How do I install the Mac Brief skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add calebnewtonusc/mac-brief in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Mac Brief safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Mac Brief?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Mac Brief free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Mac Brief?

calebnewtonusc (@calebnewtonusc) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Mac Brief by calebnewtonusc — Agent Skill

Name: Mac Brief
Author: calebnewtonusc

Mac Brief

Generate the morning operator brief - triage the user's email, texts, and calendar into what is urgent, what needs a reply, and a suggested order for the day. Use when the user asks for their brief, their morning rundown, what they need to handle today, what is urgent, or who is waiting on them. Runs on a schedule at 8am via launchd.

calebnewtonusc 288a7ed 2 files · 3.0 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

The operator brief

Turn a morning's raw state into a short, honest rundown of what actually needs the user, in his voice.

1. Gather

chewie brief --json

Returns three reliable sources:

calendar: today's events, from the Calendar DB directly (layer 1, fast)
texts: threads where someone spoke last and is waiting, decoded from chat.db
email: recent inbox, newest first, with unread flags (bounded AppleScript)

If a source reports available: false, say so in the brief rather than inventing.

2. Triage (the part that matters)

The gather is dumb on purpose. The judgment is here, and it has to be strict.

Urgent	Noise
A direct question from a real person	Newsletters, receipts, automated mail
A deadline today	Marketing, "no reply" senders
Someone visibly waiting on a reply	Reactions, closed threads ("ok", "haha")
A time-boxed request ("free at 2?")	Anything you would not act on

Cross-reference sources: an email and a text from the same person about the same thing is one item. Match names across the calendar too ("call with Chen" + a text from Chen about rescheduling = one item, flagged).

3. Write it

Short. His voice. No preamble, no "Good morning! Here is your brief." Just:

Today: events, with conflicts called out explicitly
Needs a reply: most time-sensitive first, who and what, one line each
Deadlines: anything with a hard date
First two hours: a suggested order, not a lecture

4. Deliver

Default is to print it. If he has asked for it as a text, use a confirm-gated send_text to himself. Never send anything to other people from the brief.

The discipline

A brief listing 40 things is one he stops reading, and then the whole feature is dead. Twelve real items beat forty padded ones. If nothing is genuinely urgent, the correct brief is three lines saying so. Under-reporting a fake obligation is better than manufacturing one.

---name: mac-briefdescription: Generate the morning operator brief - triage the user's email, texts, and calendar into what is urgent, what needs a reply, and a suggested order for the day. Use when the user asks for their brief, their morning rundown, what they need to handle today, what is urgent, or who is waiting on them. Runs on a schedule at 8am via launchd.---# The operator briefTurn a morning's raw state into a short, honest rundown of what actually needs theuser, in his voice.## 1. Gather```bashchewie brief --json```Returns three reliable sources:- **calendar**: today's events, from the Calendar DB directly (layer 1, fast)- **texts**: threads where someone spoke last and is waiting, decoded from chat.db- **email**: recent inbox, newest first, with unread flags (bounded AppleScript)If a source reports `available: false`, say so in the brief rather than inventing.## 2. Triage (the part that matters)The gather is dumb on purpose. The judgment is here, and it has to be strict.| Urgent | Noise ||--------|-------|| A direct question from a real person | Newsletters, receipts, automated mail || A deadline today | Marketing, "no reply" senders || Someone visibly waiting on a reply | Reactions, closed threads ("ok", "haha") || A time-boxed request ("free at 2?") | Anything you would not act on |Cross-reference sources: an email and a text from the same person about the samething is one item. Match names across the calendar too ("call with Chen" + a textfrom Chen about rescheduling = one item, flagged).## 3. Write itShort. His voice. No preamble, no "Good morning! Here is your brief." Just:- **Today**: events, with conflicts called out explicitly- **Needs a reply**: most time-sensitive first, who and what, one line each- **Deadlines**: anything with a hard date- **First two hours**: a suggested order, not a lecture## 4. DeliverDefault is to print it. If he has asked for it as a text, use a confirm-gated`send_text` to himself. **Never send anything to other people from the brief.**## The disciplineA brief listing 40 things is one he stops reading, and then the whole feature isdead. Twelve real items beat forty padded ones. If nothing is genuinely urgent,the correct brief is three lines saying so. Under-reporting a fake obligation isbetter than manufacturing one.

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