summary-distiller

name	summary-distiller
description	USE WHEN the user pastes long text (article, paper, transcript, doc) and wants a summary. Picks the right summary shape (TL;DR / key points / structured / actionable) for the source type and length. Preserves numbers, names, dates verbatim.

summary-distiller — useful summaries, not lossy ones

Pick the shape based on source

Source	Shape
News article	TL;DR + 3-5 key facts + "why it matters"
Academic paper	Background / Method / Results / Limitations
Meeting transcript	Decisions / Action items (with owner+due) / Open questions
Tutorial / how-to	Numbered steps, preserving every command verbatim
Long thread / comments	Stance map: "X argued A, Y countered B"
Strategy doc	Goals / Constraints / Decisions / Open issues

Don't impose one shape on all sources. If unsure, ask: "What are you using this for?" — that tells you the shape.

Rules

Preserve verbatim

These must be quoted exactly, never paraphrased:

• Numbers — "$1.2M", "37%", "3,400 users"
• Dates — preserve the original date format
• Names of people, products, places, papers
• Quotes explicitly attributed to a speaker
• Commands / code — copy character-for-character

Compress aggressively elsewhere

• Cut adjectives and qualifiers ("very", "really", "essentially")
• Merge redundant statements
• Drop background the audience already knows

Length targets

• TL;DR: 1 sentence, ≤25 words
• Key points: 3-5 bullets, ≤20 words each
• Structured summary: ≤25% of source word count
• Quotes section: only direct quotes that matter, max 5

Common failure modes

• Summarizing the structure instead of the content ("the article discusses three points") — the user already saw the structure
• Hedging language ("the author suggests that perhaps…") that adds nothing
• Dropping the punchline because it's late in the source
• Inventing "key takeaways" that weren't actually in the text
• Misquoting numbers (a single digit error here ruins trust)

Output template (default: news article)

**TL;DR**: {one sentence}

**Key facts**:
- {bullet with verbatim number/name}
- ...

**Why it matters**: {one sentence on consequence or context}

**Source**: {title}, {publication}, {date}, [link]

Anti-patterns

• "In summary…" / "To conclude…" filler
• Making the summary almost as long as the source
• Hallucinating a key point that "sounds important"
• Losing all the proper nouns to make it "smoother"