Synthesis Meeting Transcripts

v0.3.0 — Mandatory verification step + don't-extract-from-email rule

In v0.3.0 (2026-06-03), the skill adds a mandatory post-save verification step (new Step 4.5) and an explicit "do not extract from the Gemini email" warning at Step 3. Both changes target a specific failure mode: an agent reads the Gemini-notes email body (which is a summary), writes that to the local file, and never fetches the underlying Drive doc that contains the verbatim word-for-word transcript. The verification step uses the bundled verify_transcripts.py script (counts timestamp markers + speaker-attribution lines) to detect summary-only saves before they silently land.

v0.2.0 — Workspace-Rooted Paths

In v0.2.0 (2026-04-22), meeting transcripts land in the workspace-private repo (ai-knowledge---private/transcripts/meetings/), matching synthesis-slack-sync v2.0.0. The config schema updates accordingly: ai_knowledge_repo → transcripts_repo, with the workspace no longer included in the path (it's implicit in the repo name).

Synthesis Meeting Transcripts

A protocol for fetching AI-generated meeting transcripts from the user's Gmail and Google Drive into a local markdown archive. Designed for teams where Google Meet + Gemini (or equivalents) produce meeting notes + word-for-word transcripts that live in Google Docs, and the user wants them mirrored locally alongside their project context.

This skill provides the protocol — how to find a meeting's Gemini-generated doc, extract both the notes summary and the full transcript, and save them to the right local folder. A per-project config file provides the specifics: which Google account, which meeting patterns to recognize, where to save locally. Prefer .agents/meeting-transcripts.yaml; existing .claude/meeting-transcripts.yaml configs remain supported.

This skill is tool-agnostic. It works with:

• Anthropic's hosted Claude Connectors for Gmail + Drive (single-account, most common)
• Self-hosted multi-account servers like taylorwilsdon/googleworkspace_mcp (a bundled auto-start helper is in optional-workspace-mcp/)
• Any other MCP that provides equivalent Gmail search + Drive file read capabilities

The skill describes the workflow; it does not prescribe which tools must be used.

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Configuration

Create .agents/meeting-transcripts.yaml in each project that uses this skill. Existing .claude/meeting-transcripts.yaml configs are valid compatibility fallbacks.

# .agents/meeting-transcripts.yaml — Meeting transcript sync configuration (v0.2.0 schema)

# REQUIRED
workspace: example-workspace
# Identifier for the workspace. Used in transcript headers.
# Must match the workspace-private repo name pattern: ai-knowledge---private.

google_account: user@example.com
# The Google account whose Gmail/Drive will be searched.
# With Anthropic hosted connectors: must match the account authenticated in Claude Connectors.
# With workspace-mcp: any authenticated account.

transcripts_repo: ~/workspaces/example-workspace/ai-knowledge-example-workspace--private
# Absolute path to the workspace-private repo where transcripts are stored (Type 3 content).

transcripts_path: transcripts
# Relative to transcripts_repo. Meetings land in {transcripts_repo}/{transcripts_path}/meetings/.

# OPTIONAL — Named meeting patterns
# Maps a short name the user types ("pull the standup") to a Drive search query.
# The query is a Drive API v3 search expression matched against doc names.
# Values with unspecified patterns fall back to the generic {{name}} pattern.
meeting_patterns:
  standup: 'name contains "Daily Standup" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'
  retro: 'name contains "Retrospective" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'
  # Add your team's common meetings here.

# OPTIONAL — Generic fallback pattern for meetings not in meeting_patterns.
# {{name}} is substituted with the user's natural-language meeting name.
generic_pattern: 'name contains "{{name}}" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'

# OPTIONAL — Filename date format for saved transcripts. Default: YYYY-MM-DD
# Produces: {transcripts_repo}/{transcripts_path}/meetings/{meeting-name-slug}-{date}.md
filename_date_format: "YYYY-MM-DD"

If the config file is missing, the skill should warn and ask the user to create one. A minimal working config has workspace, google_account, transcripts_repo, transcripts_path.

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Prerequisites

• A Gmail MCP and a Drive MCP must both be connected and authenticated for google_account. This skill doesn't care which specific MCPs — it will use whatever Gmail/Drive tools are available in the session.
• Local transcript directory must exist or be creatable at {transcripts_repo}/{transcripts_path}/meetings/.

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Protocol

Step 1: Resolve the meeting

Accept a natural-language meeting reference from the user (e.g., "today's standup", "Monday's PDE sync", "the 2 pm design review"). Extract:

• Meeting name — lookup in meeting_patterns first; fall back to generic_pattern with the meeting name substituted.
• Date — parse relative dates ("today", "yesterday", "Monday") against the system date. Verify with date before using.
• Account — usually google_account from config, but user may override ("from my work account" or "from my personal account" when multiple are configured).

Step 2: Find the Gemini meeting doc

Use the available Drive search tool to find docs matching the resolved pattern with a modifiedTime filter bracketing the target date. Typical query:

name contains "Daily Standup" and name contains "Notes by Gemini" and modifiedTime > "2026-04-21T00:00:00" and modifiedTime 

If count < 5, you have not saved the full transcript. Re-fetch the Drive doc.

When the source Doc legitimately has no transcript section (Google Meet was recorded but transcription was not enabled — common for casual 1:1s, training sessions, and meetings hosted by people who don't run Gemini): add the literal marker ` somewhere in the local file. The verifier will accept it as OK (no-source-transcript) rather than INCOMPLETE`. Include a one-line human explanation alongside the marker so future readers know why the file has no transcript section.

File-name exclusions the verifier silently skips (it doesn't audit them):

• _*.md — meta/TODO/index files (e.g., _BACKFILL_TODO.md)
• gdoc-*.md — Google Doc imports (not meetings)
• email-*.md — synced email threads (not meetings)

If you want to keep one of these in the meetings directory but still audit it, rename it without the excluded prefix.

Step 5: Update indices (optional)

If the project uses a daily action plan or CONTEXT.md that tracks meeting transcripts:

• Add a reference to the saved transcript.
• Note any decisions / action items surfaced in the Notes section.

Step 6: Cleanup and commit

• Never leave downloaded transcripts in ~/Downloads/. The whole point of this skill is to bypass that path.
• Commit the new transcript file to the transcripts_repo with a descriptive message.
• Push if the repo is normally push-on-save.

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When Multi-Account Matters

Anthropic's hosted Gmail and Drive connectors support one Google account each (as of early 2026). If the user routinely needs transcripts from a work account different from their personal account, they'll hit this limit.

Workarounds:

1. Switch the connector account. Works if the user primarily uses one account. Tedious if they switch often.
2. Use a self-hosted multi-account MCP server. Recommended: taylorwilsdon/googleworkspace_mcp. A bundled setup helper is in this skill's optional-workspace-mcp/ directory — it provides start.sh, stop.sh, install-autostart.sh (macOS + Linux), and a cross-platform fetch-meeting.sh that shells out to the MCP server directly for deterministic pulls.
3. Use one Claude account per Google account. Claude Desktop can run two separate instances (macOS: open -n -a "Claude" --args --user-data-dir=...), each signed into a different Claude account with different connectors. Heaviest setup.

The skill's Step 2 and Step 3 work identically across all three paths. Config only needs to specify google_account; how authentication is wired up is the user's problem to solve once.

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Date Verification

Before writing any dated file, cross-check the target date against at least two independent signals:

1. The system date (date)
2. The Google Doc's modifiedTime from Drive search results
3. The user's stated meeting date if explicit

Same discipline as the sibling Slack sync skill in this repo. The currentDate system value is captured at session start — if a session crosses midnight, that cached value goes stale and subsequent dates will be wrong.

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Integration With synthesis-daily-rituals

This skill can be invoked from the daily rituals' Day-Start Step 2b ("Meeting Transcripts") as an automated alternative to the manual Downloads-folder-scanning path. The rituals skill calls this one with the day's scheduled meetings (from the calendar MCP, if configured), fetching transcripts for any that have already completed.

See the daily rituals skill for the integration contract.

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Why Tool-Agnostic Matters

Most teams use Anthropic's hosted Gmail + Drive connectors — that's the default and it works. This skill is intentionally built so that the common path "just works" with the default connectors. The multi-account self-hosted route exists for users like the author whose work life spans multiple Google Workspace domains, but it's deliberately optional and lives in a subdirectory so it doesn't clutter the core workflow for users who don't need it.

If a future MCP ecosystem produces a multi-account Gmail/Drive connector with Anthropic-hosted convenience, this skill should work against that too with zero changes. The workflow stays; the tool bindings update.

Source & license

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

• Author: synthesisengineering
• Source: synthesisengineering/synthesis-skills
• License: Apache-2.0

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