Daily Briefing

When to use

Use at the start of Casey's day when a structured intention-setting ritual is needed — schedule, open tasks, pending follow-ups, and a one-line focus intention. Edge case: when no calendar, tasks, or people data are available, the skill prompts for user input rather than fabricating a briefing.

Triggers

• User says "daily briefing", "morning brief", "what's on my plate today", "what's my day look like", or names this skill directly.
• User asks "what should I focus on today" or asks for a rundown of their calendar or schedule.

Do NOT fire merely because a message is the first of a session or day — a first message about a specific task belongs to that task's skill. Offer a briefing at session start only when the message itself is an open "good morning"-style check-in with no other intent.

Instructions

1. Determine invocation path. If invoked via Trigger 1 (user typed "morning brief", "daily briefing", "what's on my plate", etc.), proceed directly. If invoked via Trigger 2, 3, or 4 (proactive-offer per examples/personal-assistant/global-instructions.md line 19), wait for user confirmation before reading any files. Do NOT auto-execute.
2. Read sources with graceful-degradation ladder. Read Calendar/ folder (any *.md files matching today's date or a date range that includes today). If folder is missing or empty: note "No calendar entries found for today" in the Time blocks section. Do NOT error. Read Tasks/ folder (any *.md files). If folder is missing or empty: note "No tasks tracked" in the Priorities section. Do NOT error. Read People/ folder (any *.md files). If folder is missing or empty: note "No people-tracked follow-ups" inline in the Priorities or Time blocks section as appropriate. Do NOT error. If all three folders are missing AND no inline context is provided, ask the user: "I can produce a briefing if you paste today's calendar / tasks / follow-ups, or point me at the right folders." Do NOT generate a fabricated briefing.
3. Ask the three intention questions. Ask: (a) energy level today; (b) priority-one for today; (c) one thing to protect against interruption. If any of these were inferable from a previous session's brief or shared context, surface that and ask for confirmation rather than re-asking.
4. Draft the priority-ordered structure. Condense the Tasks/ + People/ content into at most 3 ranked priorities. Do NOT produce a 10-item priority list — see anti-pattern 1 below.
5. Add time blocks. Build a table with three columns: time range, activity, priority-link. Each time block links to one of the at-most-3 priorities or to the Protect item. Do NOT add unsolicited time-blocks not derived from user-stated priorities.
6. Write the one-line "why today matters" intention. One sentence, in the user's voice. Consult context/writing-profile.md for the Intention line (see ## Writing-profile integration).
7. Present for user confirmation before saving any file or scheduling any event. Ask: "Does this brief match your day, or should I adjust priorities or time-blocks?" Do NOT save to file silently.

Output format

The output must contain exactly these four labeled sections in this order:

1. Intention — one line. The "why today matters" sentence in the user's voice.
2. Priorities — at most 3 bullets, ranked. Each bullet is at most one line.
3. Time blocks — markdown table with three columns: time range | activity | priority-link.
4. Protect — one item. The single thing to defend against interruption.

No additional sections. No "Tomorrow" preview. No moralizing summary at the end.

Quality criteria

1. Intention is one line, not a paragraph.
2. Priorities are at most 3 (not a task dump from the Tasks/ folder).
3. Every time block links to a priority or to the Protect item.
4. No moralizing or productivity advice beyond user-named priorities.

Anti-patterns

• Generating a 10-item priority list — violates the at-most-3 focus rule. Condense to the three most consequential items; move the rest to a "parking lot" note only if the user asks.
• Adding unsolicited productivity advice — phrases like "you should also consider...", "this would be a good time to...", or "don't forget to..." are not part of the briefing schema. Omit them.
• Proposing time blocks without asking about energy level — skips Instructions step 3. Energy level affects block duration; always ask before allocating focus blocks.
• Producing a blank or error output when a source folder is absent — Calendar/, Tasks/, or People/ folder missing must result in a partial brief with a noted missing-source line, never an error message and never an empty section.

Example

Vault state (illustrative):

• Calendar/: 3 entries — 9:00 team standup, 14:00 1:1 with manager, 16:30 dentist
• Tasks/: 5 entries — Q2 report draft (overdue), expense report (due today), read onboarding doc, reply to client email, update roadmap slide
• People/: 2 entries — Alex (waiting on Q2 report since Monday), Sarah (asked for expense form last week)

User answers the three intention questions:

• Energy: medium
• Priority-one: finish Q2 report draft for Alex
• Protect: the 10:00–12:00 block from meetings

Output:

Intention: Today is about clearing the two things Alex and Sarah are waiting on so the afternoon is actually mine.

Priorities:

1. Q2 report draft — Alex is blocked since Monday
2. Expense report — due today, Sarah needs the form
3. Reply to client email — low urgency but quick win

Time blocks:

| Time | Activity | Priority | |------|----------|----------| | 9:00 | Team standup | — | | 10:00–12:00 | Q2 report draft | Priority 1 (Protect) | | 12:00 | Expense report + client reply | Priority 2 + 3 | | 14:00 | 1:1 with manager | — | | 16:30 | Dentist | — |

Protect: 10:00–12:00 — Q2 draft block. No meetings, no Slack, phone on silent.

Writing-profile integration

Daily briefings are typically under 200 words. The writing-profile applies selectively:

• Intention line: the user's voice is most present here. Always consult context/writing-profile.md for tone, pet peeves, and anti-AI guidance — even though the line is short.
• Priorities, Time blocks, Protect: schematic and terse. Do NOT apply writing-profile tone to priority bullets or table cells; neutrality is correct here.

Example prompts

• "Good morning — what does my day look like?"
• "What's on my plate today? Check my calendar and tasks."
• "Give me a quick briefing before I start work."

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: jmlozano1990
• Source: jmlozano1990/Cowork-Starter-Kit
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://github.com/jmlozano1990/Cowork-Starter-Kit/releases/latest

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.