Debate Orchestrator

Debate Orchestrator

Manages formal debate execution through deterministic state tracking and resumability.

State Machine

Debates cycle through 2 phases per exchange:

After judgment: cycle repeats with current_exchange incremented.

Key Properties:

• No "complete" state - orchestrator decides when to stop based on requested exchange count
• Parallel execution - both sides argue simultaneously each exchange
• Resumable - read state, execute required action, repeat
• Exchange 0 is special (opening) - both sides produce 3 independent arguments
• Exchange 1+ are rebuttal - sides produce single arguments with attacks/​defends

Running Exchanges

1. Read State

Check {debate}/​debate.md frontmatter (JSON format):

{
  "current_exchange": 0,
  "current_phase": "awaiting_arguments"
}

Extract motion from the # Motion section (first markdown heading after frontmatter).

2. Determine Exchange Type

Opening Exchange: current_exchange == 0

• Both debaters produce 3 independent arguments simultaneously
• Judge scores all 6 arguments

Rebuttal Exchange: current_exchange >= 1

• Both debaters produce 1 argument simultaneously
• Judge scores both new arguments

3. Execute Based on Phase + Exchange Type

Opening Exchange (Exchange 0)

When current_exchange == 0 and current_phase == awaiting_arguments:

Load template:

Read templates/​debater-opening.md from this skill's directory.

Spawn both debaters in parallel:

Use a single message with two Task tool invocations to spawn both debaters simultaneously.

For each side (proposition and opposition):

1. Substitute placeholders in template:

   • {motion}: Extracted motion text
   • {side}: Side name (proposition or opposition)

2. Spawn debater:

   Use Task tool with subagent_type: "debater"
   Prompt: [substituted template content]
   

Process outputs:

After both debaters complete:

1. Write proposition output to /​tmp/​prop_arg.json
2. Write opposition output to /​tmp/​opp_arg.json
3. Execute the python package debate_ops: python3 {skill_base_dir}/​debate_ops process-exchange {debate} 0 --prop-file /​tmp/​prop_arg.json --opp-file /​tmp/​opp_arg.json

Check result JSON for errors or warnings. On errors, state remains unchanged - report to user and halt. On warnings, note them and continue.

The script creates 6 argument files: prop_000a.md, prop_000b.md, prop_000c.md, opp_000a.md, opp_000b.md, opp_000c.md

State automatically updates to current_phase: awaiting_judgment.

Judge opening arguments:

When current_exchange == 0 and current_phase == awaiting_judgment:

Load template:

Read templates/​judge.md from this skill's directory.

Substitute placeholders:

• {argument_files}: Space-separated list of all 6 opening arguments:

  @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_000a.md @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_000b.md @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_000c.md @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_000a.md @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_000b.md @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_000c.md
  

• {motion}: Extracted motion text

Spawn judge:

Use Task tool with subagent_type: "judge"
Prompt: [substituted template content]

Process output:

1. Use Write tool to save agent output to /​tmp/​judge.json
2. Execute the python package debate_ops: python3 {skill_base_dir}/​debate_ops process-judge {debate} --json-file /​tmp/​judge.json

Check result JSON for errors or warnings. On errors, state remains unchanged - report to user and halt. On warnings, note them and continue.

State automatically updates to current_phase: awaiting_arguments, current_exchange: 1.

Rebuttal Exchange (Exchange 1+)

When current_exchange >= 1 and current_phase == awaiting_arguments:

Build argument context:

1. List all files in {debate}/​arguments/
2. Separate into proposition and opposition arguments:
   • Proposition: Files matching prop_*.md
   • Opposition: Files matching opp_*.md
3. Filter to arguments from previous exchanges only:
   • Extract exchange number from filename (e.g., prop_003 → exchange 3)
   • Include only arguments where exchange < current_exchange
4. Sort by exchange number (chronological order)

Load template:

Read templates/​debater-rebuttal.md from this skill's directory.

Spawn both debaters in parallel:

Use a single message with two Task tool invocations to spawn both debaters simultaneously.

For proposition debater:

• Substitute placeholders:
  • {motion}: Extracted motion text
  • {side}: proposition
  • {exchange}: Current exchange number
  • {your_arguments}: Newline-separated list: @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_000a.md, @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_000b.md, etc.
  • {opponent_arguments}: Newline-separated list: @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_000a.md, @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_000b.md, etc.

For opposition debater:

• Substitute placeholders:
  • {motion}: Extracted motion text
  • {side}: opposition
  • {exchange}: Current exchange number
  • {your_arguments}: Newline-separated list of opposition arguments
  • {opponent_arguments}: Newline-separated list of proposition arguments

Process outputs:

After both debaters complete:

1. Write proposition output to /​tmp/​prop_arg.json
2. Write opposition output to /​tmp/​opp_arg.json
3. Execute the python package debate_ops: python3 {skill_base_dir}/​debate_ops process-exchange {debate} {current_exchange} --prop-file /​tmp/​prop_arg.json --opp-file /​tmp/​opp_arg.json

Check result JSON for errors or warnings. On errors, state remains unchanged - report to user and halt. On warnings, note them and continue.

State automatically updates to current_phase: awaiting_judgment.

Judge rebuttal arguments:

When current_exchange >= 1 and current_phase == awaiting_judgment:

Load template:

Read templates/​judge.md from this skill's directory.

Substitute placeholders:

• {argument_files}: Space-separated list of both new arguments:

  @{debate}/​arguments/​prop_{current_exchange:03d}.md @{debate}/​arguments/​opp_{current_exchange:03d}.md
  

• {motion}: Extracted motion text

Spawn judge:

Use Task tool with subagent_type: "judge"
Prompt: [substituted template content]

Process output:

1. Use Write tool to save agent output to /​tmp/​judge.json
2. Execute the python package debate_ops: python3 {skill_base_dir}/​debate_ops process-judge {debate} --json-file /​tmp/​judge.json

Check result JSON for errors or warnings. On errors, state remains unchanged - report to user and halt. On warnings, note them and continue.

State automatically updates to current_phase: awaiting_arguments, current_exchange incremented.

4. Decide When to Stop

After each phase, check if you should continue:

• Read the updated state from {debate}/​debate.md
• Compare current exchange number to requested total exchanges
• If sufficient exchanges completed: stop and report
• Otherwise: loop back to step 1

The state itself doesn't track "completion" - you decide when done based on user request.

Error Handling

Processing scripts return:

{
  "success": true/​false,
  "argument_id": "prop_001" | ["prop_000a", "prop_000b", "prop_000c"],
  "errors": ["fatal errors"],
  "warnings": ["non-fatal warnings"]
}

On errors:

• State remains unchanged - can safely retry
• Report error to user
• Ask how to proceed (retry, skip, abort)

On warnings:

• Note them
• Continue execution
• Mention warnings in completion summary

Note: By default the tmp files get deleted by the script. But if you face errors while writing to a tmp file because it already exists, just Read it and try again.

Resumability

Execution can be interrupted at any point and resumed by reading state:

• State indicates exactly what phase is needed next
• Execute that phase
• State updates atomically on success
• On failure, state remains unchanged - retry is safe

Completion Report

When requested exchanges complete, report current state:

✓ Completed {N} exchanges for '{debate_slug}'

**Current Scores** (zero-sum tug-of-war):
- Proposition: {total} ({count} arguments)
- Opposition: {total} ({count} arguments)

**Next steps**:
- Continue debating: `/​debate-run {debate_slug} X` to run X more exchanges
- Generate report: `/​debate-report {debate_slug}` to create comprehensive analysis with visualizations

Extract totals and counts from cumulative_scores in {debate}/​debate.md frontmatter. Total exchanges = current_exchange from debate.md.

Note on zero-sum scoring: Positive total = winning, negative total = losing, zero = even. One side typically has positive total, the other negative (tug-of-war).