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radiator-engineering/ego

v0.1.0Apache-2.0

Elephant-Goldfish-Owl: adds a blind judge, tension detection and a Decisions record to the Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM).

GitHub

EGO: Elephant, Goldfish, Owl

EGO adds a third role to Google's Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM). In EGM the Elephant drafts a design document and Goldfish reviewers, who remember nothing, attack it. The Elephant then decides which attacks stand, so it grades its own work.

EGO adds the Owl, a judge that remembers only the argument. It rules on disputes blind: it never learns which side wrote the document. Questions of value go to the person.

What it changes

EGMEGO
The Elephant labels each finding CONTEST or PROPOSE FIX and that label stands.The Elephant answers FIX, CONTEST or REFRAME. The Goldfish replies once. The Owl rules on each dispute.
Findings are deduplicated and sorted by severity.ego-tensions finds pairs of findings that ask for opposite changes, and sends them to the person.
Two outcomes.Four verdicts: SUSTAIN, OVERRULE, REFRAME, ESCALATE.
At the re-audit cap, leftovers become "accepted trade-offs".Every leftover Blocker or Major ends as a fix, a recorded ruling, or a person's answer.
Settled arguments return each round.Rulings go into the document's ## Decisions section, which later Goldfish read.

The Owl follows five rules: rule only after both sides speak, positions are blind and in random order, a position wins only on quoted evidence, value calls escalate, and the Owl never writes the fix.

Install

EGO runs in the same harnesses as EGM: Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Antigravity and ChatGPT. Install EGM first in the same harness. Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add google/elephant-goldfish-model
claude plugin install egm@egm
claude plugin marketplace add radiator-engineering/ego
claude plugin install ego@ego

Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add google/elephant-goldfish-model && codex plugin add egm@egm
codex plugin marketplace add radiator-engineering/ego && codex plugin add ego@ego

The others are in docs/harnesses.md.

Use

  • /ego:ego-review <doc> (Claude; other harnesses pick the ego-review skill): EGM's staged review with the EGO changes. It reads EGM's own review skill from the installed EGM, so EGM updates carry over.
  • /ego:ego-resolve: resolve any Goldfish report (for example one written by /egm:egm-review) with the Owl.
  • Reviewing a document someone else owns: pass Mode: suggest and Owner: <name> to either skill. EGO leaves the document untouched. It writes suggested_edits.md and proposed_decisions.md for the owner and addresses the value calls to them.

Drafting and brainstorming stay in EGM: /egm:egm-brainstorm, /egm:egm-draft.

Layout

PathWhat it is
agents/owl.mdThe Owl (ego-owl).
agents/tensions.mdThe tension finder (ego-tensions).
.claude-plugin/agents/Claude adapters: read-only tools, no CLAUDE.md.
skills/ego-resolve/Resolution with the Owl; replaces egm-resolve.
skills/ego-review/EGM's review plus four overrides.
scripts/egm-root.shFinds the installed EGM.
scripts/blind-check.pyStrips authorship leaks from Owl positions.
docs/harnesses.mdInstall, roots and agent names per harness.
docs/measures.mdHow to tell whether the Owl helps.

Limits

  • ego-review follows EGM's egm_review/SKILL.md by reference. If EGM renames that file or the egm-resolve hand-off, the overrides need an update.
  • Not yet built: an antithesis lens for brainstorming, and an Owl ruling when two instances of the same reviewer disagree.
  • Not yet measured. See docs/measures.md.

License

Apache-2.0. EGO contains no EGM source; it calls the installed EGM plugin.