oduffy-delphi/requesting-staff-session

Requesting a Staff Session

Use /staff-session when the work benefits from multi-perspective debate — not just one reviewer's opinion, but positions challenged and refined by peers.

When to Use Each Tier

| Situation | Tier | Why | |-----------|------|-----| | Quick sanity check on a plan or code | Lightweight → falls through to /review-dispatch | One smart reviewer is enough for gut-checks | | Planning or reviewing where two perspectives would catch different things | Standard (2 debaters + Zolí synthesizer) | The default — two domain experts debate, Zolí synthesizes with ambition lens | | Cross-cutting work touching multiple domains (UI + backend, game + infra) | Full (3-5 debaters + Zolí synthesizer) | Each domain expert brings irreplaceable lens; Zolí resolves contested topics | | Post-execution code review | Don't use staff session — use /review-dispatch | Post-execution reviews are sequential by design (evolved artifact) | | Per-stub reviews during enrichment | Don't use staff session — use single reviewer | Too heavy for individual stubs |

When to Use Plan Mode vs Review Mode

| I need... | Mode | |-----------|------| | A detailed implementation plan crafted by staff engineers | --mode plan | | Multi-perspective critique of an existing plan, spec, or code | --mode review |

Plan mode replaces the EM writing the plan. The EM writes objectives; the team writes the blueprint.

Review mode replaces the sequential /review-dispatch for pre-chunking plan review.

Scoping Checklist

Before invoking /staff-session, the EM should have:

• [ ] PM-aligned objectives or the artifact to review
• [ ] Context files identified (related plans, key source files)
• [ ] Constraints noted (timeline, dependencies, boundaries)
• [ ] Tier selected based on the decision table above
• [ ] Team composition confirmed (or accept auto-selection)

Example Invocations

# Standard plan session — auto-selects Patrik + Sid for architecture, Zolí synthesizes
/staff-session --mode plan --tier standard "Design the executor abort/escalation protocol"

# Standard review — explicit reviewers, Zolí synthesizes
/staff-session --mode review --tier standard --members "sid,patrik" docs/plans/2026-03-22-holodeck-refactor.md

# Full plan session — multi-domain debaters, Zolí synthesizes
/staff-session --mode plan --tier full --members "patrik,sid,camelia" "Design cross-system AI behavior pipeline"

# Lightweight — falls through to single-reviewer dispatch (no Zolí synthesis)
/staff-session --mode review --tier lightweight --members "patrik" docs/plans/quick-fix.md