| name | foundation-meeting-synthesize |
| description | Cross-meeting archaeology skill. Consumes multiple meeting recaps (or raw notes) over a period and surfaces patterns invisible in any single meeting. Shows how decisions evolved, who has been saying what, where threads are stalling, and where contradictions have emerged. Produces a plain-text timeline, themes with confidence markers, stakeholder position tracking, consolidated decision list, contradiction flags, open items, narrative summary, and prioritized follow-ups. |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
| metadata | {"classification":"foundation","version":"1.2.0","updated":"2026-07-05T00:00:00.000Z","category":"meeting","frameworks":["meeting-skills-family"],"author":"product-on-purpose"} |
Meeting Synthesize
Meeting synthesis is the archaeology skill for multi-meeting initiatives. It consumes a set of meeting recaps (and optionally raw notes) over a period, and surfaces patterns that no single meeting reveals: how decisions evolved, how stakeholder positions shifted, where threads are stalling, where contradictions have emerged.
Distinct from /discover-interview-synthesis: that skill works on user-research conversations with research-specific frameworks (jobs-to-be-done, buying insights). This skill works on internal org meetings with org-specific patterns (stakeholder alignment, decision evolution, project history).
This skill belongs to the Meeting Skills Family. It conforms to the Meeting Skills Family Contract.
When to Use
- Board prep or exec-brief preparation across a meeting sequence
- Onboarding a new team member into the history of an initiative
- Project retrospective input (the story of how we got here)
- Investigating why a multi-meeting initiative has stalled
- Quarterly review of a topic that has crossed many meetings
- Surfacing contradictions that no single-meeting reviewer caught
When NOT to Use
- Single-meeting summary. Use
foundation-meeting-recap instead.
- Communicating outcomes outward. Use
foundation-stakeholder-update.
- User research conversation synthesis. Use
discover-interview-synthesis.
Zero-friction execution
Per the family contract, this skill never blocks on interrogation. Default flow:
- Load all provided source files (recaps preferred, raw notes accepted with lower input-quality flag)
- Apply any filters (time range, topic, stakeholder)
- Run inference on themes, stakeholder evolution, contradictions
- Present a brief inference summary (meeting count after filter, time range detected, per-source input quality, scope filter applied)
- Accept
go or corrections
- Produce the synthesis
If invoked with --go, skip the inference summary. Format hints (board-prep, onboarding, retro-input, exec-brief) control output presentation without changing the underlying process.
Instructions
When asked to create a meeting synthesis, follow these steps:
-
Load sources
Read all provided recap filenames or note files. Parse frontmatter to extract meeting metadata. Note per-source input quality (recap frontmatter's input_quality if available; otherwise assess from content).
Metadata source tracking (v1.1.0): for each recap, also note the meeting_type_source field (explicit | inferred | null). When synthesizing across mixed sources, the synthesis must document the mix explicitly in the Scope section: "meeting_type values: N explicit, M inferred, K null." This prevents non-reproducible results when filtering by meeting_type across a mix of confidence levels. If filtering by meeting_type, state whether the filter includes inferred values and how null values are handled.
-
Apply filters
If time range, topic, or stakeholder filter provided, narrow the source set before proceeding. Record the filter applied in frontmatter scope_filter.
-
Present go-mode inference summary
Meeting count after filter, time range detected from source metadata, per-source input quality levels, scope filter description.
-
Build the plain-text timeline
Chronological order by meeting_date. Each entry shows date, meeting name, key decision or shift, and confidence or contradiction flag if applicable. Render as markdown (no binary images. must render everywhere).
-
Extract themes
Cluster recurring topics across sources. For each theme, record description, sources where it appeared, and confidence marker tied to frequency ("appears in 5/5 meetings" → high; "appears in 2/5 meetings" → medium; "mentioned in 1 meeting" → low).
-
Track stakeholder positions
For each named stakeholder across sources, record initial position → current position, alignment state (aligned / divergent / shifting), and key statements with dates. Flag confidence on each position based on whether it was direct-quoted or paraphrased.
-
Consolidate decisions
Cross-meeting, sorted chronologically. Table format: Date | Decision | Context | Meeting | Confidence.
-
Separate decision evolution from unresolved contradictions (v1.1.0)
Two distinct outputs, not one combined "contradictions" section:
- Decision evolution (resolved): earlier decision → later decision on the same topic, where the later one supersedes. This is historical context, not a red flag. No
⚠ emphasis.
- : decisions or positions currently in conflict that need reconciliation. Use visual emphasis. For each:
Project Memory Contract
Active only when .claude/pm-skills.local.md exists. With no file, ignore this section entirely
and behave exactly as described above.
- Reads:
active_initiative and prior interpretation artifacts on the same topic, so the synthesis shows movement rather than restating what is already recorded.
- Writes: the synthesis as an
interpretation artifact.
- Posture: propose the entry and wait for confirmation before writing, unless
memory_auto_append: true is set, in which case append and echo what was written.
- Write discipline: re-read the file immediately before writing, never from the copy that
produced the proposal. If it changed in between, merge your entry into the current state and
re-propose rather than overwriting; add only your own entry and leave every other field and
section byte-identical. Nothing enforces this at runtime and the file is gitignored, so a
careless whole-file write loses another session's work with no way to recover it.
This complements the family's filename-based chaining rather than replacing it: filenames still locate the sibling artifacts of one meeting, while project memory carries the durable product context across meetings.
Quality Checklist
See also
