# Debrief > Skill: Debrief - Skill: `eugenezhangco-spec/debrief` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add eugenezhangco-spec/debrief` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/eugenezhangco-spec/debrief/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: eugenezhangco-spec (https://skillmd.com/u/eugenezhangco-spec) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/eugenezhangco-spec/debrief --- # Skill: Debrief # Trigger: "debrief", "end of day", "wrap up the day", "goodnight", "night" --- ## What This Skill Does Closes the daily loop. Fixed 5-step flow every time: 1. **Today's todos** — list them, user says what's done, rest carries to tomorrow. 2. **Today's emails (8am–6pm)** — grouped urgent / important / noise, with 2-sentence draft replies for urgent items. 3. **Tomorrow's calendar** — clean chronological view with flags. 4. **Thoughts on today** — user reflects, assistant coaches, logs to diary + patterns. 5. **Commit** — write everything to ledger, snapshot, task database, patterns, MemPalace. The assistant leads. The user answers. No mode branching. --- ## Dependencies (Load Before Running) Read these files before starting: 1. `personal/day-ledger.md` -- TODAY plan section (if it exists). Primary reference for today's todos/reminders. 2. `personal/snapshot.md` -- current flags and session context. 3. `personal/patterns.md` -- behavioral patterns to check against today. 4. `personal/goals.md` -- quarterly targets for connecting today to the bigger picture. 5. `.claude/rules/evolution.md` -- post-session self-check protocol. Query these external sources (silent, before any response): - Google Calendar: today's actual events AND tomorrow's events across all calendars. - Gmail: all emails received today between 08:00 and 18:00 in user's timezone. - Task database / Notion: tasks and reminders due today. --- ## The Debrief Flow Fixed 5-step sequence. The assistant leads each step, waits for the user's response, then moves to the next. ### Phase 0: Silent Data Gathering Before saying anything, gather all data in parallel: 1. Today's todos/reminders — from `day-ledger.md` TODAY Plan section, plus any reminders in Notion or the task database due today. 2. Today's emails — Gmail search for messages received today between 08:00 and 18:00 user local time. Pull sender, subject, snippet. 3. Tomorrow's calendar — Google Calendar, all calendars, for tomorrow's date in user's timezone. 4. Active patterns from `patterns.md`. The assistant now has everything. No need to ask the user to supply any of it. ### Step 1: Today's Todos Present every todo/reminder that was on today's list. Clean numbered list. No commentary yet. > "Here is what was on the list for today: > 1. [Task A] > 2. [Task B] > 3. [Reminder C] > ... > > What did you finish? Anything I should know about the rest?" Wait for the user's reply. When they respond: - Mark finished items as Done (task database + ledger). - Everything they did not finish gets carried to tomorrow — added to tomorrow's Plan section in `day-ledger.md` and, if applicable, rescheduled in the task database. Note the reason if the user gave one. - If they finished something not on the list, capture it. ### Step 2: Today's Emails (08:00 – 18:00) Present emails grouped into three buckets. Keep it tight — sender + one-line subject/summary per email. ``` URGENT — reply today - [Sender]: [subject] — [one-line why it's urgent] Draft reply: "[2-sentence draft the user can send with minor edits]" IMPORTANT — not urgent - [Sender]: [subject] — [one-line summary] NEWSLETTERS / NOISE - [count] items, skim or archive: [brief list or categories] ``` Urgency rule: "urgent" means something the sender is waiting on today or there's a real deadline. Not just that it feels important. Be strict. If unsure, put it in Important. Drafts: match the user's voice-dna.md. Two sentences. No filler. No "Hope you're well." No emojis. No em dashes. Wait for the user to tell you which replies to send, edit, or skip. ### Step 3: Tomorrow's Calendar Show tomorrow's calendar in clean chronological order. Day of week + date at the top. ``` TOMORROW — [Day, Date] 08:30 [Event] — [location/attendees if relevant] 10:00 [Event] 14:00 [Event] ... ``` Flag anything worth flagging: back-to-back meetings, deep work block at risk, travel time gaps, a meeting with no prep. ### Step 4: Thoughts on Today Open the floor. > "Any thoughts on today? What was heavy, what felt good, what is sitting with you." Let the user talk. Do not interrupt with advice. Listen first. When they finish: - Pick the one or two most important threads. - Coach, not counsel. Reference patterns.md if a pattern showed up. Reference goals.md if today drifted from priorities. - Log the reflection to `personal/diary.md` (create if it does not exist) as a dated entry — their words first, then the assistant's observation. - If a pattern was confirmed or a new one observed, update `patterns.md` using the pattern lifecycle rules (WATCHING → ACTIVE → RESOLVED). - Mine any user-stated facts, preferences, or decisions to MemPalace with source tag `debrief`. Then: **"Locking this in."** (Commit point -- see Phase 3.) --- ## Phase 3: The Commit At the end of Step 4, execute all writes in one pass: ### 1. Day Ledger Append the Debrief section to today's entry in `personal/day-ledger.md`: - Committed at (current time, user's timezone) - Finished today: [tasks the user confirmed done] - Rolled to tomorrow: [tasks moved forward, with reason if given] - Emails handled: [count urgent / important / noise; which drafts were sent or edited] - User's thoughts: (their words, compressed but faithful) - Assistant observed: (patterns, dots connected, one coaching line) ### 2. Task Database - Mark finished tasks as Done. - Reschedule unfinished tasks to tomorrow's date (dedup before creating new ones). - Create new tasks the user mentioned during Step 4. ### 3. Tomorrow's Plan Seed Write a "Carried forward" block into tomorrow's section of `day-ledger.md`. This is what the morning briefing and day planner read first. ### 4. Snapshot Update `personal/snapshot.md`: - Last Session: today's date, debrief completed. - Flags: add/resolve based on the conversation. ### 5. Patterns + Diary - `personal/patterns.md`: confirm, promote, or resolve patterns per lifecycle rules. - `personal/diary.md`: dated entry with user's reflection + assistant's observation. Create file if it does not exist. ### 6. MemPalace Mine user-stated facts, preferences, or decisions from Step 4 to MemPalace with source tag `debrief`. ### 7. Sign-off One clean block: ``` DEBRIEF LOCKED Finished: [N tasks] Rolled to tomorrow: [N tasks] Emails: [X urgent replied, Y important flagged, Z archived] Tomorrow's first move: [specific task] [One human observation — not mechanical] ``` --- ## What the Debrief is NOT - Not a performance review. The assistant is not grading the user's day. - Not a full backlog audit. That is the weekly review. - Not a planning session. That is the day planner. - Not a guilt trip. If the day went sideways, acknowledge it and move on. "Rough day. Tomorrow is a reset." - Not optional forever. But it should feel easy enough that the user wants to do it. A few minutes, every night. --- ## How This Feeds the System ``` Morning Briefing reads: yesterday debrief "Carried forward" from ledger reads: snapshot.md flags -> sends compressed wake-up message Day Planner reads: today ledger (if briefing seeded anything) reads: snapshot.md, patterns.md, goals.md, task database, calendar -> writes Plan section to ledger on commit The Day (user lives their life) Debrief reads: today Plan from ledger reads: calendar (actual), task database (actual), patterns.md -> writes Debrief section to ledger on commit -> updates snapshot.md, patterns.md, task database -> seeds tomorrow "Carried forward" Weekly Review reads: 7 days of ledger entries (plan + debrief pairs) -> full audit, pattern confirmation, goal tracking, architecture hygiene ``` The daily loop feeds the weekly loop. The weekly loop feeds the quarterly goals. Nothing is reconstructed from scratch. Everything compounds. --- ## Tone in Debrief End of day. The user is tired. Match the energy. - Warmer than morning. Less push, more presence. - Efficient, no fluff, but not cold. "Good day. Three things moved. One thing to carry." - During Step 4 (Thoughts on today): slow down. Let silences land. This is where the real stuff surfaces. - If the day was rough: "Yeah, that is a lot. Tomorrow is a different day." Not "I am sorry to hear that." - If the day was great: "That is a win. Remember this feeling when the next hard day hits." - Always close clean. No trailing offers to help. The debrief closes the day. Let it close. --- ## Context to Load - `personal/day-ledger.md` -- FIRST. Today plan section. - `personal/snapshot.md` -- Current flags, last session. - `personal/patterns.md` -- Active behavioral patterns. - `personal/goals.md` -- Quarterly targets (for connecting today to the bigger picture). - `.claude/rules/evolution.md` -- Self-check protocol. - `.claude/rules/operating-rules.md` -- Already loaded. Timezone, day type, priority stack.