Standup

Standup — Generate Standup Summaries from Obsidian Vault

Searches the Obsidian vault for session notes and insights within a date range, upgrades any unsummarized notes with AI summaries, groups findings by project, and generates a structured standup note.

Tools needed: Bash, Grep, Read, Write

Procedure

Follow these steps exactly. Do not skip steps or reorder them.

Step 1 — Load config

Run:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from obsidian_utils import load_config
c = load_config()
if not c.get("vault_path"):
    print("ERROR: vault_path not configured", file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
print("VAULT=" + c["vault_path"])
print("SESS=" + c.get("sessions_folder", "claude-sessions"))
print("INS=" + c.get("insights_folder", "claude-insights"))
'

Parse each output line as KEY=VALUE, splitting on the first =.

If the command exits non-zero or prints ERROR, tell the user:

Config not found. Run /obsidian-setup first to configure your Obsidian vault.

Stop here if config is missing.

Step 2 — Validate vault access

Run:

test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER" && test -d "$VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER" && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL"

If FAIL, tell the user:

The vault folders do not exist or are not accessible. Run /obsidian-setup to fix this.

Stop here if FAIL.

Step 3 — Parse date range from arguments

Before date parsing, check if the argument string contains the word deep (case-insensitive). If found, set IS_DEEP = true and remove deep from the argument string before passing to date parsing. Otherwise IS_DEEP = false.

Inspect the argument passed after /standup. Calculate START_DATE and END_DATE as YYYY-MM-DD strings using bash date commands.

No argument (bare /standup): today only.

START_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$START_DATE

yesterday:

# macOS
START_DATE=$(date -v-1d +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$START_DATE

# Linux fallback
START_DATE=$(date -d "yesterday" +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$START_DATE

this week: Monday of the current week through today.

# macOS
DOW=$(date +%u)   # 1=Mon … 7=Sun
DAYS_BACK=$((DOW - 1))
START_DATE=$(date -v-${DAYS_BACK}d +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

# Linux fallback
START_DATE=$(date -d "last Monday" +%Y-%m-%d 2>/dev/null || date -d "$(date +%Y-%m-%d) -$(date +%u)-1 days" +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

last week: Monday through Sunday of the previous week.

# macOS
DOW=$(date +%u)
START_DATE=$(date -v-${DOW}d -v-6d +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$(date -v-${DOW}d +%Y-%m-%d)

# Linux fallback
START_DATE=$(date -d "last week Monday" +%Y-%m-%d)
END_DATE=$(date -d "last week Sunday" +%Y-%m-%d)

YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY-MM-DD: use the two dates directly as START_DATE and END_DATE.

Store both dates. Also compute IS_RANGE = true if START_DATE != END_DATE, false otherwise. This controls the filename slug in Step 11.

Validate the parsed dates: Check that START_DATE and END_DATE are non-empty and match YYYY-MM-DD format. If either is empty or malformed, tell the user:

Could not parse the date range from your input. Supported formats:

• /standup (today)
• /standup yesterday
• /standup this week
• /standup last week
• /standup 2026-03-25 to 2026-03-31

Stop here if validation fails.

Also verify that START_DATE <= END_DATE. If not, tell the user the start date must be before or equal to the end date.

Step 4 — Search for notes in date range (parallel)

Run two Grep searches in parallel to find notes whose date: frontmatter field falls within the range.

Search A — Sessions:

pattern: "^date: "
path: $VAULT_PATH/$SESSIONS_FOLDER/
output_mode: content
glob: "*.md"

Search B — Insights:

pattern: "^date: "
path: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/
output_mode: content
glob: "*.md"

For each result, parse the date: value and keep only files where START_DATE <= date <= END_DATE. Collect the matching file paths into MATCHED_FILES.

If MATCHED_FILES is empty, tell the user:

No session or insight notes found for the range $START_DATE to $END_DATE.

Stop here.

Step 5 — Identify unsummarized session notes

From MATCHED_FILES, isolate those in $SESSIONS_FOLDER/. Use Grep to check each for the unsummarized frontmatter status (NOT body text — body text matches cause false positives from logged tool usage):

pattern: "^status: auto-logged"
path: <each session file>
output_mode: files_with_matches

Defense-in-depth: For each file matching ^status: auto-logged, also check if it already has a real ## Summary section (without "AI summary unavailable"). If so, the note was summarized by a legacy code path that never flipped the status. Skip it and fix the status:

python3 -c '
import sys, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from obsidian_utils import flip_note_status
flip_note_status(sys.argv[1], "auto-logged", "summarized")
' "$FILE_PATH"

Split into:

• UNSUMMARIZED — session files with status: auto-logged AND no real ## Summary
• SUMMARIZED — all other matched files (sessions + insights + auto-fixed legacy notes)

Step 6 — Deferred summarization for unsummarized notes

If UNSUMMARIZED is empty, skip to Step 7.

Always parallelize unsummarized note upgrades. For each unsummarized note, spawn a sub-agent immediately — even for 1-2 notes. Each sub-agent should call:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
python3 -c '
import sys, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from obsidian_utils import upgrade_unsummarized_note
status = upgrade_unsummarized_note(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3], sys.argv[4])
print(status)
' "$NOTE_PATH" "$VAULT_PATH" "$SESSIONS_FOLDER" "$PROJECT"

The function returns a one-line status. If the status starts with Failed:, note the failure and fall back to the manual procedure below for that note. Collect results from all sub-agents before proceeding.

For each file in UNSUMMARIZED, if upgrade_unsummarized_note() is unavailable or returns a Failed: status, fall back to the manual upgrade procedure:

1. Read the full file using the Read tool.
2. Extract frontmatter — preserve it exactly as-is (everything between the opening --- and closing ---).
3. Extract the full conversation — read all content after frontmatter, including:
   • ## Conversation (raw) — interleaved user and assistant messages
   • ## Tool Usage — commands run, files edited, searches performed
   • ## Changes Made — files touched
   • ## Errors Encountered — errors from tool results
4. Generate a detailed, specific summary with these sections:
   • ## Summary — 3-5 sentence overview: what problem was solved, what approach was taken, what was the outcome. Name specific technologies, files, and patterns.
   • ## Key Decisions — Bulleted list with rationale. If none, write "None noted."
   • ## Changes Made — Bulleted list with file paths and descriptions. If none, write "None noted."
   • ## Errors Encountered — Bulleted list with error messages, root causes, and fixes. If none, write "None."
   • ## Open Questions / Next Steps — Checkbox list of specific, actionable items. If none, write "None."
5. Preserve the Session Metadata section at the bottom if it exists.
6. Write the upgraded note using the Write tool to the same file path. Structure:
   • Original frontmatter (unchanged)
   • # <title from original note>
   • The five summary sections
   • Session Metadata section (if it existed)
7. Run chmod 644 <filepath> after writing.

Important: Do NOT modify frontmatter. Do NOT change the filename. Do NOT add or remove tags.

Move all upgraded files from UNSUMMARIZED into the working set alongside SUMMARIZED. Track the count of upgraded notes as UPGRADED_COUNT.

Step 7 — Read and distill note content

Security: If you need to write temp files during distillation, use ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/ (NOT /tmp/). This is a security requirement — predictable /tmp paths are vulnerable to symlink attacks.

Collect all matched files (now all summarized). Apply the /context-shield rule:

For each note, check its size using wc -l. Apply the context-shield rule per note based on size:

• Notes under 100 lines (3000 tokens): Read directly using the Read tool.
• Notes over ~100 lines: Spawn a /context-shield sub-agent to read in isolation and return a distilled summary.

When multiple notes need sub-agent reads, spawn them in parallel (one sub-agent per note).

From each note (whether read directly or via sub-agent), extract: project name (from frontmatter project: field), note type (type: field), date, title (first # Heading), summary (content of ## Summary section), decisions (bullets from ## Key Decisions), errors resolved (bullets from ## Errors Encountered), open items (checkboxes from ## Open Questions / Next Steps), and the filename (for wikilinks).

Also extract closed items for the "Closed This Period" section: For each session note in the date range, get the file modification time as a YYYY-MM-DD string (in the local timezone, matching how START_DATE and END_DATE were calculated):

# Get mtime as epoch, then format. Both forms work cross-platform.
MTIME_DATE=$(date -r "$file" +%Y-%m-%d 2>/dev/null || date -d @"$(stat -c %Y "$file")" +%Y-%m-%d)

The first form (date -r FILE) works on macOS. The Linux fallback uses stat -c %Y for the epoch then date -d @EPOCH to format. Both produce a YYYY-MM-DD string in the local timezone, which matches the format of START_DATE and END_DATE.

If MTIME_DATE is lexicographically within the range (MTIME_DATE >= START_DATE && MTIME_DATE <= END_DATE), Grep the file for - \[x\] lines under the ## Open Questions / Next Steps section using the same line-range verification as for open items. Collect (project, item_text) tuples for each checked item.

Collect all distilled records as NOTE_DATA.

Step 8 — Group by project

Group NOTE_DATA by project field. Sort projects alphabetically. Within each project, sort notes by date ascending (oldest first within the range). Separate sessions from insights within each project group.

If any notes have a missing or empty project field, group them under (unknown project).

Step 9 — Generate standup note body

Build the standup note body using the grouped data. For each project, emit a section:

## $PROJECT_NAME

### Sessions
- [[filename-without-extension]] — $TITLE ($DATE)

### Insights
- [[filename-without-extension]] — $TITLE ($DATE)

### Decisions
- $DECISION_1
- $DECISION_2

### Errors Resolved
- $ERROR_1

### Open Items
- [ ] $OPEN_ITEM_1
- [ ] $OPEN_ITEM_2

Rules:

• Omit any subsection that has no content (e.g., if no decisions, skip ### Decisions entirely).
• Omit the ### Insights subsection if no insight notes exist for that project in the range.
• Wikilinks must use the bare filename without .md extension: [[2026-04-05-my-note-a3f2]].
• Decisions and errors should be deduplicated across sessions in the same project.
• Open items should be listed as checkboxes (- [ ]).

Precede all project sections with a header block that includes a highlights summary and consolidated open items:

# Standup: $START_DATE to $END_DATE

**Range:** $START_DATE → $END_DATE
**Projects covered:** $PROJECT_COUNT
**Sessions:** $SESSION_COUNT | **Insights:** $INSIGHT_COUNT

### Highlights
- **$PROJECT_A** — 1-2 sentences summarizing what was accomplished this period
- **$PROJECT_B** — 1-2 sentences summarizing what was accomplished this period

### Key Open Items
- [ ] $PROJECT_A: $MOST_IMPORTANT_OPEN_ITEM
- [ ] $PROJECT_B: $MOST_IMPORTANT_OPEN_ITEM

Closed This Period

For each project that had at least one item closed within the standup window, render:

• ( closed)
  • <item text 1>
  • <item text 2>
  • ...

After the list, append this footnote on its own line in italics:

Detected via file modification time — may include items checked off earlier if a session note was edited during this window for unrelated reasons.

If zero items were closed across all projects, omit this entire section — do not render an empty header or the footnote.

Order projects alphabetically. Within each project, preserve the order items were extracted (file mtime descending — newest checkoffs first).

Rules for the header sections:

• Highlights: Include only projects with substantive work (skip vault-import-only or config-tweak sessions). Write 1-2 sentences per project summarizing the outcome, not the process. Order by impact/significance, not alphabetically.
• Key Open Items: Consolidate the most important open items across all projects (max ~5-7 items). Prefix each with the project name. These are the items that should drive next week's work. Skip low-priority or already-in-progress items.
• Both sections are written in the saved note AND presented in the conversation output.

If IS_RANGE is false (single day), use # Standup: $DATE and omit the "Range:" line. For single-day standups, the Highlights section may be omitted if only 1-2 sessions occurred.

Step 10 — Build frontmatter

Construct the source_notes array from ALL matched filenames (sessions + insights), formatted as wikilinks:

---
type: claude-standup
date: YYYY-MM-DD
date_range: "START_DATE to END_DATE"
projects:
  - project-a
  - project-b
source_notes:
  - "[[note-filename-1]]"
  - "[[note-filename-2]]"
tags:
  - claude/standup
  - claude/project/project-a
  - claude/project/project-b
---

Where:

• date is today's date (the date the standup was generated, not the range start)
• date_range is "$START_DATE to $END_DATE" (use the same value for single-day standups)
• projects lists all unique project names found, sorted alphabetically
• source_notes lists every contributing note as a wikilink (filename without .md)
• tags includes claude/standup plus a claude/project/<name> tag for each project covered by the standup
• If IS_DEEP, also append claude/standup-deep to the tags list

Step 11 — Generate filename

Construct the filename:

1. Date prefix: YYYY-MM-DD (today's date, i.e., when the standup is generated)
2. Slug:
   • If IS_RANGE is false (single day): standup-daily
   • If IS_RANGE is true and the range spans exactly 7 days Mon-Sun: standup-weekly
   • Otherwise: standup-range
3. Hash: last 4 hex characters of the current timestamp hash:

   # macOS
   HASH=$(date +%s | md5 | cut -c29-32)
   # Linux fallback
   HASH=$(date +%s | md5sum | cut -c1-4)
   

Final filename: YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-<hash>.md

Example: 2026-04-05-standup-daily-a3f2.md

Step 12 — Write the note

Run:

mkdir -p "$VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER"

Then use the Write tool to write the full note (frontmatter + body) to:

$VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-<hash>.md

Then set permissions:

chmod 644 "$VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-<hash>.md"

Step 13 — Present to user

Display the full standup in the conversation:

Standup for $START_DATE to $END_DATE:

Then output the standup body (without frontmatter) as formatted markdown.

If UPGRADED_COUNT > 0, append:

Upgraded $UPGRADED_COUNT session note(s) with AI summaries.

Then confirm the saved file:

Saved: $VAULT_PATH/$INSIGHTS_FOLDER/<filename>

Step 14 — Cascade completed open items across vault

When open items are checked off in the standup note (either during generation or by the user afterwards), those same items may appear as unchecked - [ ] entries in other session notes across the vault. This step ensures all references are updated.

14a — Collect confirmed completed items. Gather all items that were marked [x] in the standup note's per-project ### Open Items sections or the top-level ### Key Open Items section. Include items from the ### Closed This Period section as well. Extract just the item text (without the checkbox prefix or project prefix).

14b — For each project that has completed items, cascade checkoffs across the vault. Run:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
printf '%s' "$CHECKED_ITEMS_JSON" | python3 -c '
import sys, json, os
import glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from open_item_dedup import batch_cascade_checkoff
items = json.load(sys.stdin)
summary = batch_cascade_checkoff(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3], items)
print(summary)
' "$VAULT_PATH" "$SESSIONS_FOLDER" "$PROJECT"

Where $CHECKED_ITEMS_JSON is a JSON array of the confirmed item texts for that project (passed via stdin to avoid shell quoting issues with special characters in item text), and $PROJECT is the project name.

Run one call per project that has completed items. If multiple projects have items, run the calls in parallel.

If the command exits with a non-zero exit code, report the error to the user:

Cascade checkoff failed for $PROJECT: [first line of stderr]. The standup note is unaffected.

Note: batch_cascade_checkoff() may emit warnings to stderr while still succeeding (e.g., a specific line changed). Only treat non-zero exit code as a failure.

14c — Report cascade results. After all cascade calls complete, report:

Cascaded N checkoff(s) across M vault note(s) for project(s): list.

If batch_cascade_checkoff is unavailable (import error), warn the user:

Could not cascade checkoffs: [error details]. The standup note is correct, but duplicate open items in other session notes were not updated. Run /recall to cascade manually.

Steps 14b–19 — Deep mode (only if IS_DEEP)

Skip to Edge Cases if IS_DEEP is false.

STOP. Before ANY deep analysis work, create the task manifest. The user CANNOT see your progress without tasks. Create all 5 tasks below using TaskCreate tool calls RIGHT NOW — in your NEXT tool-call message — before proceeding to Step 15.

Step 14b — Create deep task manifest.

Call TaskCreate 5 times (all in one message):

1. TaskCreate: subject="Collect data and gather evidence", activeForm="Analyzing vault and git history"
2. TaskCreate: subject="Classify open items", activeForm="Classifying items with AI"
3. TaskCreate: subject="Present deep analysis", activeForm="Presenting recommendations"
4. TaskCreate: subject="Execute confirmed actions", activeForm="Executing actions"
5. TaskCreate: subject="Cascade checkoffs", activeForm="Cascading checkoffs"

Then set task #1 to in_progress via TaskUpdate. Do NOT proceed to Step 15 until all 5 tasks exist.

Step 15 — Collect data and gather evidence. First check for a fresh cache (avoids re-running the full pipeline if /standup deep or /emerge was run recently with the same data):

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
printf '{"basenames": %s, "projects": %s}' "$NOTE_BASENAMES_JSON" "$PROJECTS_JSON" | python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from deep_cli import run_pipeline; run_pipeline(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])
' "$VAULT_PATH" "$SESSIONS_FOLDER" "$INSIGHTS_FOLDER"

If the status starts with CACHED:, report "Using cached deep analysis (< 15 min old)" and skip to Step 16.

Where $NOTE_BASENAMES_JSON is a JSON array of note basenames from Step 7's NOTE_DATA, and $PROJECTS_JSON is the JSON string from Step 8's project list. Both are passed via stdin to avoid shell argument injection. Mark task #1 complete, task #2 in_progress.

Step 16 — Classify open items. Spawn a single Agent sub-agent that:

1. Reads ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/deep-pipeline.json
2. For each open item, classifies it as done, stale, active, or duplicate based on evidence
3. Writes classifications to ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/deep-classifications.json

Mark task #2 complete, task #3 in_progress.

Step 17 — Present deep analysis. Run:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
printf '%s' "$NOTE_BASENAMES_JSON" | python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from deep_cli import run_present; run_present(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])
' "$VAULT_PATH" "$SESSIONS_FOLDER" "$INSIGHTS_FOLDER"

Display the output to the user. Wait for user response — they may confirm actions, edit classifications, or type skip. Mark task #3 complete, task #4 in_progress.

Step 18 — Execute confirmed actions. Parse user response. If user typed skip, skip this step.

Important: Do NOT use the Edit tool for batch vault edits — it requires Read first for each file, which is impractical for 20+ files. Instead, use a Python script that reads, modifies, and writes files directly:

cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
printf '%s' "$EDITS_JSON" | python3 -c '
import sys, os, glob; sys.path.insert(0, max(glob.glob(os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/obsidian-brain/*/hooks")), default="hooks"))
from deep_cli import run_batch_edit; run_batch_edit()
'

Where $EDITS_JSON is a JSON array of [filepath, old_text, new_text] triples constructed from the confirmed actions. Use errors="replace" when reading to handle vault notes with encoding corruption (binary file matches).

For confirmed link additions, use the same Python pattern to append wikilinks. Mark task #4 complete, task #5 in_progress.

Step 19 — Cascade checkoffs + cleanup. For each project with newly checked items, run batch_cascade_checkoff() (same as Step 14b) in parallel.

Always clean up temp files (even if user skipped actions — prevents stale cache from giving the same recommendations on next run):

rm -f ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/deep-pipeline.json ~/.claude/obsidian-brain/deep-classifications.json

This invalidates the 15-min cache so the next /standup deep run gets fresh data reflecting any changes made.

Mark task #5 complete.

Edge Cases

• No notes found for range: Tell the user and suggest narrowing or widening the range, or checking that vault path is correct.
• All notes are unsummarized: Summarize all in Step 5 before proceeding — never skip summarization.
• Single project: Omit the per-project ## $PROJECT_NAME heading if there is exactly one project; output the sections directly under the top-level header.
• Config exists but vault path is invalid: Warn the user and suggest running /obsidian-setup again.
• macOS vs Linux date syntax: Always try macOS syntax (date -v) first; fall back to Linux (date -d) if it fails.
• Notes with missing project field: Group under (unknown project) and note this to the user.