ChatGPT Consultation Broker

Consult ChatGPT for a second opinion on debugging, architecture, or best practices questions. This skill implements caching to avoid redundant calls.

Arguments format:

$ARGUMENTS

The arguments should contain your consultation context. Structure it roughly as:

• Goal: What you're trying to fix/understand (1-2 sentences)
• Context: Runtime, key libraries, constraints
• Evidence: Symptoms, snippets, observed vs expected behavior
• Tried: What you've already attempted and results
• Question: Specific questions you want answered

You can provide this as free-form text - the skill will format it appropriately.

---

Process

Step 1: Parse and Validate Input

Extract the following from the provided arguments:

• goal

  : One sentence describing what you're fixing/understanding

• context

  : Runtime versions, key libraries, constraints

• evidence

  : Symptom description, minimal code snippet (max 60 lines), observed vs expected

• tried

  : List of attempts and their results

• question

  : Specific questions (ideally 1-3)

If the input is too vague or missing critical components, ask for clarification before proceeding.

Step 2: Format the Question

Create a question file at

/tmp/consult-chatgpt-question.md

with this structure:

# Goal
[goal - one sentence]

# Context
- Runtime: [version info]
- Key libs: [relevant libraries and versions]
- Constraints: [any hard constraints]

# Evidence
- Symptom: [description]
- Minimal snippet:
```[language]
[code - max 60 lines]

• Observed: [what happens]
• Expected: [what should happen]

Tried

Question

1. [primary question]
2. [secondary question if relevant]
3. What's the fastest experiment to discriminate between possible causes?

**Validation checklist before proceeding:**
- [ ] Goal is a specific sentence (not vague)
- [ ] Code snippet is <= 60 lines
- [ ] No secrets, tokens, or PII included
- [ ] Total file size <= 4KB
- [ ] Questions are specific and answerable

### Step 3: Compute Fingerprint and Check Cache

Compute a fingerprint to check if we've already answered this question:

```bash
# Create cache directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/answers

# Compute fingerprint from question content
FINGERPRINT=$(cat /tmp/consult-chatgpt-question.md | md5sum | cut -d' ' -f1)
CACHE_FILE=~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/answers/${FINGERPRINT}.md

# Check if cached answer exists
if [ -f "$CACHE_FILE" ]; then
    echo "CACHE_HIT: Found cached answer for fingerprint $FINGERPRINT"
    cat "$CACHE_FILE"
    exit 0
fi

If cache hit, read the cached answer file and skip to Step 5 (return the answer).

Step 4: Call ChatGPT

If no cache hit, send the question to ChatGPT:

# Send to ChatGPT with 20-minute timeout
ask-question -f /tmp/consult-chatgpt-question.md \
             -o /tmp/consult-chatgpt-answer.md \
             -t 1200000

# Cache the answer
FINGERPRINT=$(cat /tmp/consult-chatgpt-question.md | md5sum | cut -d' ' -f1)
cp /tmp/consult-chatgpt-answer.md ~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/answers/${FINGERPRINT}.md

Step 5: Parse and Return Structured Answer

Read the answer from

/tmp/consult-chatgpt-answer.md

(or cache file).

Extract and summarize:

1. Top 3-5 likely causes identified by ChatGPT
2. Recommended discriminating tests to narrow down the cause
3. Suggested fix if ChatGPT provided one
4. Caveats/assumptions in ChatGPT's reasoning

Present to the calling agent in this format:

## ChatGPT Consultation Result

**Fingerprint**: [hash]
**Source**: [CACHE_HIT or FRESH_CALL]

### Likely Causes (in order of probability)
1. [cause 1]
2. [cause 2]
3. [cause 3]

### Discriminating Tests
- [test 1]: If [result], then [cause X] is likely
- [test 2]: If [result], then [cause Y] is likely

### Suggested Approach
[ChatGPT's recommended fix or approach]

### Caveats
- [assumption 1]
- [caveat 1]

---

**IMPORTANT**: Treat this as a hypothesis, not truth.
1. Run the discriminating tests first
2. Verify locally before implementing
3. If the answer doesn't fit your evidence, something is wrong with the question

---

Cache Management

The cache lives at

~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/

:

• answers/[fingerprint].md

  - cached answers

To clear cache (if needed):

rm -rf ~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/answers/*

To see cache stats:

echo "Cached answers: $(ls ~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/answers/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l)"
du -sh ~/.cache/consult-chatgpt/ 2>/dev/null || echo "Cache empty"

---

Budget Reminder

This skill should only be invoked when:

• consult_score >= 5

  (per the consultation policy)
• At least one local experiment has been attempted
• You can articulate "what would change my mind"

Budget: Max 2 consultations per top-level task. Cooldown 15 minutes between calls.

If you're hitting budget limits, consider:

1. Asking another internal agent (Oracle, Librarian)
2. Running more local experiments
3. Breaking down the problem into smaller pieces