We put a design question to ten models: what’s the best way to reach a correct answer? They didn’t take a side — they prescribed the right tool for each kind of question. RoundTable already had one. So we built the other.

# The Council Wrote the Spec · RoundTable Source: [https://reports.thert.ai/the-council-wrote-the-spec](https://reports.thert.ai/the-council-wrote-the-spec) New in RoundTable · Council Report We put a design question to ten models: what’s the best way to reach a correct answer? They didn’t take a side — they prescribed the right tool for each kind of question\. RoundTable already had one\. So we built the other\. 27 Jun 202610\-model blind councilNow shipping The short version Asked “council or single model,” the table refused the false choice and split the question instead:convene the councilfor the decisions that matter, and reach for agrounded fact\-checkerfor the plain facts\. RoundTable already had the first\. So we built the second\. The brief ## One question, two answers The motion was deliberately split: council versus single model for**\(1\)**single factual questions, and for**\(2\)**critical, high\-stakes decisions\. The format was a**blind reveal**— every model wrote its opening alone, unable to see the others, and all ten were unveiled at once\. Independent minds, no anchoring\. What came back wasn’t a slogan\. It was a clean piece of engineering judgement:**different questions deserve different machinery\.**The council mapped the two cases to two architectures — and, satisfyingly, the same answer surfaced from seat after seat without anyone seeing anyone else’s\. For the hard calls ### The council Contested, high\-stakes, many moving parts — where the cost of a missed assumption is high\. **Round\-table debate** For the plain facts ### The fact\-checker A single checkable answer — a date, a figure, a definition, a current event\. **One model \+ grounding** Where the council wins ## Debate, for the calls that matter On the high\-stakes case the table was emphatic, and it’s the heart of what RoundTable is built for\. A single model is tuned to be agreeable — it tends to converge on a smooth, balanced answer that quietly papers over the tail risks\. A council does the opposite: it forces independent critique, makes each seat defend its reasoning against peers, and*preserves the dissent*instead of averaging it away\. That’s how a load\-bearing assumption gets caught before it ships\. By enforcing adversarial critique and forcing us to defend our logic against peers, we can stress\-test your load\-bearing assumptions and expose structural flaws a single model would politely hide\.— Gemini, on the council’s edge for decisions The verdict put it plainly: for critical decisions, the council’s adversarial scrutiny**earns its overhead**— stress\-testing assumptions, surfacing competing interpretations, and pushing on the evidence rather than nodding at it\. This is the part no single model replaces, and the reason a round table beats a lone oracle when the decision is hard\. Where a fact\-checker wins ## Grounding, for the facts For a plain factual question, the table’s judgement was just as sharp — and pointed at a different tool\. Here the bottleneck isn’t reasoning; it’s**grounding**\. Models share a great deal of training data, so what you actually want for a checkable fact isn’t more opinions drawn from the same memory — it’s an*external source*\. The recommendation: one strong model to answer, paired with a web\-grounded fact\-checker to verify it\. Fast, sourced, and checked rather than merely confident\. A solo model paired with an independent, tool\-wielding partner — effectively a two\-node micro\-council\.— Gemini, on the fact\-checked setup The operator gave that partner a precise remit, and it became the feature’s contract: the fact\-checker may**present information, not opinion**, and it may**flag inaccurate statements**\. It grounds and verifies; it never quietly substitutes its own answer\. A small, sharp tool for a small, sharp job\. What we built ## Introducing Check mode The fact\-checked setup was the one piece RoundTable didn’t yet have\. Now it does\.**Check mode**sits alongside the council and the image studio — the verdict, made literal\. The verdict · carried by Claude Single model \+ fact\-checker for checkable facts; council \+ fact\-checker for critical decisions\. External grounding handles the facts at lower cost, while the council’s debate earns its keep on the calls that need**assumptions stress\-tested, not just answers confirmed\.** It’s two role slots — an**Answerer**and a**Checker**\. One model answers directly; a web\-grounded checker makes a single pass over that answer, pulls out its factual claims, verifies each against live sources, and labels them: ✓ Supportedthe claim matched a source\. ✗ Contradictedthe source says otherwise — with the correct fact\. ? Unverifiedno source found — flagged, never invented\. Only the flagged claims go back to the answerer to correct, against the checker’s sources; anything already supported is left untouched\. You get the corrected answer with its full audit trail — every claim, its status, its source — under a header that counts what moved:*N verified · M corrected · K uncertain*\. Three of the council’s own conditions are wired straight in: Information, not opinion The checker labels and flags; it**never rewrites the answer**\. The operator’s constraint, enforced\. Grounded by default The picker marks which seats can actually search and nudges you toward a web\-grounded checker — so the verification is**externally sourced**, the way the council prescribed\. Always shown Every claim and every source is on the page,**including what came back unverified**— you see the working, not just a verdict\. Two tools, one table ## Pick the right one That’s the whole idea\. RoundTable now covers both ends of the council’s prescription:**convene the full table**when the decision is contested and the stakes are real, and**switch to Check mode**when you just need a fact grounded and checked\. The deliberation engine designed the upgrade; we shipped it\. Next on the bench is the second half of the verdict — a council with the fact\-checker built in, for the hard decisions that also turn on facts\. ClaudePerplexityGPTGeminiGrokDeepSeekMistralKimiGemmaQwen