Meeting summarizer

Meeting Summarizer

Overview

This skill converts messy meeting input (chat transcripts, dictated notes, bullet dumps, recording transcripts) into a structured, decision-oriented summary that a busy reader can absorb in under a minute. The output prioritizes the two things people actually need after a meeting: what was decided and who owes what by when.

Keywords: meeting minutes, summary, recap, action items, decisions, owners, due dates, TLDR, standup, retro, 1:1, transcript, notes.

The non-negotiable rule: every action item must have an owner. If the source does not name one, the action item is flagged as OWNER: UNASSIGNED rather than silently dropped or guessed.

When To Use

Use this skill whenever the user wants raw meeting content distilled. Triggers include pasting a transcript, asking for "minutes", "a recap", "key takeaways", "next steps", or "the TLDR". Do not use it for live note-taking guidance or scheduling — only for processing content that already exists.

Process

Follow these steps in order.

1. Detect input type & length. Identify whether the input is a verbatim transcript (timestamps, speaker labels), shorthand notes, or a mixed dump. Note the approximate length so you can size the summary.

2. Identify metadata. Pull (or infer where stated) the meeting title/topic, date, and attendees. Never invent a date — if absent, omit it or write Date: not stated.

3. Extract the four content streams by scanning the whole input once for each:

   • Decisions — anything settled, approved, chosen, or rejected. Look for trigger words: "we'll go with", "agreed", "approved", "decided", "let's do", "no to", "final".
   • Action items — future work someone committed to. Look for: "I'll", "can you", "take", "follow up", "by Friday", "next step", assigned verbs.
   • Discussion / context — the reasoning, options weighed, and notable points that aren't decisions or actions.
   • Open questions / risks — unresolved items, blockers, parking-lot topics.

4. Resolve owners and dates for each action item. Map pronouns to names using the transcript ("I'll handle it" said by Maria → owner: Maria). Convert relative dates ("by next Tuesday") to absolute dates only if a meeting date is known; otherwise keep the relative phrasing. Mark missing owners UNASSIGNED.

5. Deduplicate and compress. Merge restated points. Cut filler, small talk, and off-topic tangents. Each bullet should carry one idea, written as a terse, complete statement.

6. Assemble the summary using the structure in templates/summary.md. Lead with a 1–3 sentence TLDR, then Decisions, then Action Items (as a table), then Discussion, then Open Questions. Omit any empty section except Action Items (which always renders, even if to state "None captured").

7. Quality-check against references/checklist.md before delivering. Most importantly verify the no-orphan-actions rule and that no decision was downgraded to a discussion bullet.

Output Structure

# <Meeting Topic> — Summary
Date: ... | Attendees: ...

## TLDR
1–3 sentences.

## Decisions
- ...

## Action Items
| # | Action | Owner | Due |

## Discussion Highlights
- ...

## Open Questions / Risks
- ...

See templates/summary.md for the full fill-in template and examples/standup-recap.md for a complete worked example.

Decision Framework: classifying a line

Use this quick test on each notable line:

• Is it a settled choice or approval? → Decision.
• Does it commit a specific person to future work? → Action Item.
• Is it unresolved, a blocker, or a "we should look into…"? → Open Question / Risk.
• Is it reasoning, an option considered, or notable context? → Discussion Highlight.
• Is it filler, greeting, or off-topic? → Drop.

When something is both a decision and spawns work (e.g., "We'll launch Tuesday — Sam, prep the release notes"), record the decision in Decisions AND the task in Action Items.

Adapting Length & Tone

• Short input (<1 page): keep the whole summary to ~10 bullets total.
• Long transcript (>30 min): group Discussion Highlights under sub-topics; keep TLDR to 3 sentences max.
• Standup: collapse to per-person blockers + the day's commitments.
• Client/external call: neutral, professional tone; spell out acronyms once; avoid internal jargon.
• Retro: organize Discussion under Went Well / Didn't / Try.

For tone, owner-resolution edge cases, and a helper script, see the references below.

Helper Script

scripts/extract_actions.py is a zero-dependency Python tool that scans a notes/transcript file for likely action-item and decision lines using cue-word heuristics, and prints them grouped — a fast first pass before you write the polished summary. Run:

python3 scripts/extract_actions.py meeting.txt
python3 scripts/extract_actions.py meeting.txt --json

It is a draft aid, not a replacement for reading the full input.

Best Practices

• Lead with the TLDR; many readers stop there.
• Write action items as imperatives starting with a verb ("Send the revised deck", not "deck needs sending").
• Always pair owner + due date; if either is missing, mark it explicitly.
• Preserve exact figures, dates, names, and dollar amounts verbatim — never round or paraphrase numbers.
• Use the attendees list to disambiguate first-name-only references.
• Keep the reader's perspective: what do they need to do or know.

Common Pitfalls

• Orphan actions: dropping a task because no owner was named. Flag UNASSIGNED instead.
• Hallucinated owners/dates: never assign a person or deadline the source didn't state.
• Burying decisions in prose: decisions belong in their own section, not mixed into discussion.
• Over-summarizing: losing a key number, name, or conditional ("only if budget approved").
• Copying filler: greetings, "can you hear me?", scheduling chatter — drop it.
• Inventing a date: if the meeting date isn't in the source, don't fabricate one or convert relative dates against today.

See references/checklist.md for the full pre-delivery QA list and references/owner-resolution.md for handling tricky attribution cases.