today

name	today
description	Morning startup workflow to sync project management tickets, check emails, review calendar, and prepare task list for the day
context	fork
agent	assistant

Today (/today) Workflow

Start your workday with a comprehensive morning routine: sync project management tickets, check recent emails, review today's calendar, and organize your tasks.

Overview

The /today workflow is your daily startup routine:

1. Sync Project Management - Check for new tickets assigned to you (if PM integration configured)
2. Check Emails - Review all emails since last run (if email integration configured)
3. Check Calendar - See today's meetings and available focus time (if calendar integration configured)
4. Scan Vault - Review all existing tasks in your vault
5. Analyze - Identify what's new, what's due today, what's unscheduled
6. Propose - Show you what to do and ask for approval
7. Execute - Create/update task files and organize your day
8. Summary - Display your daily task count, email summary, and calendar overview

This complements the /eob workflow (which processes Inbox captures at day's end) by preparing your task list at day's start.

Configuration

Before running this workflow, check .claude/state/setup-config.json for:

• timezone: User's timezone for calendar time display and date calculations
• integrations.projectManagement: PM tool configuration (e.g., Linear)
• integrations.email: Email provider configuration (e.g., Office 365)
• integrations.calendar: Calendar provider configuration (e.g., Office 365)

Workflow Steps

Step 1: Fetch Project Management Tickets

Conditional: Only run if project management integration is configured in .claude/state/setup-config.json

Retrieve all your active issues using the configured PM tool.

If Linear is configured, use two separate API calls:

Call 1: Fetch "In Progress" issues

• Use Linear API: list_issues with parameters:
  • assignee: "me"
  • state: "In Progress"
  • includeArchived: false
  • limit: 250

Call 2: Fetch "Todo" issues

• Use Linear API: list_issues with parameters:
  • assignee: "me"
  • state: "Todo"
  • includeArchived: false
  • limit: 250

For each retrieved issue, extract:

• identifier: Issue ID
• title: Issue title
• url: Issue URL
• description: Full description
• project: Project name
• status: Current status
• labels: Any labels attached
• dueDate: Due date if set

Step 2: Check Recent Emails

Conditional: Only run if email integration is configured in .claude/state/setup-config.json

Review all emails since the last time /today was run.

CRITICAL - Time Range Logic:

• On Monday: Check emails since last Friday (roughly 3 days ago)
• On Tuesday-Friday: Check emails since yesterday (roughly 1 day ago)
• After vacation/gap: Check emails for the full gap period
• Calculation:
  • Use bash date command to determine current day of week
  • If Monday: Look back to last Friday (3 days)
  • If Tuesday-Friday: Look back 1 day (24 hours)
  • Maximum lookback: 7 days

If Office 365 is configured, use MS365 API: execute-tool with list-mail-messages

• Parameters:
  • filter: "receivedDateTime ge [calculated-time-since-last-run]"
  • top: 100
  • orderby: "receivedDateTime desc"
  • select: "subject,from,receivedDateTime,bodyPreview,importance,hasAttachments,isRead"

For each email, extract:

• from: Sender name and email
• subject: Email subject line
• receivedDateTime: When received
• bodyPreview: First ~140 characters of body
• importance: Normal, Low, or High
• hasAttachments: Boolean
• isRead: Boolean

Categorize emails:

• Urgent/Important: High importance or from key contacts (customers, team leads)
• Team: From internal team members
• External: From customers, prospects, partners
• Other: General emails

Process self-sent vault emails: Emails from self with subject "[Obsidian Vault]" should be extracted and added to vault:

Detection criteria:

• From: your own email address
• Subject starts with: "[Obsidian Vault]"
• Contains links, hashtags, or content to capture

Processing:

1. Extract link/content from email body
2. Parse hashtags (convert to frontmatter tags)
3. Determine destination:
   • Default: Research/ (for links, articles, resources)
   • If hashtags suggest #memory, #customer, #prospect: Memory/
   • If hashtags suggest #writing, #social, #linkedin: Writing/
4. Create note with frontmatter:

   ---
   tags:
     - [extracted-hashtags]
   source: email
   added: YYYY-MM-DD
   ---
   
   # [Title from link or subject]
   
   [Link or content]
   
   ## Notes
   
   [Any additional context from email]
   

5. Mark email for archiving after processing

Step 3: Check Today's Calendar

Conditional: Only run if calendar integration is configured in .claude/state/setup-config.json

Fetch all calendar events for today.

CRITICAL - Timezone Handling:

• Check .claude/state/setup-config.json for user's timezone
• MUST use ISO 8601 format with timezone offset for datetime parameters
• DO NOT use UTC times without timezone offset - this causes events to be missed
• NEVER show UTC times to user - always convert to local timezone

If Office 365 is configured, use MS365 API: execute-tool with list-calendar-events

• Parameters:
  • startDateTime: [today 00:00 in user's local timezone]
  • endDateTime: [today 23:59 in user's local timezone]
  • orderby: "start/dateTime"
  • select: "subject,start,end,attendees,location,isOnlineMeeting,onlineMeeting"

For each event, extract:

• subject: Meeting title
• start: Start time (convert from UTC to local timezone)
• end: End time (convert from UTC to local timezone)
• attendees: List of participants
• location: Physical or online location
• isOnlineMeeting: Boolean
• onlineMeeting.joinUrl: Meeting link if applicable

Analyze calendar:

• Meeting count: Total meetings today
• Meeting hours: Total time in meetings
• Focus blocks: Gaps of 2+ hours for deep work
• Back-to-back: Meetings with no buffer time
• Conflicts: Overlapping meetings

Step 4: Scan Existing Tasks

Read all task files in your vault:

• Scan Tasks/ directory (excluding _archive/)
• For each task file, parse YAML frontmatter:
  • Extract dueDate (if present)
  • Extract tags array
• Read Tasks/Main.md to see current task list
• Identify tasks without dueDate (unscheduled work)

Step 5: Present Comprehensive Analysis

Show user the complete morning overview including PM issues, emails, calendar, and tasks:

New PM Issues Not Yet in Vault

Display all active issues that don't have corresponding task files.

Existing Tasks Summary

Show tasks organized by Due Today, Due This Week, and Unscheduled.

Recent Emails Summary

Show categorized email summary with urgent items flagged.

Today's Calendar Summary

Show today's schedule with meeting count and focus time.

Issues Found

• Date format inconsistencies
• Missing wiki-links in Tasks/Main.md

Step 6: Propose Actions

Ask for approval of changes:

• Create new task files from PM issues
• Create task files from urgent emails
• Create vault notes from self-sent emails
• Fix existing issues (date formats, wiki-links)

Step 7: Execute Changes

After user approval:

Create Task Files for New PM Issues

Filename: Tasks/[Issue Title].md

Content:

---
dueDate: YYYY-MM-DD
tags:
  - [pm-tool-name]
  - [label1]
  - [label2]
project: [Project Name]
status: [Status]
---

# [Issue Title]

[ISSUE-ID](issue-url)

## Description

[Issue description]

Guidelines:

• File name uses issue title only (no ID prefix)
• Auto-assign dueDate to this Friday if not set
• Include PM tool name tag + any labels
• Add project frontmatter property
• Add status frontmatter property
• Include clickable link to issue at top

Create Task Files from Urgent Emails

Filename: Tasks/[Action description].md

---
dueDate: YYYY-MM-DD
tags:
  - email
  - urgent
  - [sender-category]
source: email
---

# [Action Description]

From: [Sender Name] <[email]>
Received: [Date/Time]
Subject: [Original Subject]

## Email Preview

[Body preview from email]

## Action Required

[Description of what needs to be done]

Update Tasks/Main.md

Add new tasks to appropriate sections (Due Today, Due This Week).

Fix Date Format Inconsistencies

Update any task files to use standard YYYY-MM-DD format.

Step 8: Morning Summary

Display comprehensive results including tasks, emails, and calendar overview.

Workflow Checklist

When running /today:

• Use bash date to determine current day of week
• Calculate email lookback period (3 days for Monday, 1 day otherwise)
• Fetch PM issues (if integration configured)
• Check recent emails (if email integration configured)
• Detect self-sent "[Obsidian Vault]" emails
• Check today's calendar events (if calendar configured, use local timezone)
• Scan all task files in Tasks/
• Identify new issues not yet in vault
• Identify tasks without due dates
• Check for format inconsistencies
• Present comprehensive analysis
• Propose and create task files (with approval)
• Update Tasks/Main.md
• Display morning summary

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: PM Issue Already in Vault

Detection: Task file exists with issue link Action: Skip creation, update existing file if status changed

Scenario 2: Task Without Due Date

Action: Suggest setting a due date or moving to "Ongoing" section

Scenario 3: Overdue Task

Action: Highlight to user, ask if should be archived or rescheduled

Scenario 4: Task Not in Main.md

Action: Add wiki-link to appropriate section with user approval

Scenario 5: Urgent Email Requires Immediate Action

Action: Flag email, propose task with dueDate: today, suggest checking calendar for available time

Scenario 6: Calendar Shows Back-to-Back Meetings

Action: Highlight with warning, show total meeting time, suggest buffer time

Scenario 7: Self-Sent "[Obsidian Vault]" Email

Action: Extract link and hashtags, create Research/Memory/Writing note based on hashtags

Workflow Comparison

Aspect	/eob (End of Day)	/today (Start of Day)
Purpose	Process Inbox captures	Morning prep: PM sync + email + calendar
Trigger	End of workday	Start of workday
Input	Inbox files + hashtags	PM API + Email + Calendar + existing tasks
Output	Task/Memory/Research files	Updated Tasks/Main.md + morning summary
External APIs	None (vault-only)	PM tool, Email, Calendar (all conditional)

Tips for Best Results

1. Run /today first thing: Make it your morning routine
2. Review before approving: Check proposed changes including email-based tasks
3. Triage emails in context: With calendar visible, better prioritize responses
4. Block focus time: Use calendar analysis to protect deep work time
5. Keep Inbox separate: /today is for morning prep, use /eob for daily note processing
6. Self-sent vault emails: Email yourself with subject "[Obsidian Vault]" + link + hashtags
7. Timezone critical: Always use your configured timezone for calendar queries