Half of what's decided in meetings evaporates because no one wrote down who owns it and by when. This reads the notes or transcript and pulls out the commitments — separating a real action ("Priya will send the spec by Friday") from a wish ("we should really look at that") — attaches an owner and a due date, and flags the orphan tasks nobody actually took, so they don't quietly die.
What This Skill Produces
- Ticket-ready actions — each with owner, due date, and one line of context so it can go straight into a tracker
- Decisions made — what was actually decided (vs. discussed), for the record
- Open questions — unresolved items with no owner yet
- Orphan flags — the "someone should…" tasks that were raised but never assigned, surfaced so you can assign or drop them
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
- The source — meeting notes or transcript (paste it)
- The attendees — names/roles, so owners resolve correctly (a "Priya will…" maps to a real person)
- Default due window — if dates weren't stated (e.g. "assume next Friday unless said"), or leave as [TBD]
- Where these go — Jira/Linear/a list — tunes the format (this reads notes; it doesn't create tickets)
Framework: Commitments, Not Chatter
- Action vs. wish. A real action has an implied owner and a verb someone agreed to do; "we should" with no taker is an orphan, not an action.
- Owner or orphan. Every action gets a named owner or is flagged unassigned — never silently ownerless.
- Due date or [TBD]. Attach the stated deadline, apply the default window, or mark [TBD] — don't invent a date.
- Decision ≠ discussion. Record what was decided distinctly from what was merely talked about.
- Context to be a ticket. One line of "why/what" so the action is actionable without replaying the meeting.
- Never fabricate. If who-owns-what isn't in the source, flag it — don't guess an owner.
Output Format
Actions — [meeting] · [date]
| # | Action | Owner | Due | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Send the API spec | Priya | Fri | for the mobile team's estimate |
Decisions
- [what was decided]
Open questions (no owner yet)
- [question] — needs: [who should own deciding]
⚠ Orphans — raised, never assigned
- "[someone should…]" — assign to whom, or drop?
Quality Checks
- Real actions are separated from wishes/chatter
- Every action has a named owner or is flagged as an orphan
- Due dates are stated, defaulted-with-note, or marked [TBD] — never invented
- Decisions are recorded separately from discussion
- Each action has enough context to become a ticket on its own
- No owner or date is fabricated from thin air
Anti-Patterns
- Turning every sentence into a task — chatter isn't a commitment.
- Ownerless actions — a to-do with no name is a to-don't.
- Inventing owners or due dates not in the source.
- Merging decisions and discussion so the record is muddy.
- Dropping the orphans silently — the "someone should" items need a decision.
Example Trigger Phrases
- "Extract the action items from these meeting notes with owners and dates."
- "Turn this transcript into tickets — who owns what by when?"
- "Pull the decisions and to-dos out of our sync."
- "What did we commit to in this meeting, and who's on the hook?"