Eklavya Council

Eklavya learned from a clay idol of his guru when no real teacher would take him. This tool is your virtual council when no expert is available.

Eklavya Council — the debate your question deserves. You pose a question. A council of expert AI personas debate it in structured rounds. A synthesis engine produces decisions, dissent, open questions, and action items.

Not a chatbot. A thinking environment.

→ Try it live: eklavya-council.onrender.com

⚠ Disclaimer: Eklavya Council generates AI-simulated debate perspectives. All personas are AI-generated archetypes — not real people. Output is a thinking tool only — not professional, legal, medical, financial, or psychological advice. Never use this as a substitute for qualified professional help. In a crisis, call 988 (US) or your local emergency number.

What it does

You: "Should we migrate to microservices?"

EKLAVYA COUNCIL  ·  Software Architecture Council
══════════════════════════════════════════════════

── MODERATOR  ·  Opening ─────────────────────────
We're examining microservices migration across three dimensions:
team topology fit, operational complexity, and long-term scalability.

── DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS EXPERT ────────────────────
The question is poorly formed. "Microservices" is a deployment
topology, not an architecture. What you're actually asking is whether
Conway's Law alignment justifies the operational overhead...

── THE SKEPTIC  ·  Senior Engineer ───────────────
I've seen three companies do this migration. Two of them spent 18 months
and ended up with a distributed monolith harder to debug than what
they started with...

── SYNTHESIS ──────────────────────────────────────
✓ DECISIONS
  1. Do not migrate — team cognitive load cannot support it at current size
  2. Address the real problem: module coupling inside the monolith first

⚡ DISSENT
  · Systems Expert: question needs reframing — this isn't an architecture question

→ ACTIONS
  1. Run Team Topologies assessment before any architecture discussion
  2. Measure current deployment frequency as baseline

Install

npm install -g eklavya-council

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/sreenathmmenon/eklavya-council.git
cd eklavya-council
npm install && npm run build && npm link

Quick Start

# Configure API key (one-time)
eklavya init

# Or set environment variable directly
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# Ask a question
eklavya ask "Should we use microservices?"

# Specify council
eklavya ask "Should I take this job offer?" --council career-decision

# More debate rounds
eklavya ask "What is wrong with our architecture?" --rounds 3

# Save to markdown
eklavya ask "Evaluate our startup idea" --council startup-idea --output session.md

# Use specific personas (override council)
eklavya ask "Tabs vs spaces" --personas "skeptic,pragmatist,devil-advocate"

Councils

| Council | Best for | |---|---| | software-architecture | Architecture, tech choices, system design | | product-strategy | Product direction, features, build vs buy | | career-decision | Career moves, pivots, learning investments | | startup-idea | Startup validation, business model review | | code-review | Architectural code review, patterns, security | | personal-decision | Life decisions, priorities, values | | deep-debate | 7 experts · 3 rounds · comprehensive analysis | | learning-path | What to learn next, skill priorities |

Personas

Domain Experts (Archetypes)

| ID | Role | |---|---| | distributed-systems-expert | Author & Researcher in Distributed Systems | | cloud-native-expert | Cloud Infrastructure & Kubernetes Practitioner | | data-engineer | Data Platform & Streaming Specialist | | large-scale-systems-engineer | Hyperscale Infrastructure Architect | | frontend-architect | Frontend Systems & Developer Experience Lead | | security-expert | Principal Security Engineer |

Debate Archetypes

| ID | Role | |---|---| | skeptic | Senior Engineer (10+ years battle scars) | | pragmatist | Staff Engineer / Ship It Person | | devil-advocate | Hired Contrarian | | cfo | Chief Financial Officer | | ceo | Chief Executive Officer | | visionary | CTO / Futurist |

Life & Career

| ID | Role | |---|---| | mentor | Experienced Advisor | | realist | Ground Truth Provider | | ambitious-challenger | High-Performance Coach | | stoic | Philosophical Advisor |

Custom personas: Create your own with eklavya persona add — stored locally in ~/.eklavya/personas/.

Multi-Provider Support

# Anthropic (default)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

# Google Gemini
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=...

# Override provider for a session
eklavya ask "..." --provider openai

Supported: anthropic (Claude), openai (GPT-4o), google (Gemini)

CLI Reference

eklavya init                     Configure API keys and defaults
eklavya ask [question]           Convene a council
  -c, --council <id>             Council to use
  -r, --rounds <n>               Debate rounds (1-3)
  -p, --personas <ids>           Comma-separated persona overrides
  --provider <name>              Override LLM provider
  --no-stream                    Disable streaming output
  -o, --output <file>            Export session to markdown

eklavya councils list            List all councils
eklavya council add              Create a custom council
eklavya council delete <id>      Delete a custom council

eklavya personas list            List all personas
eklavya persona add              Create a custom persona
eklavya personas show <id>       Show persona details

eklavya sessions list            List recent sessions
eklavya sessions show <id>       Display a past session
eklavya sessions export <id>     Export session to markdown

eklavya status                   Show configuration status

Web UI

A web UI is included in ui/ (Next.js 15 + Tailwind). Live streaming, per-persona colours, council verdict panel.

Live: eklavya-council.onrender.com

To run locally:

cd ui
npm install
echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-..." > .env.local
npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:3000

Architecture

eklavya ask "question"
        │
        ▼
CouncilRunner (src/orchestrator.ts)
  Loads council + personas
  Runs rounds:
    Moderator opens → Each persona speaks → Moderator summarises
  Synthesis agent produces structured JSON
        │
        ▼
Provider Abstraction (src/providers.ts)
  Unified streaming interface
  Anthropic | OpenAI | Google Gemini
        │
        ▼
Storage (src/storage.ts)
  ~/.eklavya/sessions/<id>.json
  Replayable, exportable to markdown

Use Cases

• Architecture decisions — multiple expert viewpoints in minutes
• Career decisions — Mentor, Realist, and Ambitious Challenger weigh in
• Startup validation — CEO + CFO + Skeptic before committing resources
• Personal decisions — Stoic + Realist + Mentor at 2am
• Code review — Security, Systems, and Pragmatist perspectives
• Learning path — What to learn next from multiple angles

Roadmap

• [x] CLI with streaming output
• [x] Multi-provider support (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google)
• [x] 8 built-in councils, 16 built-in personas
• [x] Session history and markdown export
• [x] Custom persona and council creation
• [x] Web UI (Next.js + Tailwind) with live streaming
• [ ] Persona memory across sessions
• [ ] Ollama local model support (offline mode)
• [ ] Shareable session links

Safety & Limitations

• All personas are AI-generated archetypes — not real people
• Output is a thinking tool, not authoritative advice
• Not a substitute for medical, legal, financial, or mental health professionals
• Crisis resources: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US) · Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741

Contributing

Contributions welcome — especially new personas and council templates. Open an issue or PR at github.com/sreenathmmenon/eklavya-council.

"The debate your question deserves."

License: MIT · Author: Sreenath