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."

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.

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

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:

Calendar — if the item references a meeting and that meeting appears on yesterday's calendar (not cancelled), mark [x] with (calendar: held)
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])
Scratchpad context — if a later section (Log, notes, decisions) mentions the item as done, mark [x] with (scratchpad)
Zoom — if meeting transcripts contain evidence of completion, mark [x]
Uncertain — partial evidence → mark [?] with (likely done — confirm?)
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)

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:

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

For each normal meeting

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

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.

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).

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._

---

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"

Step 7: Compound-on-Touch (silent)

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

Stale tasks — status: s with evidence it's done → update to d, move to Tasks/Done/
Missing metadata — task files lacking description or topics → add them
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.
Recurring patterns — same blocker 3+ days, or goal with zero focus → append one-liner to Context/Memory/learnings.md
Index freshness — if Context/Memory/active-tasks.md is >7 days old, regenerate it
Carry-forward learnings — items at 5+ weeks → append to learnings.md

Do NOT announce these fixes. Just do them.