consult

Consulting a second model

This add-on may have consultants configured: other coding CLIs signed in with the user's own subscriptions. They are advisors only. You remain the agent doing the work, and you own the final answer.

Checking what is available

consult --list

Consultants are optional and are set up by the user in the add-on's Settings panel. If none is signed in, say so plainly and carry on yourself rather than treating it as a blocker.

Asking

For a real second opinion, ask both consultants at once:

consult --agents kimi,claude "Question here, with enough context."

They run in parallel and are independent opinions, not a primary and a backup. Answers stream back fastest first, each in a labelled block. Kimi usually lands first; if her answer already settles the question, act on it and move on - you need not wait for Claude. If it does not, wait for Claude's slower, deeper answer, which the same command prints when it arrives.

Ask a single consultant only when you specifically want just one:

consult --agent kimi "Question here."
consult "Question here."   # the default consultant from Settings

The question is the whole prompt, so write it as you would to a competent colleague who has not seen the conversation: state the goal, what you already tried, and what specifically you want judged. Name the files worth reading; the consultant opens its own filtered snapshot copies.

A consult that reads files at high effort can take several minutes - that is the intelligence you asked for working, not a hang. Each consultant answers under its own timeout (default 600s); one that overruns is reported as "no answer" for that consultant while the others still stand. Raise the limit with --timeout SECONDS, up to 1800. Do not launch the same consultant twice over one question; asking different consultants together is what --agents is for.

What the consultant can see

It runs as a dedicated unprivileged user whose working directory is a bounded, root-owned text snapshot of /config - never the live /config or /data trees - with .storage, secrets.yaml, credential/key files, databases, logs, backups, symlinks, binary files, and oversized files left out. Where the kernel provides Landlock it is added on top to block reads outside the snapshot by absolute path. Common inline token and secret assignments are redacted in the snapshot. It can write only to its disposable credential home, which is deleted after the answer.