Documentation

Getting Started

Run your first council query in under a minute. No setup required.

1. Type your question

   Enter any high-stakes question into the query box on the home page. Be specific: include context, constraints, and what kind of recommendation you need. For example: "Should we migrate our monolith to microservices given a 6-person engineering team and $2M ARR?"

2. Choose a panel

   Select a panel of expert agents from the dropdown. Each panel is a curated group of AI specialists tuned for a specific domain. The Default Panel (Strategist, Risk Analyst, Devil's Advocate) works for most general questions. Pick a specialized panel for domain-specific queries.

3. Review the results

   Each agent delivers an independent analysis with a recommendation, confidence score, key considerations, and risks. A synthesis step combines all opinions into a single decision document with an executive summary, action plan, and risk matrix. Expand any agent card to see their full reasoning.

Panels

A panel is a curated group of expert AI agents that deliberate on your query in parallel. Each panel is designed for a specific domain or decision type.

How panels work

When you run a council, every agent on the selected panel independently analyzes your query using their unique expertise, analytical framework, and persona. Each agent has a weight that determines how much influence they have on the final synthesis. Some agents are marked required, meaning they always participate and may hold veto authority (for example, the Safety Officer).

Available panels

Plus specialized geopolitical scenario panels. New panels are added regularly.

Workflows

Workflows are multi-step decision pipelines with human review between each stage. Unlike a single council query, workflows chain multiple councils together in a structured sequence.

Councils vs. workflows

A council is a single round of multi-expert deliberation: you ask a question, agents analyze it in parallel, and a synthesis combines their opinions. A workflow is a sequence of councils and processing steps that tackle a complex process end-to-end.

For example, a "Due Diligence" workflow might run four stages: financial analysis, legal review, technical assessment, and a final synthesis. Each stage can use a different panel, and you can review and refine between stages.

When to use workflows

Use a workflow when your decision requires multiple phases that build on each other, when you need human review checkpoints, or when the process is standardized enough to template. Examples:

• Product launch planning (market analysis, technical feasibility, go-to-market)
• Incident postmortem (timeline, root cause, remediation, prevention)
• TDD development (requirements, test design, implementation, review)
• RFP response (requirements parsing, solution design, pricing, final assembly)

Running a workflow

Select the "Workflows" tab in the main interface. Browse available templates, pick one, and fill in your context. The workflow guides you through each stage, showing progress and letting you adjust inputs between steps.

Custom Agents

Create expert agents tailored to your organization's specific domain knowledge and decision-making needs.

What defines an agent

Every agent is a Markdown template with YAML frontmatter. The frontmatter defines metadata (name, role, expertise tags, default weight), and the body is a system prompt that shapes the agent's persona, analytical framework, and output style.

Creating a custom agent

In the web interface, go to the Agents page and click "Create Agent." You can define:

• Name and role -- The agent's title and professional identity
• Expertise -- Domain tags that help match agents to queries
• Analytical framework -- The step-by-step methodology the agent follows
• Decision criteria -- What the agent optimizes for (safety, ROI, speed, etc.)
• Weight -- How much influence this agent has in the synthesis (default 1.0)
• Model -- Optionally override which LLM this agent uses

Sharing and forking

Agents can be shared via the marketplace. You can fork any public agent, customize it, and add it to your panels. All agents support version tracking.

API Reference

Integrate Meta Council into your existing tools and workflows with the REST API. All endpoints accept and return JSON.

Base URL

All paths below are relative to this base. The Developer API (v1) uses /api/v1 instead.

Authentication

Two methods are supported. Use whichever fits your integration:

API keys use the mc_ prefix and are shown only once at creation time. Store them securely.

Rate limits

Rate limit info is returned in response headers: X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset (Unix timestamp).

Response format

All responses are JSON. Successful responses return a top-level object. Errors return {"detail": "error message"} with an appropriate HTTP status code. See Error Handling below.

Council API

The core product. Start a multi-expert council session, poll for results, and retrieve agent/panel metadata.

Workflow API

Multi-step decision pipelines with human checkpoints. Chain multiple council sessions together in a structured sequence.

Workflow Schedules API

Schedule workflows to run automatically on a recurring basis. Useful for periodic reviews, monitoring, and automated reporting.

History & Sharing

Access past council sessions and their full results. Public sessions are accessible at /s/{session_id} in the browser.

Settings & Keys

Manage your account settings, provider API keys, model preferences, and developer API keys.

Developer API (v1)

A simplified interface for programmatic access. Uses the /api/v1/ prefix with API key authentication only. Designed for integrations, automation pipelines, and AI agent toolchains.

Endpoint summary

Quick start: end-to-end cURL example

Request body: /api/v1/councils/run

Session status values

MCP Server

Use Meta Council as a tool from Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible AI agent.

The Meta Council MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposes 10 tools that let AI agents convene councils, list panels and agents, retrieve session results, and configure settings -- all without leaving their workflow.

Installation

Available MCP tools

See mcp/README.md for the full setup guide and usage examples.

Error Handling

All errors return a consistent JSON format with an appropriate HTTP status code.

Error response format

HTTP status codes

Rate limit headers

Every response includes these headers when rate limiting is active:

Example: handling errors

Keyboard Shortcuts

Speed up your workflow with these keyboard shortcuts.

Self-Hosting & Desktop App BETA

Run Meta Council entirely on your own hardware. Nothing leaves your machine.

Option 1: Docker (Recommended)

One command starts the web app + local AI model:

# After receiving your self-hosted package:
cd meta-council
docker compose up

Open http://localhost:8080. Ollama downloads Qwen 2.5 7B (~4.5 GB) on first run.

Option 2: Desktop App

Native application for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Double-click to launch — auto-detects local Ollama for free inference.

cd desktop
npm install
npm start

Build installers: npm run build:mac / build:win / build:linux

Option 3: Full Offline (Air-Gapped)

For environments with no internet access:

1. Install Ollama on the target machine
2. Pull a model: ollama pull qwen2.5:7b
3. Deploy Meta Council via Docker or the desktop app
4. No internet required after initial setup

GPU Models

Contact [email protected] for self-hosted access and the complete setup guide.

Frequently Asked Questions