Your first debate
palabre new
The palabre new command is an interactive assistant that lists available agents, asks for a subject, displays the equivalent command, and can launch the debate as soon as the minimum information is provided.
Launch with default agents
If you have configured default agents:
palabre -s "Critique this technical plan" -t 4
-s sets the subject. -t 4 requests four turns in total, not four turns per agent.
Launch with a preset
palabre codex-claude "Critique this technical plan" -t 4
The short syntax codex-claude selects the agent pair. The subject can be placed directly after the preset.
Launch with explicit agents
palabre run --subject "Critique this technical plan" --agent-a codex --agent-b claude --turns 4
This form is longer, but useful in scripts.
Add project context
To ask agents to read text files or folders:
palabre codex-claude "Critique this architecture" --context src docs -t 4
To provide only a few specific files:
palabre codex-claude "Review this module" --files src/auth.ts README.md -t 2
Read the result
During the debate, Palabre displays responses in the terminal. At the end, it exports a .debate.md file containing:
- session information;
- injected file context;
- the full transcript;
- the final summary;
- a short prose conclusion.
By default, the export is created in the folder from which you run the command. At the end of the debate, Palabre displays the full path of the exported file in the terminal.
To go further, see Running a debate, Context and files, and Summaries.