Multi-agent board meeting protocol for strategic decisions

Board Meeting Protocol

Structured multi-agent deliberation that prevents groupthink, captures minority views, and produces clean, actionable decisions.

Keywords

board meeting, executive deliberation, strategic decision, C-suite, multi-agent, /cs:boardroom, founder review, decision extraction, independent perspectives

Invoke

/cs:boardroom [topic] — e.g. /cs:boardroom Should we expand to Spain in Q3?

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The 6-Phase Protocol

PHASE 1: Context Gathering

1. Load ~/.claude/company-context.md
2. Load Layer 2 approved decisions from ~/.claude/decisions/approved/ (Layer 2 ONLY — never raw transcripts)
3. Reset session state — no bleed from previous conversations
4. Present agenda + activated roles → wait for founder confirmation

Chief of Staff selects relevant roles based on topic (not all 14 every time):

Topic	Activate
Market expansion	CEO, CMO, CFO, CRO, COO
Product direction	CEO, CPO, CTO, CMO
Hiring/org	CEO, CHRO, CFO, COO (+ VPE for eng hiring)
Pricing	CMO, CFO, CRO, CPO
Technology	CTO, CPO, CFO, CISO
Contracts / term sheets / legal exposure	GC, CEO, CFO
Data strategy / training-data rights	CDO, CAIO, GC, CISO
AI strategy / model selection / AI risk	CAIO, CTO, CDO, CFO
Retention / churn / customer success	CCO, CRO, CPO
Eng delivery / DORA / team structure	VPE, CTO, CHRO, CFO

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PHASE 2: Independent Contributions (ISOLATED)

No cross-pollination. Each agent runs before seeing others' outputs.

Order: Research (if needed) → CMO → CFO → CEO → CTO → COO → CHRO → CRO → CISO → CPO → GC → CDO → CAIO → CCO → VPE (activated roles only)

Reasoning techniques: CEO: Tree of Thought (3 futures) | CFO: Chain of Thought (show the math) | CMO: Recursion of Thought (draft→critique→refine) | CPO: First Principles | CRO: Chain of Thought (pipeline math) | COO: Step by Step (process map) | CTO: ReAct (research→analyze→act) | CISO: Risk-Based (P×I) | CHRO: Empathy + Data | GC: Risk-Based (clause exposure) | CDO: Decision-Driven (what decision does this data drive) | CAIO: Eval-Demanding (no eval, no ship) | CCO: Retention-Obsessed (GRR over NRR) | VPE: Throughput-First (cycle-time math)

Contribution format (max 5 key points, self-verified):

## [ROLE] — [DATE]

Key points (max 5):
• [Finding] — [VERIFIED/ASSUMED] — 🟢/🟡/🔴
• [Finding] — [VERIFIED/ASSUMED] — 🟢/🟡/🔴

Recommendation: [clear position]
Confidence: High / Medium / Low
Source: [where the data came from]
What would change my mind: [specific condition]

Each agent self-verifies before contributing: source attribution, assumption audit, confidence scoring. No untagged claims.

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PHASE 3: Critic Analysis

Executive Mentor receives ALL Phase 2 outputs simultaneously. Role: adversarial reviewer, not synthesizer.

Checklist:

• Where did agents agree too easily? (suspicious consensus = red flag)
• What assumptions are shared but unvalidated?
• Who is missing from the room? (customer voice? front-line ops?)
• What risk has nobody mentioned?
• Which agent operated outside their domain?

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PHASE 4: Synthesis

Chief of Staff delivers using the Board Meeting Output format (defined in ../agent-protocol/SKILL.md):

• Decision Required (one sentence)
• Perspectives (one line per contributing role)
• Where They Agree / Where They Disagree
• Critic's View (the uncomfortable truth)
• Recommended Decision + Action Items (owners, deadlines)
• Your Call (options if founder disagrees)

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PHASE 5: Human in the Loop ⏸️

Full stop. Wait for the founder.

⏸️ FOUNDER REVIEW — [Paste synthesis]

Options: ✅ Approve | ✏️ Modify | ❌ Reject | ❓ Ask follow-up

Rules:

• User corrections OVERRIDE agent proposals. No pushback. No "but the CFO said..."
• 30-min inactivity → auto-close as "pending review"
• Reopen any time with /cs:boardroom resume

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PHASE 6: Decision Extraction

After founder approval:

• Layer 1: Write full transcript → ~/.claude/decisions/raw/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md
• Layer 2: Write approved decision record → ~/.claude/decisions/approved/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md and append to the index ~/.claude/decisions/approved/decisions.md
• Mark rejected proposals [DO_NOT_RESURFACE]
• Confirm to founder with count of decisions logged, actions tracked, flags added

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Memory Structure

Uses the canonical two-layer decision memory (see ../agent-protocol/SKILL.md → "Decision Memory (Canonical Layout)"):

~/.claude/decisions/
├── raw/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md        # Layer 1 — full transcripts (never auto-loaded)
├── raw/archive/YYYY/               # Raw transcripts after 90 days
├── approved/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md   # Layer 2 — founder-approved records (Phase 1 loads these)
└── approved/decisions.md           # Layer 2 index — append-only

Future meetings load Layer 2 only. Never Layer 1. This prevents hallucinated consensus.

Migration: a legacy memory/board-meetings/ folder may exist from earlier versions; read it for history but write new transcripts and decisions to ~/.claude/decisions/.

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Failure Mode Quick Reference

Failure	Fix
Groupthink (all agree)	Re-run Phase 2 isolated; force "strongest argument against"
Analysis paralysis	Cap at 5 points; force recommendation even with Low confidence
Bikeshedding	Log as async action item; return to main agenda
Role bleed (CFO making product calls)	Critic flags; exclude from synthesis
Layer contamination	Phase 1 loads ~/.claude/decisions/approved/ only — hard rule

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References

• templates/meeting-agenda.md — agenda format
• templates/meeting-minutes.md — final output format
• references/meeting-facilitation.md — conflict handling, timing, failure modes