By name: clotho-extraction description: "Use when the user asks to 'extract from transcript', 'find decisions', 'identify risks', 'what action items', 'extract insights', 'process meeting notes', or wants AI-assisted extraction of structured entities from unstructured content."
In-Session Extraction from Transcripts
Clotho's extraction pipeline runs within Claude sessions — you ARE the extraction engine. When a user provides a transcript or meeting notes, analyze the content and create structured entities.
Speech Act Ontology
Look for these patterns in transcripts:
| Speech Act | Signal Patterns | Create As |
|---|---|---|
| Commit | "I'll do X", "I can take that", "Let me handle" | Task (speaker owns) |
| Decide | "We're going with X", "Decision is Y", "We've decided" | Decision |
| Risk | "The concern is...", "Risk here is...", "I'm worried about" | Risk |
| Block | "We're stuck on...", "Blocked by...", "Can't proceed until" | Blocker |
| Question | "We need to figure out...", "Open question:", "How do we..." | Question |
| Insight | "What we learned...", "Key takeaway...", "Interesting finding" | Insight |
| Delegate | "Can you take this?", "Assigning to X" | Task (target owns) |
| Request | "I need X from you", "Can you get me..." | Task (inbound) |
| Follow-up | "Let's schedule a meeting about...", "Set up time for...", "Let's follow up on...", "Circle back on..." | Task |
| Next steps | "Next steps:", "Action items:", "By next week we need..." | Task(s) |
Before Starting
Check the extraction queue:
clotho_list_unprocessed()
If there are multiple unprocessed transcripts, ask the user:
"There are N unprocessed transcripts. Want to process them one at a time, or all at once?"
Default to one at a time for 5+ transcripts — batch extraction tends to overwhelm with questions.
Skip patterns
Check for .clotho/extraction-config.toml in the workspace. If it exists, read it for skip patterns:
[extraction]
# Transcripts matching these title patterns are auto-skipped (glob syntax)
skip_titles = ["*1:1*", "*sport*", "*standup - DS Infra*"]
# Mark skipped transcripts as processed so they don't reappear in the queue
mark_skipped = true
When processing, if a transcript title matches any skip pattern, skip it and (if mark_skipped = true) auto-mark as processed. Report skipped items in the summary.
If the user tells you to skip certain meeting types during the session, offer to add them to the config:
"Want me to add 'sport' to your extraction skip patterns so it's automatic next time?"
Extraction Workflow
Read the transcript — Capture it first if not already in the workspace:
clotho_capture(file_path: "transcript.md", entity_type: "transcript", title: "Sprint Planning")Identify speech acts — Read through the content and identify each speech act.
Create entities — For each identified item:
clotho_create_entity(entity_type: "decision", title: "Go with microservice approach") clotho_create_entity(entity_type: "risk", title: "Database migration complexity") clotho_create_entity(entity_type: "task", title: "Write migration RFC")Create relations — Link extracted entities back to the transcript. Use batch tool for efficiency:
clotho_batch_create_relations(relations: [ {"source_id": "<decision_id>", "relation_type": "extracted_from", "target_id": "<transcript_id>"}, {"source_id": "<task_id>", "relation_type": "extracted_from", "target_id": "<transcript_id>"}, {"source_id": "<task_id>", "relation_type": "belongs_to", "target_id": "<program_id>"} ])Link people — Create Person entities and MENTIONS relations:
clotho_create_entity(entity_type: "person", title: "Alice") clotho_batch_create_relations(relations: [ {"source_id": "<transcript_id>", "relation_type": "mentions", "target_id": "<person_id>"} ])Mark processed — After extraction is complete:
clotho_mark_processed(entity_id: "<transcript_id>", process_name: "extraction")
Ontology Filtering
Before extracting, load the ontology for the relevant program(s):
clotho_get_ontology(entity_id: "<program_id>")
The ontology tells you what to look for AND what to ignore:
- Keywords — topics this program cares about. Prioritize signals matching these.
- Technical/social signals — specific signal types to watch for.
- Ignore list — topics to skip. If a signal matches an ignore entry, do NOT create an entity for it. Report it as skipped in the summary.
If a signal doesn't match any program's keywords or signal types, flag it for the user rather than auto-creating:
"I found a potential risk about 'supply chain delays' but it doesn't match any program's ontology. Should I create it, or is it noise?"
To add ignore rules:
clotho_update_ontology(entity_id: "<program_id>", add_ignore: "office logistics, catering, parking")
Search Before Create
MANDATORY: Before creating any entity, search for existing matches:
clotho_search(query: "<abstract theme>")
If a match exists, add an extracted_from relation to the existing entity instead of creating a duplicate. See the debrief-processor agent for the full search-before-create protocol.
Important Principles
- Human-in-the-loop: Present your extractions to the user for review before creating entities. Say what you found and ask for confirmation.
- Confidence: Be explicit about certainty. "I'm confident this is a decision" vs "This might be a risk, but it could also be a concern without action."
- Don't over-extract: Not every statement is a speech act. "Updates" (status reports) don't need entities — they're context.
- Respect the ignore list: If the ontology says to ignore a topic, ignore it. Don't second-guess.
- Do capture follow-ups: "Let's schedule a meeting about X" is an action item, not admin noise. Capture it.
- Watch the wrap-up: The end of a meeting is often the richest section for action items and next steps.
- Preserve provenance: Always create EXTRACTED_FROM relations back to the source transcript.