today

name	today
description	Build a focused plan for today based on goals, tasks, and recent activity. Reads from the weekly plan if it exists and updates it.

Today

Chief-of-staff morning briefing. Start from what actually happened — Slack, calendar, meeting outcomes — reconcile with the weekly plan, auto-check completed items, and surface the 3 things that matter today. Reduce manual work: if evidence says it's done, check it off.

Instructions

Run all steps in sequence. Be concise. Fit the briefing on one screen.

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Step 1: Gather Context

Run MCP calls in parallel where possible. Use the current date to compute "yesterday" for all queries.

1a. External signals

Slack (via Slack MCP):

• Search yesterday's messages in your priority channels (set these based on your team and projects)
• Search for DMs or mentions from your priority contacts (set these based on your key stakeholders)
• Extract: decisions made, questions awaiting response, FYIs that shift priorities
• If unavailable: "Slack MCP not connected — paste highlights."

Google Calendar (via Google Calendar MCP):

• Pull today's events: titles, attendees, times, descriptions
• Pull yesterday's events for cross-referencing
• If unavailable: "Paste today's calendar."

Zoom (via Zoom MCP):

• Check for recordings/transcripts from yesterday
• Extract action items and decisions
• If unavailable: check Context/Meeting Notes/ for yesterday's notes

1b. Task state

• Read Context/Memory/active-tasks.md for active tasks with priorities
• If a task appears in signals, read the full task file

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Step 2: Reconcile + Auto-complete

2a. Find the weekly scratchpad

Compute the ISO week using Bash. Run date +%G-W%V. Do NOT calculate mentally.

Use the result to form filename: Tasks/Week-[ISO-year-week].md. Glob to confirm it exists. If no match, check ±1 week. Never create a new week file when one exists for the correct week.

If no weekly plan exists: note "No week plan for W[XX] — run /plan-week Monday." and build from task state + signals.

2b. Auto-complete yesterday's items

For each unchecked [ ] item in yesterday's section, check evidence in this order:

1. Calendar — if the item references a meeting and that meeting appears on yesterday's calendar (not cancelled), mark [x] with (calendar: held)
2. Slack — search for keywords from the item in relevant DMs/channels. If the user sent a message confirming completion or the thread resolved, mark [x] with (Slack: [channel])
3. Scratchpad context — if a later section (Log, notes, decisions) mentions the item as done, mark [x] with (scratchpad)
4. Zoom — if meeting transcripts contain evidence of completion, mark [x]
5. Uncertain — partial evidence → mark [?] with (likely done — confirm?)
6. No evidence — leave as [ ]

Write the auto-completed marks to the scratchpad immediately. Don't wait for user confirmation — chief-of-staff mode. Show the results in the briefing so the user can correct if needed.

2c. Extract today's base

• Read today's pre-planned section (if it exists) — ### Do Next items are the starting base
• Identify new items from external signals not in the plan
• Roll forward genuinely incomplete items from yesterday (items left [ ] after auto-completion)

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Step 3: Prep Meetings

Classify

• 1:1 — 2 attendees, or title containing "1:1", "121", "catch up", or a person's name only
• Normal meeting — everything else

For each 1:1

First check if Context/121s/[Person Name].md exists.

If it exists: Run /121 Steps 1–4 as normal (gather context, open loops, generate 4-section talking points, update the doc).

If no 121 doc exists (first-time meeting): Run the bootstrap before generating talking points:

1. Search Slack for the person → get user ID → read last 20 DMs (or 30 days, whichever is fewer)
2. Read the calendar event description and note when it was created (recent creation = ad-hoc request)
3. Search calendar for previous meetings with this person (past 90 days) for frequency/history
4. Synthesize the likely meeting topic from DM evidence + invite context
5. Generate talking points grounded in what you found — not generic "what prompted this?"
6. Create the 121 doc at Context/121s/[Person Name].md with slack_user_id and slack_dm_channel pre-populated

For each normal meeting

1. Check recent notes from the same recurring meeting in Context/Meeting Notes/
2. Check tasks and Slack for anything relevant to the agenda or attendees
3. Write 1 bullet: a tangible action or perspective to bring. Frame as: [action or perspective]

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Step 4: Build the Plan

Construct from: evidence from Step 1 + weekly priorities + meeting prep from Step 3. New signals override stale items.

Do Next — exactly 3 items

Pick 3 actions ranked by: urgency from external signals first, then priority field. Rules:

• Action verbs only — "Send VoiceAgent DMs", "Prep goal status narrative", not "VoiceAgent PRD"
• No meetings — meetings belong in Calendar + Prep, not here
• No duplicates — if an item is a meeting prep action, put it in Calendar + Prep instead
• Each item gets: why now + goal reference

Follow-ups

Threads from Slack needing response, action items from yesterday's meetings, comments awaiting input. Only include if not already covered by Do Next or Calendar Prep.

Carry-forward intervention (Stale section)

Check carry-forward items from the Week Overview section. Count how many weeks each item has been rolling (check weeks_rolling field, or count appearances across prior week files).

• 1–2 weeks: normal. Include in Do Next if still a priority.
• 3+ weeks: Intervention. Add a ### Stale section to the briefing:
  • Name the item and weeks rolling
  • Label the bias pattern from bias.md Section C (e.g., "initiation without assertion")
  • Propose 3 options: (a) force it — block time/pair with someone/attach to a meeting, (b) descope — smallest possible action, (c) defer or drop with a note
• 5+ weeks: Also append to Context/Memory/learnings.md under today's date.

Heads Up

1–2 bullets max: risks from week plan, calendar conflicts, due dates, blocked items.

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Step 5: Write the Daily Briefing

Before writing, read Context/Memory/bias.md Section B — apply communication rules to all output.

Briefing format:

## [Weekday, DD Mon] — Daily Briefing

### Overnight
[2-4 bullets: decisions, completions, new signals. Cite sources.]

### Checked off
[Only if items were auto-completed from yesterday]
- [x] [item] — [evidence]
- [?] [item] — likely done, confirm?

### Do Next
1. **[Action verb + item]** — [why now, goal ref]
2. **[Action verb + item]** — [why now, goal ref]
3. **[Action verb + item]** — [why now, goal ref]

### Calendar + Prep
| Time | Meeting | Prep |
|------|---------|------|
| HH:MM | [Name] (1:1) | see below |
| HH:MM | [Name] | [one-line action] |

[Flag conflicts, back-to-back stretches, deep work windows in a note above or below the table.]

**[Person] (HH:MM) — 1:1**
- Discuss: ...
- Ask: ...
- Strategic: ...
- Close the loop: ...

**[Meeting] (HH:MM)**
[One bullet: action or perspective]

### Follow-ups
- [Thread/action needing response]

### Stale
[Only if items rolling 3+ weeks exist]
- **[Item]** (N weeks) — [bias pattern]. Options: (a) ..., (b) ..., (c) ...

### Heads Up
- [1-2 bullets: risks, conflicts, due dates]

### Bias Check
[One sentence if a Section C pattern is visible. Omit if none.]

End with: "Anything to adjust?"

Omit any section that has no content (e.g., skip Stale if nothing is rolling 3+ weeks, skip Follow-ups if empty, skip Bias Check if no pattern visible).

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Step 6: Update the Weekly Scratchpad

Update Tasks/Week-YYYY-WNN.md:

Yesterday's section: Apply auto-completion marks from Step 2b (already written).

Today's section — if it already exists (pre-planned by /plan-week): Fill in the remaining subsections under the existing day header. Don't duplicate content already in ### Do Next.

If today's section doesn't exist yet: Append:

## [Weekday, DD Mon YYYY]

### Do Next
- [ ] [item — goal ref]
- [ ] [item — goal ref]
- [ ] [item — goal ref]

### Meeting Prep
_1:1s get full talking points; normal meetings get 1 action bullet._

### Follow-ups
- [ ] [item]

### Log
_Outcomes, decisions, and notes from the day._

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If no weekly plan file exists at all: Create Tasks/Week-YYYY-WNN.md with a minimal header and today's section only.

The file is a living document — never remove or reset checked items.

Confirm: "Scratchpad updated → Tasks/Week-YYYY-WNN.md"

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Step 7: Compound-on-Touch (silent)

After the briefing is delivered, silently fix what you find:

1. Stale tasks — status: s with evidence it's done → update to d, move to Tasks/Done/
2. Missing metadata — task files lacking description or topics → add them
3. Relationship graph — if Context/Memory/graph.yaml exists and today's work surfaced meaningful collaboration, project, or channel signals, append 1-3 edges at most:
   • self -> person with collaborates_with for direct collaboration
   • person -> project with leads or contributes_to when ownership is explicit
   • project -> channel with discussed_in when a Slack channel is explicitly named Keep evidence short and date-stamped. Do not invent nodes silently — add them only when the file or signal clearly identifies them.
4. Recurring patterns — same blocker 3+ days, or goal with zero focus → append one-liner to Context/Memory/learnings.md
5. Index freshness — if Context/Memory/active-tasks.md is >7 days old, regenerate it
6. Carry-forward learnings — items at 5+ weeks → append to learnings.md

Do NOT announce these fixes. Just do them.