Tool: consensus_answer

Purpose

Aggregate branch outcomes and produce final answer with route confidence and route decision.

Current implementation mode: heuristic. The server ranks existing frontier nodes and applies verification policy gates; it does not perform model-backed semantic synthesis or calibrated confidence.

Input

  • deliberation_id
  • method: self_consistency | weighted_vote | verifier_weighted
  • policy_override (optional):
    • min_independent_groups: integer (1-8)
    • allow_tier3_for_independence: boolean
    • require_tier1_unambiguous_for_critical: boolean
    • fail_closed_on_critical_unresolved: boolean

Successful output

  • final_answer
  • confidence
  • semantic_confidence: null unless a future model-backed provider supplies it
  • confidence_basis
  • route_decision
  • disagreement_report
  • analysis: provenance and limitations for the consensus run

When governance blocks convergence, the MCP tool returns an application error with code: "consensus_blocked", the safe route, blocker summary, and a recommended next action. That blocker response deliberately omits final_answer; clients must not present an unapproved candidate answer as a decision.

Behavior

  • Fails closed on unresolved critical verification issues or assumptions.
  • Requires at least one agent-authored frontier candidate and excludes heuristic scaffold/root nodes from an allowed final answer.
  • Authorship requires a Thought node with server-recorded agent_authored provenance; a caller-added tag on an Action or other heuristic node cannot satisfy the gate. Consensus provenance lists only the candidates actually used in the answer.
  • Blocks when a pipeline stage failed its gate or the latest checkpoint still reports blocking gaps.
  • Requires a route decision in governed mode.
  • A policy_override applies only to that call; it does not silently rewrite the session policy.
  • confidence is a route heuristic derived from verification status, not a model self-rating or historical calibration score.

Errors

  • No eligible branches
  • Policy, authorship, pipeline, or checkpoint gate failure