Daily Briefing

Morning summary skill that compiles calendar events, pending tasks, follow-ups, and recent memory entries into a structured briefing. Outputs follow template.md.

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Language

See METHODOLOGY.md language mirror rule. Reply in the user's language.

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Data Sources

Gather information from these sources (skip any that are unavailable):

1. Calendar events today — If Google Calendar or similar is connected, pull today's events with times, titles, and attendees.
2. Pending tasks + deadlines — Read from ~/Tandem/tasks/kanban.md. Parse "📝 To Do" and "🚀 In Progress" columns. Highlight tasks due today or overdue.
3. Pending email follow-ups — Read from ~/Tandem/email/MEMORY.md under "## Pending Follow-ups" if it exists.
4. Recent memory entries — Check ~/Tandem/memory/sessions/ for entries from the last 1-2 days that provide relevant context.
5. Suggested focus — Based on task priorities, deadlines, and calendar density, suggest what the user should focus on today.
6. Meeting prep status — Glob ~/Tandem/meetings/prep-*.md to find existing prep briefs. Cross-reference with today's calendar events to identify which meetings have prep and which do not. Only flag meetings with external attendees (attendees whose email domain differs from the user's domain, or who are not found in ~/Tandem/memory/people/). Internal standups and 1:1s do not need flagging.

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Workflow

Step 1: Gather Data

Silently read from all data sources listed above. Do not ask the user for information that is already available in their workspace files.

If no data sources are available (first time, no tasks yet, no calendar), acknowledge this gracefully:

I don't have much context yet for your briefing. Let's build it up!

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Add some tasks first"
  - "Connect my calendar"
  - "Just give me a blank daily plan"

Step 2: Compile Briefing

Structure the briefing using template.md:

• Date and greeting — Personalized with user's name if known

• Calendar section — Events in chronological order with times

• Meeting Prep Status — If any upcoming meetings today have external attendees and no prep brief, list them with a prompt to run meeting-prep. Format:

  Meetings needing prep:

  • [Meeting title] at [time] with [external attendee names] — no prep brief found

  If ALL external meetings are prepped, show: "All external meetings prepped." If there are NO external meetings today, omit this section entirely.

• Tasks section — Grouped by priority, overdue items highlighted

• Follow-ups section — Pending email follow-ups with age (days waiting)

• Focus suggestion — 1-2 sentence recommendation on today's priority

Step 3: Present Briefing

Deliver the formatted briefing. Keep it scannable — use bullet points, bold for emphasis, and clear section headers.

Step 4: After Briefing Actions

Present next step options via AskUserQuestion:

That's your briefing for today. What would you like to do?

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Create a daily plan with time blocks"
  - "Triage my email"
  - "Start working on the top priority task"
  - "Prep for [meeting name]"   <- only shown if unprepped external meetings exist
  - "Skip — I'll take it from here"

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Handling Missing Data

If specific sources are unavailable, adapt gracefully:

• No calendar connected: Skip calendar section, mention it can be added via /connect
• No tasks in kanban.md: Skip tasks section, offer to add tasks
• No email follow-ups: Skip follow-ups section
• No recent memory entries: Skip context section

Never show empty sections — omit them entirely and note what's missing at the end of the briefing.

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Scheduling

This skill can be set as a scheduled task (e.g., every morning at 7:00 AM or 9:00 AM). When run as a scheduled task, it should:

1. Compile the briefing silently
2. Present it when the user opens their next session
3. Include a note: "This briefing was prepared at [time]"

To set up scheduling:

Would you like to receive this briefing automatically every morning?

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Yes — every weekday at 7:00 AM"
  - "Yes — every weekday at 9:00 AM"
  - "Yes — every day (including weekends)"
  - "No — I'll ask for it when I need it"

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Proactivity Hooks

After the briefing, suggest 1-2 relevant next steps:

If there are overdue tasks:

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Let's tackle the overdue tasks first"
  - "Reschedule overdue tasks to today"
  - "Skip for now"

If the calendar is heavy:

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Prepare for the [specific meeting] — notes and agenda"
  - "Block focus time between meetings"
  - "Skip for now"

If there are unprepped external meetings:

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Prep for [specific meeting name]"
  - "Prep all unprepped meetings"
  - "Skip for now"

If there are pending follow-ups older than 3 days:

AskUserQuestion:
  - "Draft follow-up emails for stale threads"
  - "Review and close resolved follow-ups"
  - "Skip for now"

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Task Format Reference

Task format specification: tandem-skills/tasks/task-manager/references/kanban-format.md. When reading or moving tasks, preserve the existing format exactly.

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Anti-Patterns

• Do NOT produce a long, dense briefing — keep it scannable and concise
• Do NOT show empty sections — omit unavailable data cleanly
• Do NOT ask the user for information already in their workspace files
• Do NOT skip the after-briefing AskUserQuestion — always offer next steps
• Do NOT generate a briefing if there is literally no data — offer to set up instead

Activity Logging

After completing the workflow, append an entry to ~/Tandem/stats.json:

{
  "type": "system",
  "action": "briefing",
  "count": 1,
  "timeSavedMinutes": 15,
  "description": "Morning briefing: 3 meetings, 5 tasks, 2 follow-ups",
  "timestamp": "<current ISO 8601>"
}

If ~/Tandem/stats.json does not exist, create it as [<entry>]. If it exists, read it, parse the JSON array, append the new entry, and write it back.

Dashboard Sync

After appending to stats.json, follow the /sync workflow from tandem-skills/core/sync/SKILL.md to rebuild ~/Tandem/dashboard.html with updated statistics. This keeps the dashboard current after every skill run. If /sync fails (e.g., dashboard.html does not exist yet), continue — the main skill workflow must complete successfully regardless of sync outcome.