minutes-prep

/minutes prep

Interactive meeting preparation that searches your entire conversation history with someone, synthesizes a relationship brief, and produces talking points — before you walk into the room.

How it works

This is a multi-phase interactive flow, not a single command. Walk the user through each phase using AskUserQuestion, pushing back on vague answers.

Phase 0: Calendar auto-detect (optional, runs first)

Before asking who the user is meeting with, check if upcoming meetings are available from any calendar source. Try these in order — use the first that works:

1. Google Calendar MCP (best — most Minutes users have Claude + MCP): If mcp__claude_ai_Google_Calendar__gcal_list_events is available, query today's remaining events:

gcal_list_events(
  timeMin: "<now ISO, e.g. 2026-03-19T14:00:00>",
  timeMax: "<end of day, e.g. 2026-03-19T23:59:59>",
  condenseEventDetails: false
)

Do NOT hardcode a timezone — omit the timeZone parameter so the MCP uses the user's calendar default. This returns attendees, event titles, and times. Parse the results to find the next upcoming meeting with other people (skip all-day events and events with no attendees).

2. gog CLI (if installed):

gog calendar list --today --json -a <account> 2>/dev/null

3. Apple Calendar (osascript) (every Mac, zero install):

osascript -e 'tell application "Calendar" to get {summary, start date} of (every event of every calendar whose start date >= (current date) and start date < ((current date) + 1 * days))'

4. None available — skip to Phase 1 and ask manually.

If upcoming meetings are found: Present via AskUserQuestion: "I see you have these meetings coming up today:

• [time] — [title] with [attendees]
• [time] — [title] with [attendees]

Which one are you prepping for?"

Options: list each meeting + "None of these — I want to prep for something else"

If the user picks a meeting, auto-populate the person name and skip Phase 1. Pull attendee names from the calendar event directly.

If no upcoming meetings or calendar unavailable: Silently skip to Phase 1. Don't error or apologize — just ask manually.

Phase 1: Who are you meeting with?

If Phase 0 already identified the person, skip this phase.

Otherwise, ask via AskUserQuestion: "Who are you meeting with?"

If the answer is specific (a name like "Alex" or "Case"): → Search all past meetings:

minutes search "<name>" --limit 50

Also search common variations — first name, last name, nickname.

If the answer is vague ("the team", "everyone", "my usual meeting"): → Push back: "Be specific. Name one person who'll be in the room. I'll search everything you've discussed with them."

If the answer is a topic ("the pricing meeting", "the Q2 planning call"): → Adapt to topic-based prep:

minutes search "<topic>" --limit 20

Skip the relationship brief and go straight to a topic brief instead.

Phase 2: Relationship brief

Read each matching meeting file with Read. Build a relationship brief:

Meeting history:

• Total meetings with this person, first and most recent dates
• Meeting frequency trend (increasing/decreasing/stable)

Recurring topics:

• Topics that come up across multiple meetings
• Topic trending: which topics are appearing MORE recently (↑) vs fading (↓)
• Flag any topic that appeared 3+ times in the last 2 weeks — "Something's on their mind"

Open commitments:

• Items YOU owe THEM (from action_items where assignee matches the user)
• Items THEY owe YOU (from action_items where assignee matches the other person)
• Flag any overdue items (due date in the past, status still open)

Decision history:

• Recent decisions involving this person (from decisions: frontmatter)
• Any volatile decisions (changed 2+ times) — flag as "still in flux"

Present the relationship brief to the user. Don't ask for approval — just show it and move to Phase 3.

If there are zero past meetings: Say: "I don't have any recorded meetings with [name]. This will be your first meeting on record. What's the context — how do you know them?"

Then skip the relationship brief and go straight to Phase 3 with whatever context the user provides.

Phase 3: What do you want to accomplish?

Ask via AskUserQuestion: "What's the one thing you'd regret not discussing in this meeting?"

If the answer is specific ("finalize the pricing at monthly billing", "get a commitment on the hire"): → Frame talking points around that goal. Connect it to relationship data — e.g., "Alex's mentioned pricing 3 times recently. She's ready for this conversation."

If the answer is vague ("just catch up", "the usual"): → Push back with evidence: "Based on your last 3 meetings with Alex, these topics are active: [list]. Which one matters most today?"

If the user skips ("I don't know yet" / "nothing specific"): → Accept it. Frame as an open-ended catch-up. Still produce talking points based on open items and recent topics.

Phase 4: Save prep file

Save the prep brief to ~/.minutes/preps/ for later pickup by /minutes debrief:

mkdir -p ~/.minutes/preps

Write the file as ~/.minutes/preps/YYYY-MM-DD-{person-first-name}.prep.md with this structure:

---
person: {full name}
date: {today ISO}
goal: {what they want to accomplish}
meeting_count: {total past meetings}
---

## Relationship Brief
{the brief from Phase 2}

## Talking Points
{the talking points}

## Goal
{their stated goal, quoted}

Set permissions to 0600:

chmod 600 ~/.minutes/preps/YYYY-MM-DD-{slug}.prep.md

Use the person's first name (lowercase) as the slug — e.g., sarah, not sarah-chen — because transcript attendee names are often abbreviated.

Phase 5: Closing ritual

End with three beats:

1. Signal reflection — Quote a specific thing the user said during the session. "You said '[exact quote from their AskUserQuestion answers]' — that's your north star for this call."

2. Assignment — One concrete real-world action before the meeting. Not "go build it" — something specific. Examples: "Text Alex before your call that you want to finalize pricing." "Review the competitor grid Case sent you — it's still in your action items."

3. Next skill nudge — "After your call, run /minutes debrief to capture what you decided and compare it to what you planned."

Gotchas

• Calendar auto-detect is best-effort — If no calendar source is available, silently fall back to asking manually. Never error or nag the user about calendar setup. The Google Calendar MCP (gcal.mcp.claude.com/mcp) is the recommended source for Claude users.
• Calendar attendee names may differ from meeting transcript names — Calendar says "Alex Chen (sarah@company.com)" but transcripts say "Alex" or "SPEAKER_0". Match on first name.
• Skip all-day events and solo events — Only show events with 2+ attendees as prep candidates. All-day events and events where the user is the only attendee aren't meetings.
• Push back on vague answers — This is the most important pattern. Vague prep = useless prep. "Everyone" → "Name one person." "Catch up" → "What would you regret not discussing?"
• First-name slug for prep files — Use sarah not sarah-chen. Transcript attendees are often abbreviated. Debrief matches on first name.
• Zero past meetings is not an error — It's a first meeting. Adjust the flow, don't apologize.
• Don't hallucinate meeting history — If you searched and found nothing, say so. Never invent meetings or conversations that don't appear in the search results.
• Prep files are sensitive — They contain relationship intelligence. Always 0600 permissions.
• Multiple people in the meeting — If the user names 2-3 people, search for each and combine the briefs. For >3, suggest picking the most important person to focus on.
• Stale prep files — /minutes debrief ignores preps older than 48 hours. The user can prep the day before and still get the debrief connection.