# Council

Council asks several models the same question at once. They review each other's answers without knowing who wrote which, and a chairman model writes one final answer from the best of them.

Use it when one model's answer isn't enough: a decision with trade-offs, a claim you want checked, a plan you want torn apart before you act on it.

![Fluent – The Council Composer](/help-assets/fluent-council.webp)

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## How It Works

A Council runs in three stages:

| Stage | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| **Answer** | Every member answers your question on its own, all at the same time. Members can use your integrations, such as web search, as they would in a chat. |
| **Review** | Each member reads the other answers, labeled Response A, B, C with no model names. It rates each one for accuracy, completeness, insight and reasoning, and ranks them from best to worst. |
| **Synthesis** | The chairman reads every answer and review, keeps what holds up, corrects what doesn't, and writes the final answer. |

The final answer ends with a **Chairman verdict**: what the council agreed on, what the chairman corrected or dropped, and a confidence score from 0 to 100%.

![Fluent – The Chairman Verdict](/help-assets/fluent-council-verdict.webp)

Everyone answers in the language of your question. Model names are filled into the reviews afterwards, so you can see who said what about whom. With a single member there's nothing to review, and the chairman works from that one answer.

Questions that work well:
- "Should I refinance a 4.1% mortgage at 3.6%? The fee is €2,000 and 12 years are left."
- "Review this contract for risks to me as the freelancer." with the contract attached
- "Is it true that cracking your knuckles causes arthritis? Cite sources."

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## Start A Council

1. Open the chat window and click **Council** in the sidebar, under **New chat** and **Scheduled**.
2. Click the chairman card and choose the model that writes the final answer. It starts as your default model.
3. Click **Add member** and choose a model. Add up to ten.
4. Type your question where it says **Ask the council a question**, and press Return.

You can attach files and images as you would in a chat. Every member, every reviewer and the chairman receive them, so a claim about a picture or a document is checked against the original.

The chairman and members you set up stay for next time, even if you never save them as a preset.

If the Council page says "Add an API key for a provider", no provider is set up yet. Click **Open Settings** and add one in **Settings → Models**.

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## Members And Chairman

Members and the chairman can be any model you have set up: cloud and custom providers, subscription providers you're signed in to, downloaded local models and Apple Intelligence. The cards open the same model menu as a chat.

- **Change a model**: click its card and choose another one.
- **Remove a member**: hover over its card and click the ×.
- **Chairman**: any model, including one of the members. It reads everything the council wrote, so give it a strong model.
- **Unavailable**: a card shows this in orange when its provider can't run right now, for example after a key was removed or you signed out. The Council still runs, and that member reports its error.

Tip: mix model families, so the members don't all share the same blind spots.

### Instructions

Give a member, or the chairman, its own instruction. Click its card and choose **Add Instruction** at the top of the menu. Enter a short **Name**, which shows on the card, and the **Instruction** itself.

| Name | Instruction |
| --- | --- |
| Skeptic | Argue against the obvious answer and look for what could go wrong. |
| Numbers | Back every claim with figures and show your calculations. |
| Beginner | Explain it the way you would to someone new to the topic. |

For the chairman, an instruction shapes the final answer, for example **Short**: "Keep the final answer under 200 words."

A member follows its instruction when it answers and when it reviews, and the chairman sees each member's instruction. Use **Edit Instruction** or **Remove Instruction** in the same menu. Choosing a different model for a card removes its instruction.

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## Council Presets

A preset saves a chairman, its members and their instructions, so you can switch setups in one click: for example "Quick check" with three fast models and "Deep dive" with ten.

Use the **Presets** button in the toolbar while the Council composer is open. It shows the active preset's name.

| Menu item | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **New Preset** | Saves the current chairman and members under a name you choose |
| **Update "Name"** | Saves your changes into the active preset |
| A preset | Loads it. **(Unsaved)** after the active preset's name means you changed it since |
| **Manage Presets** | Rename, duplicate, delete, or drag presets into a new order |

Loading a preset replaces the current setup. If that setup isn't saved, Fluent asks first: **Continue** replaces it, **Cancel** keeps it. Choosing the active preset again drops its unsaved changes.

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## Watch It Run

Each card shows its model's progress and how long it has been working:

| Card | Shows |
| --- | --- |
| Member | **Answering…**, **Answered**, **Reviewing…**, **Reviewed**. **No answer**, **Error** or **Cancelled** when it didn't answer |
| Chairman | **Standing by**, **Synthesizing…**, **Synthesized**, or **Failed** and **Cancelled** |

![Fluent – A Council At Work](/help-assets/fluent-council-running.webp)

- **Read along**: click any card to read what that model has written so far.
- **Stop a slow member**: click the spinning ring on its card. The Council goes on without it. Stopping the chairman ends the Council without saving it.
- **Leave it running**: open other chats, switch apps or close the window. The **Council** row in the sidebar shows a spinner and the elapsed time.

You can't change members while a Council runs. When it finishes, the final answer appears under the cards.

If no member answers, or the chairman can't write the synthesis, a message says so. Click **Try again** to reset the composer, then ask again, perhaps with other models. A Council that fails isn't saved.

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## Read The Result

A finished Council is saved as one conversation in the chat window's sidebar, among your other chats. Click the arrow next to it to list its members.

![Fluent – A Council's Result](/help-assets/fluent-council-result.webp)

At the top, **Request** shows your question. Below it, switch between:

| Tab | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| **Synthesis** | The chairman's final answer, with the **Chairman verdict**: Consensus, Corrections and Confidence |
| A member | That member's own answer, then its peer review of the others: a short critique of each and its ranking |

Member tabs are ordered by the council's ranking, which adds up every member's review: first place in a review earns the most points. The top three carry gold, silver and bronze medals, the rest **#4**, **#5** and so on. Members that don't fit show under **+2**, **+3** and so on.

Under each tab, the reply details show the model, time and tokens, and the cost for NanoGPT models. Copy any answer from there.

A Council answers one question and can't be forked, renamed or pinned. To ask something else, open **Council** and ask: it runs as a new Council. To remove one, right-click it and choose **Delete council chat**.

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## Notifications And The Menu Bar

When a Council finishes while you aren't looking at it:
- A notification shows your question, **Completed** or **Failed**, and the start of the answer. Click it to open the Council in the chat window.
- The menu bar icon counts it, and the menu lists it under **Finished**. Click **Open** to read it.
- Its title shows in green in the sidebar until you open it.

While it runs, the menu lists it under **Running**. Councils are stopped from their cards, not from the menu bar.

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## Where Councils Appear

| Place | Councils |
| --- | --- |
| Chat window's sidebar and its search | Yes, with your other chats |
| Smart Panel history menu (⌘Y) | No, and ⌘⇧T doesn't reopen them |
| History | Saved like chats. With **Enable history** off in **Settings → History**, a Council isn't kept |
| Memory | The chairman can use what Memory knows, but a Council never saves anything to Memory |

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## Time And Cost

A Council of **N** members sends about **2N + 1** requests: an answer and a review from each member, then the synthesis. A member that uses tools, such as web search, makes more. Reviews and the synthesis include the other answers, so they're longer than your question alone.

| Members | Requests (about) |
| --- | --- |
| 3 | 7 |
| 5 | 11 |
| 10 | 21 |

Members answer at the same time and review at the same time, so a Council takes about as long as its slowest answer, plus its slowest review, plus the synthesis.

To keep it fast and affordable:
- Use three to five fast members and one strong chairman
- Stop a member that keeps everyone waiting
- Use a subscription provider, which counts against your plan's limits instead of billing per token
- Save a small preset for everyday questions and a large one for the questions that deserve it