---
name: deliberate
description: Use for governed fixed-option decisions that require named seats, fixed quorum, hard attempt/deadline bounds, durable replay, or explicit human approval/cancel boundaries.
# summon-managed: deliberate-companion
allowed-tools: Bash Read
---

# Deliberate — governed decisions for Summon

`/deliberate` is the focused companion entry point for Summon's governed-decision
workflow. It owns no scheduler, scripts, schemas, or duplicate policy. Read the
canonical guide at `../summon/references/deliberation.md` before constructing,
inspecting, recovering, or resuming a run.

Use `/deliberate` when a decision has explicit options and named seats and must be
bounded by quorum, physical attempts, an absolute deadline, and a durable journal.
Use `/summon` for ordinary dispatch, manifest/fan-out, and council work. Council
remains the right choice for cross-examination and a chairman's synthesis.

Before invoking it, obtain—not infer—the question, 2–10 seat IDs, at least two
option IDs, quorum, rounds, maximum physical attempts, deadline, human-approval
policy, private durable run directory, and each seat's authority/consent/worktree
evidence. If any of those facts are missing, ask the user or choose another mode.

The CLI is the same dispatcher:

```text
  ../summon/scripts/run_subagent.py deliberate --question "…" --seats A,B \
  --options X,Y --quorum all --rounds 1 --max-attempts 2 --deadline 30m \
  --run-dir <private-runs-root> --cwd <project>
```

The fresh provider path is limited to an explicit quorum, one round, one physical
attempt per seat, and enforceable read-only subprocess seats with executable
evidence. Unsupported configurations refuse before provider contact; the lane
never silently retries, falls back, or changes mode. The example's two seats
therefore use `--max-attempts 2`. These are runtime admission constraints, not
proof of current provider availability or served-model identity.

`deliberate resume` and human approval remain `integration_pending`. `status`,
`replay`, `recover`, `cancel`, and `open` are provider-inert. An unmatched physical
start is `uncertain_spend`; `--retry-indeterminate` only acknowledges that
uncertainty and does not activate the gated resume path or grant launch permission.