swarm-synthesislisted

# Swarm Synthesis > The swarm's value is in the dissent. Synthesis that hides disagreement to "give a clear answer" loses what the multi-perspective brainstorm bought you. This skill turns a pile of persona contributions into an actionable artifact. The artifact preserves dissent explicitly, surfaces consensus where it exists, names the open questions, and proposes a synthesized next move — without flattening the perspectives. ## Core principle **Synthesis is curation, not consensus.** The synthesizer's job is to make the swarm's structure visible to the user — not to decide who's right. Disagreement is data; preserve it. Secondary principle: **end with a recommended next move.** A synthesis that ends in "well, perspectives differ" puts the burden on the user. A synthesis that ends with "given the disagreement, the next move is to gather X evidence" is actionable. ## The synthesis artifact Standard format: ```markdown ## Brainstorm: [topic] [1-2 sentence framing — what was being brainstormed] ### Personas in the swarm [List of 4-8 personas spawned + 1-line rationale per inclusion] ### Consensus - [Point all personas (or near-all) agreed on, with attribution to who raised it first] - [Another consensus point] [3-5 items, ordered by importance] ### Dissent - **[Topic of disagreement]**: PM said [position]; Skeptic said [opposing position]; the underlying disagreement is [the real question, not the surface position] - **[Topic of disagreement]**: ... [2-4 items, each