Meetings Debrief

meetings-debrief

Post-meeting analysis that reads your latest recording, compares what happened to what you planned, and surfaces decision evolution — so nothing falls through the cracks.

How it works

This is a multi-phase interactive flow. It connects to meetings-prep when a prep file exists, creating a before→after loop.

Phase 1: Find the most recent recording

minutes list --limit 5

Pick the most recent recording. If there are multiple from today, ask via the available structured-question mechanism: "You have [N] recordings today. Which one are you debriefing?" with options listing the titles.

If no recent recording exists: Say: "I don't see any recent recordings. Did you run minutes record and minutes stop? If the recording is from a specific meeting, tell me the title or date and I'll find it."

Don't proceed without a recording to debrief.

Phase 2: Read the transcript

Use Read on the meeting file path. Extract from the transcript and frontmatter:

• Decisions made (from decisions: frontmatter or ## Decisions section)
• Action items created (from action_items: frontmatter or ## Action Items section)
• Key discussion points (from ## Summary or the transcript itself)
• Attendees (from attendees: frontmatter)

Phase 3: Check for matching prep

Look for a prep file that matches this meeting:

ls ~/.minutes/preps/ 2>/dev/null

Match logic:

1. Find .prep.md files from today or yesterday (within 48 hours)
2. Read each file's person: frontmatter field
3. Compare against the recording's attendees: list — match on first name
4. If multiple preps match → the available structured-question mechanism to pick which one
5. If no prep matches → standalone debrief (skip to 4.2)

Phase 4: Debrief

Two paths depending on whether Phase 3 found a matching prep file.

4.1 Prep-connected debrief (when a matching prep exists)

Read the prep file. Pull out the goal: field. Ask via the available structured-question mechanism:

"You went into this meeting wanting to: [goal from prep]

Did you accomplish it?"

Options:

• A) Yes — fully resolved → Mark as complete. Summarize what was decided.
• B) Partially — some progress → Ask: "What's still open?" Capture the remaining items.
• C) No — it didn't come up or it changed → Ask: "What happened instead?" Capture the pivot.
• D) The goal changed during the meeting → Ask: "What's the new direction?"

Then produce the debrief summary with the prep comparison:

## Debrief: [Meeting Title]

### Prep vs Reality
- **Goal:** [from prep]
- **Outcome:** [resolved / partially / pivoted]
- **What changed:** [if anything]

### Decisions
- [list each decision]

### Action Items
- [list with assignee and due date]

### Relationship Update
- [any notable changes in tone, new topics, shifted priorities]

4.2 Standalone debrief (no matching prep)

Produce a straightforward debrief:

## Debrief: [Meeting Title]

### Key Decisions
- [list each decision]

### Action Items
- [list with assignee and due date]

### Notable Discussion Points
- [2-3 most significant things discussed]

Phase 5: Decision evolution check

Search for prior decisions on the same topics discussed in this meeting:

minutes search "<topic>" --limit 10 --since <30-days-ago>

For each topic that has a decision in this meeting AND a decision in a prior meeting:

• Compare the decisions
• If they differ → surface the evolution:

"Decision evolution — pricing:

• Mar 3 (with Case): $599
• Mar 10 (with Alex): annual billing
• Today: monthly billing
• Status: VOLATILE (3 changes in 14 days)

Is this settled now, or still in flux?"

Classification:

• STABLE — Same decision held across 2+ meetings
• VOLATILE — Decision changed 2+ times in 14 days
• CONFLICTING — Two different active decisions exist on the same topic
• NEW — First decision on this topic

Phase 6: Closing ritual

End with three beats:

1. Signal reflection — Quote something specific from the meeting or the debrief conversation. "You said '[quote]' — that sounds like the decision is locked."

2. Assignment — One concrete follow-up action. "Send Alex the pricing doc tonight while the conversation is fresh." "Update the roadmap doc with today's Q2 timeline change."

3. Next skill nudge — "At the end of the week, run meetings-weekly to see how all your meetings connect and what still needs attention."

Phase 7: Update persistent relationship file

After the debrief is complete, update the persistent relationship file for each attendee (other than the user):

mkdir -p ~/.minutes/relationships

Write or update ~/.minutes/relationships/{first-name}.md:

---
person: {full name}
last_updated: {today ISO}
total_meetings: {count}
first_meeting: {date}
last_meeting: {today}
---

## Relationship Summary
{1-2 sentences: who they are, how the user knows them, their role}

## Active Topics
{bulleted list of topics currently active with this person — add new, remove stale}

## Communication Style
{direct/indirect, question-asker/proposer, tends to push back on X, etc.}

## Open Threads
{unresolved decisions, pending commitments between user and this person}

## Historical Decisions
{key decisions made with this person, most recent first, max 10}

## Notes
{any persistent context: their priorities, preferences, quirks}

Update rules:

• If the file exists, merge new information (don't overwrite — append to Active Topics, update Open Threads, add to Historical Decisions)
• Move resolved threads from "Open Threads" to "Historical Decisions"
• Remove topics from "Active Topics" if they haven't come up in 30+ days
• Keep the file under 100 lines — prune old historical decisions beyond 10 entries
• Set permissions: chmod 600

This file persists across sessions and is read by meetings-prep to build richer briefs without re-searching all meetings from scratch.

Gotchas

• Don't hallucinate if there's no recording — If minutes list returns nothing, say so. Don't invent a debrief.
• Stale preps (>48h) are ignored — If the prep file is more than 48 hours old, treat it as no-prep mode. The prep was for a different context.
• First-name matching for prep files — The prep file slug uses first name only (sarah.prep.md). Match against attendee first names in the recording frontmatter. "Alex C." matches "sarah".
• Multiple recordings today — Ask which one. Don't assume the most recent is the right one.
• Recordings without frontmatter — Some recordings only have raw transcripts (no summary, no decisions section). Work with what you have — extract decisions and action items from the transcript text yourself.
• Decision evolution can span weeks — Search the last 30 days for related decisions, not just this week.
• Don't be preachy about decision changes — Decisions change for good reasons. Surface the evolution factually. "Here's what shifted" not "You keep changing your mind."
• Relationship files are sensitive — They contain accumulated intelligence about people. Always 0600 permissions.