evening-recap

name	Evening Recap
description	End-of-day operational summary — what Aeon shipped, what failed, what needs follow-up
var
tags	["meta"]

${var} — Optional date override (YYYY-MM-DD). If empty, recaps today (UTC).

Read memory/MEMORY.md for context and memory/issues/INDEX.md for open issues.

Goal

The recap is not a log dump — the operator can read the log themselves. Its job is to deliver a verdict on the shape of the day and surface the calls that need a human. Lead with a one-sentence TL;DR; cap headlines; demand a URL on every shipped item; and never print empty sections.

Steps

1. Determine the date.

   TODAY=${var:-$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)}
   

2. Read today's activity log. Open memory/logs/${TODAY}.md.

   • Treat both ## and ### as skill-entry headers (existing logs use both styles — ### autoresearch, ## Changelog Skill). Capture each heading text as the skill name and the body until the next heading.
   • If the file is missing or whitespace-only, mark log=missing and continue to step 3 — silent failures may still need reporting before exiting.

3. Cross-check memory/cron-state.json for silent failures. Load it as JSON. For each skill present:

   • consecutive_failures ≥ 1 and last_status != "success" → silent failure (force into Blockers regardless of log content).
   • last_success date == TODAY but no log entry for that skill → "ran without logging" (low-severity Blocker).
   • If the file is missing or unparseable, record cron-state=unavailable and skip the cross-check (do not abort).

4. Deduplicate repeat runs. If the same skill appears N>1 times in the log, fold into one entry labeled skill ×N. Keep the most informative run's headline (the one with a PR/URL or the longest body); collapse the rest to +K more.

5. Extract every artifact link. For each entry, capture every URL or file path in the body (PR link, run URL, articles/... path, apps/dashboard/outputs/... path, ISS-NNN reference). An entry with no concrete artifact is "talk, not ship" — demote it to the Notable tier.

6. Score and tier each entry on leverage. What matters for tomorrow's decisions:

   • Headlines (top tier, cap 5): new PR opened, change merged, new article shipped, issue resolved or newly filed, new failure pattern.
   • Notable (mid tier, cap 5): routine successful runs, repeat outputs, expected cron firings, talk-not-ship entries.
   • Skip: pure noise (heartbeat OK with nothing flagged, dedup-only runs, "no new items" reports). Collapse to a count for the footer.

7. Identify decisions for tomorrow. Re-scan the day for items that need a human call:

   • Failing skills past their retry budget (cron-state consecutive_failures ≥ 2).
   • PRs awaiting merge for >24h (use gh pr list --state open --json number,title,url,createdAt if gh is available; skip if not).
   • Open issues from memory/issues/INDEX.md mentioned in today's log without resolution.
   • Conflicting outputs across skills. List as concrete asks naming the target ("merge PR #N", "decide whether ISS-007 is wontfix"). If none, omit the section.

8. Write the TL;DR last. After steps 2–7, write one sentence that takes a stance on the shape of the day. Examples:

   • "heavy ship day — 5 evolution PRs filed and 0 failures"
   • "quiet — only crons fired, nothing shipped"
   • "two regressions opened, one resolved; net negative"
   • "first failure of fetch-tweets in a week — investigate before tomorrow's run" No hedging, no "today saw...", no "various activity occurred".

9. Compose and send the recap via ./notify.

   *Evening Recap — ${TODAY}*
   _TL;DR: <one-sentence verdict from step 8>_
   
   *Headlines:*
   - [skill] — [one-line outcome] · <URL>
   - ...
   
   *Notable:*  (omit section if empty)
   - [skill ×N] — [one-line]
   - ...
   
   *Decisions for tomorrow:*  (omit if empty)
   - [specific ask, named target]
   
   *Blockers:*  (omit if empty)
   - [skill] — [error in ≤8 words] · <run URL if available>
   
   _+M routine runs collapsed · sources: log=[ok|missing|empty] cron-state=[ok|unavailable]_
   

   Hard rules:

   • ≤2000 chars total.
   • Every Headline bullet must include a URL. No URL → demote to Notable.
   • TL;DR is mandatory and must take a stance.
   • Never print "none" or "clean" — omit the section instead.
   • Always include the source-health footer line so future-you can debug "why was this recap empty".
   • Lead with shipped artifacts, not skills attempted.
   • Empty-day exit: if log=missing AND no silent failures AND no decisions, send a single line *Evening Recap — ${TODAY}*: quiet day, no activity recorded · sources: log=missing cron-state=ok and stop.

10. Log to memory. Append to memory/logs/${TODAY}.md (create the file if it didn't exist):

    ## Evening Recap
    - Sent for ${TODAY}: H headlines, N notable, B blockers, D decisions queued, M collapsed
    - TL;DR: <copy the one-sentence verdict>
    - Sources: log=X cron-state=Y
    

Sandbox note

All inputs are local file reads (logs, issues index, cron-state). gh pr list runs through the GitHub CLI and is sandbox-friendly — if it fails, treat the source as unavailable and skip the PR-staleness check. ./notify writes to .pending-notify/ when outbound HTTP is blocked, so delivery is reliable.