briefing

name	briefing
trigger	/briefing
description	Generate a calm daily executive summary of vault state -- priorities, changes, neglected items, and suggestions
version	3.0.0
type	skill
tags	["skill","agent","intelligence","dashboard","reporting"]

/briefing -- Daily Briefing

A calm, concise executive summary of your vault's current state. Surfaces recent changes, active project priorities, neglected items, and 1-2 actionable suggestions -- all in 15-20 lines. Designed to replace the mental overhead of "what changed? what's stalled? what should I focus on?" with a quick daily snapshot.

Usage

/briefing              # Today's briefing (48-hour lookback)
/briefing --days 7     # Extended lookback (7 days)

What It Shows

Section	Source	Cap
Recent Changes	vault-index.json mtimes	Top 5, "N more" summary
Active Projects	memory-utils getActiveProjects	All, sorted by priority
Neglected Items	Projects with stale mtime (14+ days)	Top 3
Inbox Status	Inbox note count	Count only
Suggestions	Claude reasoning over all data	1-2 items

Execution Flow

Claude follows these steps when /briefing is invoked:

1. Ensure fresh indexes: Call ensureFreshIndexes('.') from health-utils to rebuild indexes if stale (>5 min).

2. Gather briefing data: Call gatherBriefingData('.') from briefing-utils.cjs. This returns a structured object with:

   • recentChanges -- notes modified in the lookback window (capped at 10, newest first)
   • totalRecent -- total count of recent changes (for "N more" summaries)
   • projects -- active projects from memory-utils
   • neglected -- active/planned projects untouched for 14+ days
   • inboxCount -- notes awaiting triage in 00 - Inbox/
   • insights -- top 5 insights with confidence >= 0.5
   • memoryContent -- raw MEMORY.md for additional context
   • vaultStats -- total notes and last scan timestamp

3. Format as calm executive briefing. Claude composes the output naturally from the data -- this is not a rigid template. The tone should be informative and calm, not alarming.

4. Cap output at 15-20 lines. Use "N more items" summaries when lists overflow. Do not dump raw data.

5. Present with clear section headers but no excessive formatting. Keep it scannable.

Output Format

Example of a typical briefing:

## Daily Briefing -- 2026-03-07

**Recent Changes** (last 48h)
- Modified: [[Website Relaunch]] (project, 2h ago)
- Created: [[Tool -- Docker]] (tool, 5h ago)
- 3 more changes

**Active Projects**
- [[Website Relaunch]] -- high priority, active
- [[API Migration]] -- medium priority, planned

**Needs Attention**
- [[Blog Platform]] -- active but untouched for 23 days
- 4 notes in Inbox awaiting triage

**Suggestions**
- Consider running /triage to classify inbox items
- [[Blog Platform]] may need status update to on-hold

Governance

This skill is READ-ONLY. The /briefing command never modifies vault files, indexes, or memory. All data is gathered through read operations on existing indexes and files.

Zone	Action	Classification
Content	Read vault-index, link-map, MEMORY.md	READ-ONLY
Structure	Read folder counts, MOC references	READ-ONLY
System	Read .claude/memory/insights.md, scan-state.json	READ-ONLY

No changelog entry is needed because no modifications occur.

Utility Module

File: briefing-utils.cjs

Provides data aggregation functions used during the execution flow:

const { gatherBriefingData, getRecentChanges, getStaleProjects } = require('./.agents/skills/briefing/briefing-utils.cjs');

Function Signatures

gatherBriefingData(vaultRoot) Main entry point. Returns a structured object containing all data Claude needs to compose the briefing. Aggregates recent changes, projects, neglected items, inbox count, insights, memory content, and vault stats.

getRecentChanges(vaultIndex, lookbackMs?) Extracts notes modified within the lookback window from the vault index. Default lookback is 48 hours. Returns array sorted by mtime descending (newest first). Excludes templates, .claude/ system files, and 06 - Atlas/ navigation notes.

getStaleProjects(vaultIndex, staleDays?) Finds active or planned projects with mtime older than the stale threshold (default 14 days). Returns array sorted oldest-first (most neglected at top).

Dependencies

• scan/utils.cjs -- loadJson for reading JSON indexes
• memory/memory-utils.cjs -- getActiveProjects for project list, parseInsights for insight data

Edge Cases

• Empty vault (no notes): Show "No notes found. Try /create to get started."
• No recent changes: Show "No changes in the last 48 hours." and skip the Recent Changes section.
• No active projects: Skip the Active Projects section entirely.
• No neglected items: Skip the Needs Attention section (this is good news -- nothing is stalled).
• No insights yet: Omit the insights context. Briefing works without them.
• MEMORY.md missing: Briefing still works -- memory content is optional context for suggestion generation.
• Indexes stale or missing: ensureFreshIndexes triggers a rescan automatically before gathering data.

Limitations

• Suggestions are Claude-composed: The 1-2 suggestions are generated by Claude reasoning over the data, not computed algorithmically. Quality depends on data richness.
• No historical trending: Does not compare today's snapshot to previous briefings. Each briefing is independent.
• Lookback is time-based: Uses file modification time from the vault index. Does not detect content-level changes (e.g., a frontmatter-only update counts the same as a full rewrite).
• Project detection requires frontmatter: Only notes in 01 - Projects/ with type: project frontmatter are recognized as projects. Informal project notes elsewhere are not surfaced.