Daily Summary Base

Daily Summary Generator (Base Framework)

Purpose: Create end-of-day summary document for the specific date being summarized.

Key principle: Summary is OF a date, not FOR the next day. Filename matches the events it contains.

Process

1. Verify Current Date

CRITICAL FIRST STEP - Prevents date confusion

TZ='America/New_York' date '+%A, %B %d, %Y - %I:%M %p %Z'

Confirm actual date in user's timezone.

2. Determine Summary Date

Ask user: "Which date's summary are we generating?"

Typical scenarios:

• End of day, same chat: "Today" (the date just verified)
• Next morning: "Yesterday" (verified date - 1)
• Backfilling: User provides specific date

Always confirm: "Generating summary for [Day], [Full Date]. Correct?"

3. Ask for Context Tag

"What's the context tag for this day?"

User provides tag representing experimental state for that specific day.

4. Generate Filename

⚠️ CRITICAL: Filename must follow template exactly

Format:

Summary-YYYY-MM-DD-DayName-[context-tag].md

Example:

Summary-2025-11-15-Saturday-example-tag.md

Rules:

• Date in filename = date of events inside (NOT next day)
• Day name format: Monday, Tuesday, etc. (full name, capitalized)
• Context tag: User-provided, hyphen-separated
• Save to: /mnt/user-data/outputs/
• Common mistake: Wrong date, generic names

Critical: Date in filename = date of events inside.

5. Check Context Usage (Optional)

After tool calls, system shows token usage:

Token usage: 127200/190000; 62800 remaining

Interpret:

• <75%: Plenty of room
• 75-85%: Good time for summary
• 85-95%: Generate soon

• 95%: Generate immediately

Note to user if high: "Context at [X]% - generating summary now to capture full day."

6. Create Document Structure

Formatting rules:

• Use only standard markdown (headers, lists, bold, italic, code blocks, tables)
• NO HTML tags (<details>, <summary>, <div>)
• ASCII-safe characters only:
  • Use -> not →
  • Use " not ""
  • Use - not —
  • Avoid Unicode special characters

Emoji usage guidelines:

Projects limitation: Claude Projects file export mangles UTF-8 emojis into broken Unicode (e.g., ðŸ"¬ instead of 🔬). Root Claude.ai has clean artifact view, but Projects does not (yet).

Recommended pattern:

• Avoid emojis in data sections (tables, timestamps, key metrics) - keep machine-readable
• Use sparingly in narrative sections if they add meaning
• Consolidate at document end for easy cleanup:

  ✨🔬🧪💻🚀
  

  Single line after wrap-up = easy to find/remove if export mangles them

Export preservation strategy:

1. View summary in Projects web UI (clean UTF-8)
2. Copy-paste into local text editor (preserves emojis)
3. OR: Accept export breakage, manually clean up ð characters on local save
4. Future: Nanoagent will have proper UTF-8 file handling + custom UI

When in doubt: Use plain text. Emojis are decorative, not essential. Prefer clarity over style.

Required sections:

# [Day], [Date] - Daily Summary

**GROUND TRUTH:**
- Date: [Full day and date being summarized]
- [Context state - cycle/phase/day info]
- [Long-running counters if applicable]

---

## TL;DR - Day Summary

[2-3 sentence summary of trajectory]
[Key decision or insight]
[How capacity showed up]

---

## Key Numbers

| Metric | Morning | Evening | Notes |
|--------|---------|---------|-------|
| [Data] | | | |

---

## Timeline

### Detailed Events

[Chronological events with timestamps]

---

## Insights & Learnings

### What This Day Revealed

[Major insights, patterns, experimental results]

---

## Decisions Made

### What Was Decided

[Decisions for future, protocol adjustments, changes]

---

## What Mattered This Day

[Clear summary of day's significance]
[No ambiguity]

7. Save to Outputs

/mnt/user-data/outputs/Summary-YYYY-MM-DD-DayName-context-tag.md

8. Remind User

"Summary created: Summary-2025-11-22-Saturday-[context-tag].md

This captures Saturday's events. Click 'add to project' to save it."

Critical Rules

1. Date verification FIRST - bash command, no assumptions
2. Summary date = events date - filename matches content, NOT next day
3. User confirms date - "Generating summary for [Day]. Correct?"
4. Filename follows format - ISO date + day name + exact tag user provided
5. Ground truth at top - absolute date being summarized in document
6. Save to outputs - user manually adds to project

How This Differs From "Carryover"

Old approach (broken):

• Filename: Carryover-2025-11-16-Sunday.md
• Contains: Saturday's events
• Result: Off-by-one error for weekly reviews

Current approach (correct):

• Filename: Summary-2025-11-15-Saturday.md
• Contains: Saturday's events
• Result: Weekly review searches Nov 10-16, gets correct events

The summary IS the daily record.