Project status report

Project Status Report

Generate a structured status report from one or more monday.com boards. monday.com is a customizable AI work platform with dedicated products for work management, CRM, dev, service, and campaigns - boards are the central unit of organization. This skill combines board metadata, item data, aggregated insights, and recent activity into a single actionable summary.

Output Behavior

Present the report in plain language with clean formatting. Don't narrate which API tools were called or show raw JSON - summarize what the data means. Highlight what needs attention (blockers, overdue items, unassigned work) rather than echoing raw numbers. Always include each board's URL so the user can navigate directly.

Use MCP UI widgets for visual sections

This skill is one of the strongest fits for monday's MCP UI widgets. Use them as follows:

• Status distribution: call show-chart (the result is more scannable than a markdown table)
• Project completion: call show-battery to render a progress indicator
• Overdue items: call show-table so the user can sort, filter, and click through
• Workload by person: call show-chart if comparing across owners

For short summary lines (totals, counts), use plain text. Do not duplicate widget content as a markdown table afterwards - pick one or the other.

show-table filter fallback (required)

When you call show-table with a filters array (for example, to scope to overdue items or to exclude Done), always print a short plain-text list of the filtered rows directly below the widget. The Cowork-rendered widget surfaces a filter chip but does NOT auto-apply the filter, so Done items remain visible in the table. The plain-text list is the authoritative view; the widget is the interactive surface.

Format the fallback as a tight bulleted list of at most 10 rows, each showing item name, owner, due date, and status. If more than 10 rows match, print the first 10 and add a "(+N more)" line. Skip the fallback only when no filters array is sent (an unfiltered show-table renders correctly).

Precondition

Before starting, always call get_board_info for every board included in the report. This retrieves column IDs, column types, status label mappings, and group structure - all required to correctly interpret item data.

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the target boards

If the user specifies a board by name or ID, use it directly. Otherwise:

1. Call get_user_context to retrieve the user's boards, workspaces, and recent activity
2. If ambiguous, ask the user which board(s) to report on
3. For multi-board reports, collect all board IDs

Step 2: Fetch board structure

For each board, call get_board_info with the board ID. Extract:

• Column definitions - IDs, types, and allowed values (especially status label mappings)
• Groups - group IDs and names (these represent workflow stages like "To Do", "In Progress", "Done")
• Owners - board owners and subscribers

Identify which columns represent:

• Status - the primary workflow state (usually a status type column)
• Date/Timeline - deadlines or date ranges (columns of type date or timeline)
• Person - assignment (columns of type people)
• Priority - importance level (usually a status or color type column labeled "Priority")

Step 3: Retrieve items

Call get_board_items_page with:

• boardId: the target board
• includeColumns: true
• Use filtering/sorting as needed to focus on active items

Parse each item's column values using the column definitions from Step 2.

Step 4: Identify overdue items

An item is overdue when ALL of these are true:

1. It has a date or timeline column with a value in the past (before today, using the user's timezone context)
2. Its status column is NOT set to a "done" label

Determining "done" labels. Each label in the board's status column has an is_done flag. In practice this flag is often unset on user-created or default boards (observed: false on every label including "Done" on real test boards). Treat is_done: true as the primary signal when set; otherwise fall back to label-name matching against the conventional set: Done, Completed, Closed, Resolved, Verified, Fixed, Won, Approved. If neither signal applies, ask the user which label means "complete" on this board.

Also flag items due within 24 hours as "due soon" to give the user advance warning.

Collect overdue items with: item name, owner, due date, current status, and group name.

Step 5: Identify blockers

An item is blocked when ANY of these are true:

1. Its status is "Stuck", "Blocked", or a similar label (check the board's status labels)
2. It has recent updates/comments flagging a blocker

For items with "Stuck" status, call get_updates on those items to fetch the latest comments explaining why they are stuck.

Fallback when no updates exist. If get_updates returns empty for a stuck item, surface context from the item's text columns instead - in priority order: any column titled Notes, Description, or Steps to Reproduce, then any other text or long_text column with non-empty content. Many teams record blockers in a Notes column rather than as updates. Do not present a blocked item as having "no detail" if a text column has the explanation.

Step 6: Get aggregated insights

Call board_insights to get:

• Status distribution (count of items per status label)
• Group distribution (count of items per group)
• Assignment distribution (items per person)

This provides the high-level numbers without re-processing all items.

Use the board-specific status column ID from Step 2. Pass the actual column ID extracted via get_board_info (e.g. color_mm2xbcrm, status_1, color_mm30e66p), never the generic literal "status". The literal "status" does not exist on most real boards - it surfaces as a 403 INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR from board_insights even though the underlying cause is "column not found." If a 403 fires here, re-read get_board_info, locate the column whose type is status, and retry with that exact ID. The same rule applies to Priority / Severity / Workflow status columns on dev / CRM / service boards.

Step 7: Get recent activity

Call get_board_activity with an explicit time range. The MCP tool's own default is 30 days, but this skill's default is 7 days - so you MUST pass fromDate (and optionally toDate) to enforce the 7-day window unless the user asks for a different period. This surfaces:

• Items created, updated, or moved
• Status changes
• Assignment changes

Step 8: Format the report

Present the report in this structure:

---

Project Status: [Board Name] Report generated: [today's date] | Period: [time range] Board URL: [board URL]

Summary

• Total items: [count]
• Completed: [count] ([percentage]%)
• In progress: [count]
• Overdue: [count]
• Blocked: [count]

Status Distribution -> render via show-chart

Project Completion -> render via show-battery (e.g., 60%)

Overdue Items -> render via show-table with columns: Item, Owner, Due Date, Status, Group

Blockers

• [Item name] (Owner: @name) - [latest comment or reason]
• [Item name] (Owner: @name) - [latest comment or reason]

Recent Activity (Last 7 Days)

• [count] items completed
• [count] items created
• [count] status changes
• Notable: [highlight any significant moves or updates]

---

End with 2-3 logical next steps:

• "Want me to follow up with the owners of overdue items?"
• "Should I draft a status update to share with stakeholders?"
• "Want me to dig into why [specific item] is blocked?"

Multi-Board Reports

When the user asks for a report across multiple boards or a workspace:

1. Call get_user_context to list all boards in scope
2. Run Steps 2-7 for each board
3. Present a combined summary at the top, followed by per-board sections
4. Highlight cross-board patterns (e.g., "3 of 5 boards have overdue items")

Plan-tier note: Multi-board aggregation works best on Standard and above. On Free / Basic, monday's cross-board surfaces are more limited - the report still works but may feel single-board. AI Portfolio Risk insights (the "automatic risk identification" feature in board_insights) are Enterprise-only. If the user is on a lower tier and asks for AI risk analysis specifically, explain what is available on their plan and offer the manual blocker analysis instead.

Output Customization

Adjust the report based on user requests:

• "Just the blockers" - Skip to Step 5, show only blockers section
• "Overdue items only" - Skip to Step 4, show only overdue table (use show-table)
• "Last 30 days" - Adjust the time range in Step 7
• "For my team" - Filter items by person assignment in Step 3

Error Prevention and Remediation

• If get_board_info fails (e.g., board not found, no permission), report which board failed and suggest an alternative: "I cannot access the Q3 Marketing board. Want me to use a board you have access to, or should I ask the owner to share it?"
• If board_insights returns empty, fall back to manual aggregation from get_board_items_page rather than reporting empty distributions. Items with no status set surface as an empty-string label in board_insights; render these as "No status" in the chart, not as a blank segment.
• If the board has no status column, note this and report based on group distribution instead.
• Empty board. If get_board_items_page returns 0 items, do not run Steps 4-7 or render any widgets. Reply: "Test - <board name> has no items yet." Then suggest creating items (links to the task-management skill) or reviewing the board's setup.
• Multi-board partial failure. If one board in a multi-board request is inaccessible (private, deleted, or 403), do not abort the whole report. Run the full flow for accessible boards, then add a brief "Could not access: <board name(s)>" note at the top of the combined summary with a suggested next step ("ask the owner to share", "remove from request", "pick a different board").

Tools Used

• get_user_context - identify boards and workspaces
• get_board_info - board structure, column definitions, status labels
• get_board_items_page - item data with column values
• board_insights - aggregated counts and distributions
• get_board_activity - recent changes and timeline
• get_updates - comments on blocked/flagged items
• show-chart - status / workload distribution widget
• show-battery - completion percentage widget
• show-table - overdue items widget