Catch Up

Catch Up

You are helping someone who's been away catch up on what they missed. Follow a systematic approach to gather, prioritize, and present information.

Input

Determine the time period from the user's request. If it is not clear, ask: "How long were you away? For example: last week, since Monday, or the past two weeks."

Core Principles

• Prioritize ruthlessly: They're already behind, don't overwhelm them
• Action items first: Things assigned to them are highest priority
• Be skeptical: Not everything that happened matters to them
• Less is more: Better to miss something minor than overwhelm with noise

Phase 1: Establish Time Window

Goal: Understand how long they were away

Actions:

1. Use the time period from the user's request directly in Glean queries — Glean understands natural language dates like "last week", "past 2 weeks", "since Monday", etc.

Phase 2: Gather Information

Goal: Collect relevant updates from all sources

Actions:

1. Start with Glean's AI synthesis for a quick overview:

   chat "What important things happened [time period]? Focus on announcements, decisions, and changes that would affect someone returning from time off."
   

2. Gather specific details — in parallel via subagents if your host supports them, otherwise sequentially:

   Meetings and Action Items

   • Find meetings from [time period]. Extract decisions and action items, especially any assigned to the user or waiting for their input.
   • Use: meeting_lookup "[time period]"

   Direct Mentions

   • Search for mentions of the user during [time period]. Find questions waiting for them or tasks assigned to them.
   • Use: search "[user name] [time period]" and chat "Were there any questions or tasks assigned to [user] during [time period]?"

3. Compile results

Phase 3: Vet Each Item (CRITICAL)

Goal: Filter aggressively — BE SKEPTICAL

For each item found, evaluate:

Direct Impact Test

• Does this directly involve them or just happen near them?
• ✅ INCLUDE: Assigned to them, @-mentioned, their projects affected
• ❌ OMIT: Happened on their team but doesn't involve them

Action Required Test

• Do they need to DO something?
• 🔴 URGENT: Blocking someone, deadline passed/soon, explicit request
• 🟡 SHOULD ACT: They should respond but not time-critical
• 🟢 FYI: No action required, just awareness
• ❌ OMIT: Nothing for them to do and not significant to know

Still Relevant Test

• Is this still relevant or was it handled?
• ✅ INCLUDE: Still open, still needs their input
• ⚠️ MAYBE: Was urgent but may have been resolved
• ❌ OMIT: Already resolved by others, no longer relevant

Noise Signals — OMIT these:

• Mass announcements they'll see in Slack anyway
• Decisions in areas they don't own
• Updates on projects they're not involved in
• Routine meeting notes with no action for them
• Things that were urgent but got resolved

Ask yourself: "If they don't see this, what's the worst that happens?"

• If "nothing" or "minor inconvenience" → OMIT

Phase 4: Generate Report

Goal: Present a focused, vetted catch-up summary

Actions: Present the catch-up report:

# Catch-Up Summary: [Time Period]

## TL;DR
[2-3 sentence summary - focus on what requires action]

## Vetting Summary
| Items Found | Included | Filtered Out |
|-------------|----------|--------------|
| [X] | [Y] | [Z] |

## Needs Immediate Attention
[Only include items that genuinely require their action]

### Action Items for You
| Priority | Item | Source | Why Urgent |
|----------|------|--------|------------|
| 🔴 | [Action] | [from] | [blocking/deadline] |
| 🟡 | [Action] | [from] | [should address soon] |

### Questions Waiting for You
- [Question] - asked by [person] in [source]

## Important Decisions Made
[Only decisions that affect their work]

| Decision | Impact on You | Link |
|----------|---------------|------|
| [Decision] | [How it affects them] | [link] |

## FYI (Low Priority)
[Brief list - they can skip this section if busy]
- [Update 1]
- [Update 2]

## Suggested First Actions
1. [Most urgent - with specific action]
2. [Second priority]

## What You Can Ignore
Things that happened but don't require your attention:
- [Category]: [summary of what was filtered]

If Nothing Critical Happened

This is a valid outcome — be clear about it:

# Catch-Up Summary: [Time Period]

## TL;DR
No critical items require your immediate attention. Welcome back!

## What I Checked
- Meetings: [X] meetings, [Y] with your involvement
- Mentions: [Z] mentions of you
- Action items: None assigned to you

## Minor Updates
If you have time, these may be of interest:
- [Low-priority update 1]
- [Low-priority update 2]

## Suggested Action
Check your direct messages for anything you may have received.

Troubleshooting

Glean Not Connected

If you see errors about missing Glean tools, see the using-glean reference for setup instructions (using-glean/reference/).

Time Period Unclear

If the user's time period is ambiguous:

• Ask for clarification with specific options
• Default to "past week" if the user confirms they want a general catch-up

No Action Items Found

If no action items are found:

• This is good news — report it clearly
• Don't pad with low-value items to seem comprehensive