summary-general

name	summary-general
description	Summarizer for news articles, blog posts, videos, and podcasts. Structured summaries with citations, thesis, themes, and critical analysis. Not for academic papers; use summary-academic.
triggers	summarize this, summarize this article, general summary, /general-summary, quick summary, brief summary, /general-summary quick

General Content Summary

Use this skill for non-academic content: news articles, blog posts, opinion pieces, videos, podcasts, interviews, reports, and general web content.

For academic papers, research articles, peer-reviewed publications, preprints, or dissertations, use the summary-academic skill instead.

Input Handling

• PDF attachments: First check for an existing <basename>_text.md extract in the PDF's folder; if it exists, read the extract instead of the PDF (preferred at any size). Otherwise check the page count (PyPDF2 or pdfinfo):
  • 4 pages or fewer: read the PDF directly in the main thread before summarizing.
  • More than 4 pages: do not read it in the main thread. Split it into 4-page chunks with the split-pdf skill and read the chunks in a subagent that writes notes.md, then read notes.md as text and summarize from it. This keeps the full document out of the main context window.
• TXT attachments: Read the full document before summarizing.
• Web links: Fetch and extract the content.
• Video/podcast links: Extract the transcript or available description.
• Pasted text: Process directly.

Style Requirements

• Write in an expository style: explain and inform directly without referencing the source material.
• Never use phrases like "the author," "the article," "the video," or "the piece argues."
• Present information as factual statements.
• No section headings except "Issues:" (and only if issues exist).
• Remove all citation markers from your response except the Chicago citation.
• Take an ideologically neutral position.
• Insert two blank lines between each section.
• Define acronyms on first use as Term (ACRONYM); bare ACRONYM thereafter. First use is the first time the acronym appears anywhere in the summary. Universally recognized acronyms (US, EU, AI, ML, LLM, CEO, GDP, ROI, R&D, and similar) stay bare. Domain-specialized acronyms are always expanded on first use.

Length Guidance

Section	Target Length
Themes	5-12 bullets
Issues	1-5 bullets (only if found)
Summary paragraph	75-200 words (scale with complexity)

Output Format

Structure your response exactly as follows (no headings except Issues):

1. Citation (no heading)

Provide a citation in Chicago Author-Date style:

Standard format: Author's Last Name, First Name. Year. *Title of the Article*. Name of the Publication. Date. URL.

For 3 or more authors: First Author's Last Name, First Name, et al. Year. *Title*. Publication. Date. URL.

For videos/podcasts: Creator/Host Last Name, First Name. Year. *Title of Episode/Video*. Platform/Show Name. Date. URL.

For content without a clear author: Publication Name. Year. *Title*. Date. URL.

"Date" is the full publication date after the publication name (for example, "March 3, 2026" for a specific day, "March 2026" for month-level).

2. Thesis (no heading)

Write one sentence that accurately describes the thesis or main argument.

Special cases:

• News reports: State the central event or development being reported.
• Interviews: State the main topic or thesis of the interviewee.
• Opinion pieces: State the central argument.
• Explainers: State the main concept being explained.

3. Themes (no heading)

Create a comprehensive bullet-point summary (5-12 bullets):

• Use hyphen and space (- ) for each bullet.
• Include main themes, ideas, and arguments.
• Include specific numerical data: statistics, percentages, ratios, comparative figures.
• Cite concrete examples and measurements.
• Present in logical flow: broad themes to specific supporting evidence.
• Rely exclusively on the provided content.

4. Issues:

Only include this section if issues are found. Otherwise, omit entirely (no heading).

Conduct a thorough analysis to identify:

• Factual errors: State the error and correct information, relying on widely accepted, verifiable facts.
• Logical fallacies: Identify the type, analyze it, and quote relevant text.
• Strong counterarguments: Detail the alternative viewpoint and quote relevant text.

Present as a bulleted list under the "Issues:" heading. Each issue is a separate bullet.

5. Summary (no heading)

Write a concluding paragraph (75-200 words):

• Capture main points and themes.
• Use neutral tone with clear, concise language.
• Simple, straightforward sentence structure.
• No flowery language or empty phrases.
• Scale length with content complexity.

Output

Save the summary as a markdown file:

• Filename: <project_name>_summary.md
• Location: The project folder (the output directory), never in a subfolder like TeX/ or _build/.
• When invoked by a parent workflow (for example, a slides pipeline): follow the parent workflow's placement rules instead.

<project_name> resolves in this order: a name the user specified, otherwise the single source filename without its extension, otherwise the project folder name.

Final Check

Before submitting, verify:

• Expository style (no source references like "the author says").
• No section headings except "Issues:" (and only if issues exist).
• All citation markers removed except the Chicago citation.
• Proper bullet formatting with hyphens.
• Two blank lines between sections.
• Numerical data and statistics included where available.
• Output file placed in the project folder with correct <project_name>_summary.md naming.

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Quick General Summary Variant

Invoke with: "quick summary", "brief summary", or /general-summary quick

When a quick summary is requested, provide only:

1. Citation (Chicago Author-Date, same format as above).
2. Thesis (one sentence).
3. Themes (4-6 bullets maximum, with key statistics).
4. Summary (50-100 words).

Skip the Issues section entirely for quick summaries.