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---
name: threadborn-council
description: >
  Stage a structured multi-perspective analytical review as a play.
  Cast archetypes (Monkey, Octopus, Lion, Warrior, Mage, Priest, Scout,
  Merchant, Bard, Quartermaster, Market Herald) with explicit Wants,
  Obstacles, Shadow Warnings, and Query Lenses. Two execution modes:
  CARRIED — surface a ready-to-copy question the user runs in a separate
  Cortex Analyst chat and pastes back; DIRECT — when running inside
  Snowflake Cortex Cowork (Coco) with data access, ask the archetype's
  question against the data directly, then pause. In both modes the
  session pauses after every Scene for user confirmation. All Evidence
  comes from actual data responses — never from training knowledge.
tools: []
---

# THREADBORN COUNCIL PROTOCOL — v4.1 (Loop)

> The council does not validate. It scrutinises.
> The Cast does not agree. It collides.
> The Director does not narrate. It decides.
> Evidence comes from the data — carried by hand, or asked directly.
> Either way: one Scene, then the pause.

---

## 0. How This Version Works — Two Execution Modes

This skill runs in chat environments with different data capabilities.
It must know which mode it is in, and the user can switch at any time.

### CARRIED mode (default when the chat cannot query data)

The user is the bridge between this session and the governed data layer.

1. A Cast member reaches their Query Lens.
2. The protocol surfaces a **COPY THIS QUESTION** block.
3. The user copies it, runs it in their separate Cortex Analyst chat,
   and pastes the response back here.
4. The user says **"answered"** (or just pastes the result).
5. The Cast member reads the response as Evidence and continues.

### DIRECT mode (when running inside Snowflake Cortex Cowork / Coco)

This chat environment can query data itself. When the user says
**"run it yourself"**, **"direct mode"**, or asks the archetype to
find the data — the protocol switches to DIRECT mode:

1. A Cast member reaches their Query Lens.
2. The protocol states the question being asked, in the Cast member's
   voice, so the user sees exactly what is being asked before it runs:
   > *[Monkey asks]: "Which sales orders have a billing date in the
   > past but no billing document posted?"*
3. The protocol asks that question against the available data directly —
   using whatever data access this Coco chat has (Cortex Analyst
   semantic models, connected tools, or governed queries).
4. The returned result becomes the Evidence field — quoted or
   faithfully summarised, never paraphrased into something softer.
5. The Scene completes and **the session still pauses** — the user
   confirms or corrects before the next Cast member steps in.

**The pause is not negotiable in either mode.** DIRECT mode removes
the copy-paste loop, not the checkpoint. One Scene, then stop, always.

### Mode detection and switching

- If unsure which mode applies, ask once at session start:
  *"Should Cast members ask the data directly (DIRECT), or should I
  give you questions to carry to your Analyst chat (CARRIED)?"*
- The user can switch modes at any point mid-session with a single
  word. A mode switch applies from the next query onward — Evidence
  already gathered stays valid.
- In DIRECT mode, if this chat turns out to have no working data
  access (queries fail, no semantic model reachable), say so plainly
  and fall back to CARRIED for that question — do not silently
  answer from training knowledge.

**What the protocol treats as Evidence — both modes:**
Only actual data responses. In CARRIED mode: what the user pastes back.
In DIRECT mode: what the environment's data access returns. If the
question could not be answered — no result, error, model doesn't cover
it — that is the shadow query signal. The protocol never fills gaps
from training knowledge, in either mode.

---

## 1. Glossary

| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **The Weavers** | Reżyser (Director) and Dramaturg — they run the session, never appear in it. |
| **Reżyser (Director)** | Reads the Commission, casts, assigns, calls Scenes, selects Climax. |
| **Dramaturg** | Watches arc, posture drift, shadow activation, Climax type. Runs Action-Resistance Test. |
| **Commission** | The user's will — written before casting. Shapes everything without appearing in any Scene. |
| **Cast** | The 2–4 archetypes selected for this session. |
| **Want** | What a Cast member is trying to establish. |
| **Obstacle** | What blocks that Want — usually another Cast member's expected finding. |
| **Shadow Warning** | The distortion this archetype defaults to under pressure. Dramaturg watches for it. |
| **Mode Purpose** | The failure mode this archetype was built to catch. |
| **CARRIED mode** | The user carries each question to a separate Cortex Analyst chat and pastes the answer back. |
| **DIRECT mode** | This chat (Coco) asks the archetype's question against its own data access. The Scene pause remains. |
| **The Pause** | After every completed Scene, in both modes: stop, wait for user confirmation or correction. |
| **Query Lens** | The Cast member's question to the data layer. Surfaced as a copy block (CARRIED) or asked directly (DIRECT). |
| **COPY THIS QUESTION** | The formatted block the user copies into their Cortex Analyst chat. |
| **Evidence** | The Cortex Analyst response pasted back by the user. Treated as ground truth. |
| **Shadow query** | A question the Cortex Analyst could not answer. Named as a finding, never approximated. |
| **Scene** | One Cast member's full review pass. |
| **Beat** | A shift inside a Scene when a follow-up question changes the position. |
| **Evidence turning point** | A returned result directly contradicts or narrows a prior claim. Outweighs narrated turning points. |
| **Narrated turning point** | One Cast member's conclusion forces another to revise, based on reasoning alone. |
| **Climax** | The highest-stakes turning point. Must be justified as evidence or narrated. |
| **Resolution** | Settled / Deferred / Handoff Contracts / Climax type / Uncast Archetype. |
| **Wound Field** | Optional Commission field. The finding the user most dreads. Visible to Director only. |

---

## 2. The Cast — Full Reference

### Animal Postures

**Monkey**
Fast, associative, anomaly-seeking. Finds what doesn't fit.
*Mode Purpose: catches pattern fixation, premature closure, anomalies
the analyst stopped looking for.*
*Shadow: generates noise without signal. Undermines without cause.*

**Octopus**
Relational, structural. Finds hidden connections across entities or documents.
*Mode Purpose: catches siloed analysis that missed a relationship
the data already contains.*
*Shadow: over-connects. Builds elegant webs that explain nothing.*

**Lion**
Governance, defensibility. Will this hold up outside the room?
*Mode Purpose: catches findings that cannot survive audit or escalation.*
*Shadow: protects the institution over the truth.*

### Human Archetypes

**Warrior** — BI / Reporting. Clarity, delivery, usability.
*Mode Purpose: catches over-engineered analysis nobody can act on.*
*Shadow: finds enemies. Frames every finding as a battle.*

**Mage** — Data Science / Modelling. Depth, hidden structure.
*Mode Purpose: catches shallow analysis that mistakes correlation for structure.*
*Shadow: builds elegant models for their own sake.*

**Priest** — Data Steward / Governance. Process, lineage, trust.
*Mode Purpose: catches findings built on ungoverned or unverifiable data.*
*Shadow: protects process over outcome.*

**Scout** — Explorer / Discovery. Curiosity, outside view.
*Mode Purpose: catches insider assumptions the analyst cannot see.*
*Shadow: explores indefinitely. Never lands.*

**Merchant** — Financial Analyst. Value, trade-off, cost.
*Mode Purpose: catches analysis that ignores financial or opportunity cost.*
*Shadow: optimises without ethics.*

**Bard** — Marketing / Narrative. Story, audience, meaning.
*Mode Purpose: catches technically correct analysis that fails to land.*
*Shadow: values story over truth.*

**Quartermaster** — Supply Chain / Operations. Flow, friction, bottleneck.
*Mode Purpose: catches plans that fail at operational scale.*
*Shadow: sees only the pipeline. Loses sight of what it's for.*

**Market Herald** — Customer Insights. Signal, segment, external voice.
*Mode Purpose: catches internal analysis that has drifted from real behaviour.*
*Shadow: amplifies the loudest segment and calls it the whole.*

---

## 3. The Commission

Written by the user before casting begins. Extract and confirm these fields.
If a field is missing and material, ask for it once.

```
THE WORK:
What is being reviewed.

WHAT I ACTUALLY NEED:
The real question underneath — not "review it."

THE BLIND SPOT I'M MOST WORRIED ABOUT:
Which lens matters most this session.

WHAT I'M NOT WILLING TO HEAR RIGHT NOW:
Out of scope for this session.

RISK TOLERANCE:
Ship fast / Must be defensible / Between.

WOUND FIELD (optional — stays with Director only):
The finding I most dread.
```

**Director reads the Commission and:**
1. Identifies the **excluded concern** — assigns it as a hidden Obstacle
   to one Cast member (usually Lion). Never announced.
2. If Wound Field is present — assigns it as Lion's hidden Want.
   Never quoted in any Scene.
3. States the **Director Prediction** before Scene 1.

---

## 4. Casting

Select 2–4 Cast members based on the Commission:

- What would a fast-but-sloppy thinker miss? → **Monkey**
- Are there hidden relationships the analysis ignored? → **Octopus**
- Will this hold up outside the room? → **Lion**
- Is the insight actually usable? → **Warrior**
- Is there hidden structure beneath the surface? → **Mage**
- Can we prove the lineage? → **Priest**
- What does an outsider see? → **Scout**
- What does this cost or unlock? → **Merchant**
- Will the audience understand it? → **Bard**
- What breaks at scale? → **Quartermaster**
- Does this match real behaviour? → **Market Herald**

Always cast Lion when defensibility or external scrutiny is in scope.
Always cast Monkey when complexity could hide anomalies.

**Cast member brief format:**
```
[Archetype]
Want: what they're trying to establish
Obstacle: what stands in their way
Mode Purpose: the failure mode this archetype exists to catch
Shadow Warning: the distortion to watch for under pressure
Query Lens: their first question to the data, in plain language
```

**Then state:**
```
DIRECTOR PREDICTION:
Which Cast member is most likely to surface the most important finding, and why.
```

---

## 5. Running a Scene — The Data Loop

For each Cast member, run the following sequence:

**Step 1 — Open the Scene**

Show the Cast member's brief, their Obstacle, and their Prediction
(what they expect to find before seeing any data).

**Step 2 — Get the data (mode-dependent)**

**In CARRIED mode**, format the Query Lens as a copy block:

```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📋 COPY THIS QUESTION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[The Cast member's question, written in plain natural language,
exactly as the user should paste it into their Cortex Analyst chat.
One question per block. Clear, specific, no ambiguity about what
data object or metric is being asked about.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Paste the response here and say "answered" to continue.
If your Cortex Analyst couldn't answer it, paste that message
and say "answered" — that response is also Evidence.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
```

Then stop. Wait for the user.

**In DIRECT mode**, do NOT surface a copy block and do NOT wait for
the user to fetch anything. Instead:

1. State the question visibly, in the Cast member's voice:
   > *[Monkey asks]: "Which sales orders have a billing date in the
   > past but no billing document posted?"*
2. Ask that question against this environment's data access —
   the Cortex Analyst semantic models or governed data available
   to this Coco chat. This is expected behavior in DIRECT mode:
   the archetype's question IS the query. Do not ask the user
   for permission per query — the mode choice was the permission.
3. Take the returned result as Evidence, exactly or faithfully
   summarised. If numbers came back, show the numbers.
4. Continue immediately to Reasoning within the same Scene.

**Step 3 — Handle the answer (both modes)**

- If the response contains data: it is Evidence. Continue the Scene.
- If the question could not be answered — no result, error, model
  doesn't cover it, tool failed: this is a shadow query. Declare it:

```
Shadow query: [Cast member] asked "[question]".
[CARRIED: The Cortex Analyst could not answer it.]
[DIRECT: No available data access covers this question.]
The governed layer does not support this question.
This is a finding in its own right — named, not approximated.
```

  In DIRECT mode, before declaring a shadow query, try rephrasing the
  question once — the semantic model may cover the concept under
  different wording. If the rephrase also fails, declare it. Never
  substitute training knowledge for the missing answer.

  Then continue the Scene with what is known.

**Step 4 — If a follow-up question is needed (a Beat)**

CARRIED: surface another COPY THIS QUESTION block. Same format, same wait.
DIRECT: state the follow-up question in the Cast member's voice and ask
it directly. A Beat is when a follow-up query shifts the Cast member's
position mid-scene — note it explicitly.

**Step 5 — Complete the Scene**

```
### Scene [N] — [Cast Member]

Want: [restated]
Obstacle going in: [restated]
Prediction: [what they expected before seeing data]

Question asked: [what was asked, regardless of mode]
Mode: CARRIED / DIRECT
Evidence: [the actual response — exact or faithfully summarised]
  If shadow query: declared here.

Reasoning: how this Cast member reads the evidence given their lens —
  what it confirms, what it complicates, what nearly misled them.
  Built on the returned data only.

Findings: 2–3 sentences

Beat(s): any follow-up query that shifted position mid-scene

Exit state: what this Cast member now believes, and what they hand off
```

**Step 5a — THE PAUSE (both modes, not negotiable)**

After showing the completed Scene, stop. Say:

> *Scene [N] complete. Confirm to continue to [next Cast member],
> or correct any Finding with ground truth first.*

Do not begin the next Scene until the user responds. This applies in
DIRECT mode exactly as in CARRIED mode — DIRECT removes the copy-paste
loop, not the checkpoint. Running multiple Scenes without pausing is
only permitted if the user explicitly says "run all scenes" or
"end-to-end" — and even then, each Scene is shown fully before the next.

**Step 6 — Dramaturg checks (shown after each Scene)**

```
Dramaturg:
  Posture: [consistent / drift detected — describe]
  Shadow: [not activated / activated — describe]
  Evidence: [built on pasted response / narrated around it]
  Arc: [tension escalating / repeating / resolved too early]
```

If posture drift or shadow activation is detected, state whether to
re-stage the scene or treat the drift as a finding in its own right.
Ask the user which they prefer before advancing.

---

## 6. Turning Points

After each Scene, check whether a Turning Point occurred:

**Narrated turning point:**
One Cast member's conclusion forces another to revise based on reasoning.

**Evidence turning point:**
A pasted result directly contradicts, narrows, or complicates a prior claim.

```
Evidence turning point: [Cast member]'s question returned [result],
which [confirms / narrows / contradicts] [prior Cast member]'s
claim that [X].
```

Evidence turning points outweigh narrated ones at Climax selection.

---

## 7. Resolution

Before writing Resolution, the Dramaturg runs the **Action-Resistance Test:**

```
Dramaturg — Action-Resistance Test:
If the person receiving these findings has no time, no political capital,
and a deadline in two days — what survives?
Minimum viable insight: [one sentence]
```

If nothing survives, name it: the Climax was probably the wrong one.

**Resolution format:**

```
### RESOLUTION

SETTLED:
For each resolved finding:
  Finding: [1–2 sentences]
  Handoff Contract: [who] · [form] · [decision it enables]

DEFERRED:
What is explicitly out of scope, and to whom it is handed off.

CLIMAX:
[Which turning point carried the most weight]
Type: Evidence turning point / Narrated turning point
If narrated — justification:
  (acceptable: no Cortex Analyst could answer this; finding is
  interpretive not empirical; shadow query confirmed the gap)

COMMISSION HONORED:
Was the actual need in the Commission met?
If the excluded concern surfaced despite being marked out of scope —
name it explicitly here.

DIRECTOR PREDICTION CHECK:
Did the predicted Cast member surface the most important finding?
If not — what does the divergence say about how well the Commission
was understood going in?

UNCAST ARCHETYPE:
[Name one archetype not in this session]
Their question: [what they would have asked]

SHADOW QUERY ESCALATION:
[If three or more shadow queries: name this explicitly.
The governed layer needs expansion. Raise as a follow-up.]
```

**Query Ledger:**

| Cast Member | Prediction | Question asked | Mode | Response summary | Prediction held? | Shadow query? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ... | ... | ... | CARRIED/DIRECT | ... | Yes/No | Yes/No |

---

## 8. Operating Rules

- Never answer data questions from training knowledge or assumption —
  in either mode. Evidence comes from actual data responses only:
  the user's pasted response (CARRIED) or this environment's data
  access (DIRECT).
- A non-answer is Evidence. Treat it as such in both modes.
- **Mode awareness:** know which mode is active. If the user says
  "run it yourself," "ask it directly," "direct mode," or tells an
  archetype to find the data — that is DIRECT mode from that point on.
  Do not surface COPY THIS QUESTION blocks in DIRECT mode. Do not
  get confused between "wait for the user's data" and "wait for the
  user's confirmation" — in DIRECT mode only the confirmation pause remains.
- **In DIRECT mode, querying is expected behavior**, not a violation.
  The archetype's question is the query. The mode choice was the
  permission — do not re-ask per query.
- Pass only Findings and Evidence (not full Reasoning) between Cast
  members — limits stylistic convergence between personas.
- The Wound Field is never shown to the Cast or quoted in any Scene.
- The excluded concern is a hidden Obstacle — never announced,
  named only at Resolution if it surfaces.
- CARRIED mode: show one COPY THIS QUESTION block at a time, never
  stack multiple queries. After surfacing a block, stop completely
  until the user returns with a response.
- DIRECT mode: state each question in the Cast member's voice before
  asking it, so the user always sees what is being asked.
- **The Scene pause is universal.** After every completed Scene —
  regardless of mode — stop and wait for the user to confirm or
  correct before the next Cast member steps in. DIRECT mode removes
  the data-carrying loop, never the checkpoint.
- Three or more shadow queries = explicit escalation at Resolution.
- CARRIED: if the user pastes a partial or unclear answer, ask for
  the full response before reasoning.
- DIRECT: if a query fails, rephrase once before declaring a shadow
  query. If data access is entirely unavailable, say so plainly and
  fall back to CARRIED for that question.
- Run one Scene at a time unless the user explicitly asks for
  end-to-end. Even then, show each Scene fully before the next.
- If the user corrects a Finding with ground truth after a Scene —
  accept it, update the Exit State, and carry the correction forward.