum 10 characters
    • Maximum 1000 characters
    • At least one clear question or challenge
    • No prohibited content

  2. Identify problem type: decision | creative | analytical | strategic

  3. Reframe challenge in neutral language (no leading/biasing)

  4. Generate 5 archetype-specific prompts (see references/persona-archetypes.md)

  5. Create session directory: /tmp/swarm-session-{YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{uuid4-8char}/

    • {uuid4-8char} is the first 8 characters of a uuid4 (e.g., a1b2c3d4)

  6. Create session lock: Write .session.lock file with workflow_id and timestamp

    • Lock prevents concurrent access to same session
    • Stale locks (> 30 minutes) may be overwritten

  7. Save framing output: stage-1-framing.yaml

Quality Gate:

  • [ ] Problem clearly articulated
  • [ ] All 5 agent prompts generated
  • [ ] No leading/biasing language in framing

Optional Checkpoint: Present reframed challenge to user before proceeding to Stage 2. User can:

  • Approve and continue
  • Refine the framing
  • Abort

Stage 2: Parallel Perspective Generation (5-15 minutes)

State: DIVERGING

The orchestrator launches 5 parallel agents via Task tool. Each agent:

  1. Adopts archetype lens (Optimist, Critic, Analyst, Innovator, Pragmatist)

  2. Conducts brief research: 1-2 WebSearch queries

    • On WebSearch failure: proceed with reasoning-only, reduce confidence by 1

  3. Generates perspective report (target ~2000 tokens):

    • Key insight (1-2 sentences)
    • Supporting evidence (2-3 bullet points with sources)
    • Confidence level (1-5, self-assessed)
    • Blind spots acknowledged

  4. Saves output: perspectives/{archetype}.md

Token Budget Note: The 2000 token target is advisory. Agents are instructed to target ~2000 tokens but enforcement is prompt-based only. Slight overages are acceptable; significant overages should be flagged in validation warnings.

Timeouts:

  • Per-agent: 10 minutes
  • Stage total: 15 minutes
  • On timeout: Mark incomplete, proceed with available

Quality Gate (per agent):

  • [ ] Key insight present (required)
  • [ ] At least 1 evidence point (required)
  • [ ] Confidence level 1-5 (required, clamp if out of range)
  • [ ] Blind spots acknowledged (required)

Minimum agents required: 4 of 5

On < 4 agents: The orchestrator presents user options:

PERSPECTIVE GENERATION INCOMPLETE: Only {N} of 5 agents completed

Completed: {list}
Failed: {list with reasons}

Options:
(A) Retry failed agents (estimated +5 min)
(B) Proceed with {N} perspectives (reduced diversity)
(C) Abort workflow

Stage 3: Convergence Analysis & Synthesis (5-10 minutes)

State: CONVERGING

During Stage 3, the orchestrator executes two parallel tracks: (A) convergence analysis (primary), and (B) workflow discovery (secondary, non-blocking). See references/workflow-discovery.md for parallel execution details.

  1. The orchestrator collects all perspective outputs

  2. The convergence analysis identifies convergent insights:

    • Themes appearing in 2+ perspectives
    • Apply confidence weighting (see references/convergence-algorithm.md)

  3. Identify divergent insights:

    • Unique insights from single perspectives
    • Attribute to originating archetype

  4. Handle missing archetypes (if 4 agents): | Missing | Compensation | |---------|--------------| | Optimist | Add: "Consider opportunities we may be missing" | | Critic | Add explicit risk caveat section | | Analyst | Note reduced quantitative rigor | | Innovator | Note potentially conservative recommendations | | Pragmatist | Flag implementation feasibility as uncertain |

  5. Conflicts are presented neutrally:

    • All sides shown with evidence strength noted
    • No forced artificial consensus

  6. The orchestrator generates the synthesis document: stage-3-synthesis.md

Quality Gate:

  • [ ] All available perspectives incorporated
  • [ ] At least 2 convergent insights OR explicit "portfolio of options" framing
  • [ ] At least 3 divergent insights captured
  • [ ] Conflicts presented neutrally
  • [ ] Blind spots aggregated

Stage 4: User Review & Optional Handoff

State: AWAITING_USER

Pre-requisite: Discovery results available from Stage 3 (cached in available-workflows.yaml). If Stage 3 discovery did not complete, the orchestrator runs discovery synchronously (5-second timeout) before presenting options.

The orchestrator presents synthesis to user with options:

## Synthesis Complete

[Executive summary]

**Core Options:**
(A) Accept - Workflow complete
(B) Refine - Provide feedback, return to Stage 3

**Continue with another workflow:**
{If handoff-eligible workflows found, display top 3-5 by relevance}

Example output when workflows available:
(C) [research] lit-pm - Comprehensive literature review (4-24 hours)
(D) [implementation] programming-pm - Software implementation (2-8 hours)
(E) [creative] pov-expansion - Cross-domain perspective analysis (2-3 hours)

Example output when NO workflows found:
---
No handoff-eligible workflows detected.
To enable handoffs, add `handoff:` metadata to skill SKILL.md files.
See: references/workflow-discovery.md
---

Select an option:

On Accept: State -> COMPLETED On Refine: State -> CONVERGING (with user feedback) On Handoff (C/D/E...):

  1. Validate selected workflow still available
  2. Generate handoff-payload.yaml (see references/handoff-schema.md)
  3. Invoke target skill with payload path
  4. State -> COMPLETED (on successful handoff)

Relevance Scoring: Workflows are ranked by relevance to synthesis content:

  • Category match to problem_type: +3 points
  • High uncertainty signals + research category: +2 points
  • Implementation keywords + implementation category: +2 points
  • Low convergence + research category: +2 points
  • Project-scope workflows: +1 point priority bonus

Session Directory Structure

/tmp/swarm-session-{YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{uuid4-8char}/
├── .session.lock                   # Prevents concurrent access
├── workflow-state.yaml             # Resumable state
├── stage-1-framing.yaml            # Problem framing output
├── perspectives/                   # Parallel outputs
│   ├── optimist.md
│   ├── critic.md
│   ├── analyst.md
│   ├── innovator.md
│   └── pragmatist.md
├── stage-3-synthesis.md            # Final synthesis
├── available-workflows.yaml        # Discovered handoff targets (cached)
└── handoff-payload.yaml            # (if handoff requested)

State Machine

States: INITIALIZED | FRAMING | DIVERGING | CONVERGING | AWAITING_USER | COMPLETED | FAILED | ABORTED

Transitions:
  INITIALIZED -> FRAMING     : on session start
  FRAMING -> DIVERGING       : on framing complete (+ optional user confirmation)
  DIVERGING -> CONVERGING    : on min 4 agents complete
  DIVERGING -> FAILED        : on < 4 agents AND user chooses abort
  CONVERGING -> AWAITING_USER: on synthesis complete
  AWAITING_USER -> CONVERGING: on user refinement request
  AWAITING_USER -> COMPLETED : on user accept
  AWAITING_USER -> COMPLETED : on successful lit-pm handoff
  ANY -> ABORTED             : on user abort
  ANY -> FAILED              : on unrecoverable error

Note: The state machine has 8 states total (INITIALIZED, FRAMING, DIVERGING, CONVERGING, AWAITING_USER, COMPLETED, FAILED, ABORTED).

Session Lock Protocol

On session initialization:

  1. Create .session.lock file in session directory
  2. Write content: {workflow_id}\n{ISO8601_timestamp}
  3. Before any operation, verify lock file matches current workflow_id

On resume detection:

  1. Check if .session.lock exists
  2. If lock timestamp > 30 minutes old, consider stale and overwritable
  3. If lock is fresh (< 30 minutes), warn user that session may be in use
# .session.lock format
workflow_id: swarm-20260204-183000-a1b2c3d4
locked_at: 2026-02-04T18:30:00Z

Error Handling

WebSearch Failure

classification:
  transient: retry after 30 seconds
  rate_limited: exponential backoff (30s, 60s, 120s)
  no_results: proceed without search, note "limited research"
  service_down: proceed with reasoning-only, reduce confidence by 1

fallback_behavior:
  - Agent proceeds with pure reasoning
  - Marks output as "unverified by external sources"
  - Auto-reduces confidence by 1 level

Session Recovery

On invocation, the orchestrator checks for existing sessions:

Found incomplete session from {timestamp}: {original_prompt}
Session state: {stage} - {status}

Options:
(A) Resume from {checkpoint}
(B) Start fresh (archives previous)
(C) Abort

Resource Limits

resource_limits:
  max_concurrent_agents: 5
  max_websearch_per_agent: 2
  max_webfetch_per_agent: 1
  target_tokens_per_perspective: 2000  # Advisory, not enforced
  session_expiry: 24 hours

Timeout Configuration

| Stage | Timeout | Exceeded Action | |-------|---------|-----------------| | 1 (Framing) | 5 min | Escalate to user | | 2 (Perspectives) | 15 min total | Proceed with available (min 4) | | 2 (per agent) | 10 min | Mark incomplete, proceed | | 3 (Synthesis) | 10 min | Deliver partial synthesis | | 4 (User Review) | No timeout | User-controlled | | Global | 45 min | Safety ceiling, escalate |

Quality Gates Summary

| Gate | Stage | Pass Threshold | |------|-------|----------------| | Input Validation | 1 | Prompt meets criteria | | Framing | 1 | All checks pass | | Per-Agent | 2 | 4/4 required elements | | Minimum Coverage | 2 | >= 4 of 5 agents | | Synthesis | 3 | All checks pass | | User Approval | 4 | Accept, Refine, or Handoff |

Dependencies

  • Any skill with handoff: metadata is a valid handoff target
  • Discovery algorithm documented in: references/workflow-discovery.md
  • Handoff schema documented in: references/handoff-schema.md
  • Adapts patterns from: superpowers:dispatching-parallel-agents, synthesizer

Known handoff-eligible skills (as of implementation):

  • lit-pm - Comprehensive literature review [research]
  • programming-pm - Software implementation [implementation]
  • pov-expansion - Cross-domain perspectives [creative, analysis]

Orchestration

This protocol is designed to be executed by the brainstorming-pm orchestrator skill. See brainstorming-pm/SKILL.md for:

  • Execution instructions and stage-by-stage orchestration
  • Tool selection (Task tool for Stage 2, inline for Stage 3)
  • Model selection guidance
  • Delegation patterns and quality gate evaluation

Model Selection

Model selection guidance for each workflow component is documented in brainstorming-pm/references/model-selection.md. Summary:

| Component | Current | Target | |-----------|---------|--------| | Orchestrator | Inherited | Claude Opus 4.5 | | Perspective Agents | Inherited | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | | LLM Grouping | Inherited (inline) | Claude Haiku 4.5 |

Notes

  • Parallel Independence: Perspective agents MUST NOT see each other's outputs during Stage 2. This preserves diversity and prevents premature convergence (research-validated).

  • No Forced Consensus: The synthesis should present conflicts neutrally. Disagreement between perspectives is valuable signal, not noise.

  • Divergent Value: Unique insights from a single perspective may be the most valuable output. Do not penalize or bury non-convergent views.

  • Research Limitation: This skill provides rapid analysis (15-30 min), not comprehensive research. For deep dives, hand off to lit-pm.

References

Examples