Commitment Extractor

Commitment Extractor

Scan meeting notes to extract, structure, and track commitments. Identifies promises, action items, and follow-ups with their owners, recipients, deadlines, and status.

Arguments

• $SCOPE - Optional. Filter scope:
  • all - All meetings (default)
  • recent - Last 7 days only
  • YYYY-MM-DD - Specific date
  • person:Name - Commitments involving a specific person
  • overdue - Only show overdue/aging commitments

Process

Step 1: Scan Meeting Notes

Locate meeting notes:

# Find all meeting notes
find 00-Inbox/Meetings/ -name "*.md" -type f | grep -v README

Apply scope filter:

• all: Process all files
• recent: Filter to files modified in last 7 days
• YYYY-MM-DD: Filter to files with date in filename
• person:Name: Will filter in extraction phase
• overdue: Process all, filter in status phase

Step 2: Extract Commitment Language

For each meeting note, scan for commitment patterns:

First-person commitments ("I/We will do X"):

• I'll..., I will..., I'm going to...
• Let me..., I can..., I should...
• We'll..., We will..., We need to..., We should...
• I'll get back to you on..., I'll follow up...

Second-person requests ("You will do X"):

• Can you..., Could you..., Would you...
• You'll need to..., You should...
• Please... (when directed at someone)

Third-person assignments ("They will do X"):

• @[[Person]]..., @Person:...
• [Name] will..., [Name] to...
• Action for [Name]:...

Explicit action items:

• - [ ] ... (unchecked tasks)
• Action Items: section contents
• Follow-up:, Next steps: section contents
• Lines containing ^mt- or ^task- block IDs

Step 3: Structure Each Commitment

For each commitment found, extract:

commitment:
  text: "[Exact commitment language]"
  owner: "[Who made/owns the commitment]"
  recipient: "[Who it was made to, if applicable]"
  deadline: "[Date if mentioned, or 'None specified']"
  source_meeting: "[Meeting title and date]"
  source_file: "[Full path to meeting note]"
  block_id: "[^mt-xxx or ^task-xxx if present]"
  extracted_date: "[Today's date]"
  status: "[new|aging|overdue|completed]"

Owner detection rules:

1. First-person language in meeting with known attendees = meeting owner/author
2. @[[Person]] or @Person: = that person
3. Text after "Action for [Name]:" = that person
4. If ambiguous, mark as "Unknown - needs clarification"

Deadline detection:

• Look for: by [date], before [date], end of [week/month], tomorrow, next [day], this week
• Convert relative dates to absolute (based on meeting date)
• If no deadline found: None specified

Step 4: Calculate Status

Status rules:

• new - Extracted today or commitment < 7 days old
• aging - Commitment > 7 days old, no completion evidence
• overdue - Past explicit deadline
• completed - Task has [x] or referenced in completion notes

Aging calculation:

days_old = today - meeting_date
if deadline and today > deadline:
    status = "overdue"
elif days_old > 7 and not completed:
    status = "aging"
elif extracted_today:
    status = "new"

Step 5: Cross-Reference Completion

Check if commitments have been completed:

1. Task file check: Search 03-Tasks/Tasks.md for matching block IDs or similar task text
2. Meeting follow-up check: Look for "completed", "done", "finished" mentions in subsequent meeting notes
3. Person page check: Check referenced person pages for task completion

Mark as completed if evidence found.

Step 6: Filter by Scope

If person:Name scope was specified:

• Include commitments where owner = Name
• Include commitments where recipient = Name
• Include commitments that mention Name in text

If overdue scope was specified:

• Only include commitments with status = overdue or aging

Step 7: Generate Output

Default output - grouped by person:

# Commitment Tracker

*Generated: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]*
*Scope: [scope applied]*
*Meetings scanned: [count]*

---

## Summary

| Status | Count |
|--------|-------|
| Overdue | X |
| Aging (>7 days) | X |
| New | X |
| Completed | X |
| **Total Open** | **X** |

---

## By Owner

### [[Person Name]]

**Overdue:**
| Commitment | To | Deadline | Source Meeting |
|------------|-----|----------|----------------|
| [commitment text] | [recipient] | [date] | [[Meeting link]] |

**Aging:**
| Commitment | To | Days Old | Source Meeting |
|------------|-----|----------|----------------|
| [commitment text] | [recipient] | [N] | [[Meeting link]] |

**Recent:**
| Commitment | To | Deadline | Source Meeting |
|------------|-----|----------|----------------|
| [commitment text] | [recipient] | [date/none] | [[Meeting link]] |

---

### [[Another Person]]
...

---

## Commitments Made TO You

| From | Commitment | Deadline | Status | Source |
|------|------------|----------|--------|--------|
| [[Person]] | [text] | [date] | [status] | [[Meeting]] |

---

## Needs Attention

### Overdue (Past Deadline)

1. **[Commitment text]**
   - Owner: [[Person]]
   - Deadline: [date] (X days overdue)
   - Source: [[Meeting - Date]]
   - Suggested action: Follow up or mark complete

### Aging (No Response >7 days)

1. **[Commitment text]**
   - Owner: [[Person]]
   - Days since commitment: X
   - Source: [[Meeting - Date]]
   - Suggested action: Check status or create task

---

## Recently Completed

| Commitment | Owner | Completed | Source |
|------------|-------|-----------|--------|
| [text] | [[Person]] | [date] | [[Meeting]] |

Alternative output - grouped by status (use flag --by-status):

Group all overdue first, then aging, then new.

Step 8: Optional Actions

After presenting results, offer:

1. Create tasks: "Would you like me to create tasks in 03-Tasks/Tasks.md for any open commitments?"
2. Update person pages: "Should I add these commitments to the relevant person pages?"
3. Mark complete: "Any of these already done? Tell me which to mark complete."
4. Set deadlines: "Want to add deadlines to commitments that don't have them?"

Step 9: Save Report (Optional)

If user requests, save report to: 06-Resources/Intel/Commitment_Reports/YYYY-MM-DD_Commitments.md

Pattern Library

High-Confidence Commitment Patterns

These patterns strongly indicate a commitment:

# First-person future tense
/I('ll| will| am going to| can| should| need to) (get|send|create|update|follow|schedule|reach|contact|review|prepare|build|write)/i

# Action item markers
/^- \[ \] .+/m
/Action (item|for|:)/i
/^### (For Me|My Actions|Dave|I need to)/im

# Explicit promises
/(I('ll| will) get back to you|I('ll| will) follow up|Let me (check|find|get|send))/i

# Request patterns
/(@\[\[.+?\]\]|@\w+):\s*.+/
/(Can|Could|Would) you (please )?(send|create|review|check|update|schedule)/i

Context Clues

Look for these section headers that often contain commitments:

• ## Action Items
• ## Follow-up
• ## Next Steps
• ## Tasks
• ### For Me / ### For Others
• ## Decisions Made (may contain implied commitments)

Exclusion Patterns

Skip these (not commitments):

• Questions: Should I...?, Can we...?, What if I...?
• Past tense: I did..., We completed..., I sent...
• Hypotheticals: I would..., I could... (without context)
• Already completed: - [x] ...

Usage Examples

# Extract all commitments from all meetings
/commitment-extractor

# Only commitments from last 7 days
/commitment-extractor recent

# Commitments involving a specific person
/commitment-extractor person:Paul

# Only show overdue/aging items
/commitment-extractor overdue

# Commitments from a specific date
/commitment-extractor 2026-01-26

Integration Points

Person Pages

After extraction, optionally update person pages with:

## Open Commitments

### Commitments TO [[Person]]
- [commitment] - from [[Meeting]] (due: [date])

### Commitments FROM [[Person]]
- [commitment] - from [[Meeting]] (due: [date])

Task System

Commitments can be promoted to tasks:

• Add to 03-Tasks/Tasks.md with source link
• Generate proper ^task-YYYYMMDD-XXX block ID
• Link back to original meeting note

Weekly Review

The /week-review command can call this to surface:

• Commitments made this week
• Aging commitments that need attention
• Overdue items requiring action

Notes

• This command is read-only by default (extraction only)
• Modifications (create tasks, update pages) require explicit confirmation
• Commitment detection uses heuristics - may have false positives/negatives
• When in doubt about owner, ask for clarification before creating tasks
• Block IDs enable bidirectional linking between meetings and task system