Brain Review

brain-review: Weekly Review

Walk the user through a comprehensive review of their entire workspace. This is the "reflect" phase — the practice that keeps the system trustworthy. Inspired by GTD's weekly review: get clear, get current, get creative.

Trigger Phrases

• "Weekly review", "Let's review", "Review my projects"
• "How did this week go?", "What's the state of everything?"
• "End of week check-in", "Friday review"
• "What did I accomplish this week?"

Workflow

Step 1 — Gather Everything

Make these calls to build the full picture:

1. get_brain_overview — all projects and their stats
2. query_todos with status: done and completed_after: [7 days ago] — recent completions
3. query_todos with status: open — all open tasks
4. query_todos with status: blocked — blocked items
5. get_dump_items — inbox state

Step 2 — Celebrate Progress

Start positive. Present what was accomplished this week:

"This week you completed [N] tasks across [X] projects."

List the completed tasks grouped by project. Acknowledge effort — this is what keeps people motivated.

Step 3 — Review Each Active Project

For each project with open tasks:

1. Show project name, open task count, and any in-progress/blocked items
2. Ask: "Is this still active? Anything changed?"
3. Look for signals:
   • Stale tasks: open tasks with no recent activity — ask if they're still relevant
   • Blocked tasks: surface them prominently — "This has been blocked. Can we unblock it?"
   • Missing deadlines: overdue tasks — "This was due [date]. What's the status?"

Keep this conversational, not interrogative. If a project is on track, a quick "Looks good, moving on" is fine.

Step 4 — Identify Stale Work

Query for tasks that have been open a long time without progress:

• Tasks created > 2 weeks ago with status still open (never moved to in-progress)
• Flag these specifically:

"These tasks have been sitting for a while. Want to reprioritize, defer, or drop any of them?"

Options for each:

• Keep as-is — still relevant, just not yet
• Reprioritize — change priority or add a due date to create urgency
• Drop — mark as done or delete if no longer needed
• Break down — maybe the task is too big; split into smaller tasks

Step 5 — Process Inbox

If the inbox has items:

"You have [N] items in your inbox. Want to do a quick triage?"

If yes, transition to the brain-triage workflow. If not, note it as a todo for next session.

Step 6 — Look Ahead

Ask about the coming week:

"Anything coming up next week? New deadlines, priorities, or projects?"

Create any new tasks or adjust priorities based on the response.

Step 7 — Generate Review Note

Offer to create a weekly review note:

Call create_daily_note (or create_project_note in a "reviews" project) with a summary:

• Tasks completed this week
• Key decisions made during review
• Focus areas for next week
• Any items deferred or dropped

Tool Sequence

get_brain_overview()
query_todos(status: done, completed_after: [7 days ago])
query_todos(status: open)
query_todos(status: blocked)
get_dump_items()
  → celebrate completions
  → review each project
  → surface stale/blocked work
  → (optionally) triage inbox
  → look ahead
  → update_todo() / delete_todo() / create_todo_in_project() as needed
  → create_daily_note() or create_project_note() with summary

Notes

• The weekly review should take 5-15 minutes, not 45. Keep it moving.
• Do not read back every single task — summarize and highlight what needs attention
• If a project has > 10 open tasks, suggest the user focus on the top 3-5 rather than reviewing all
• Respect "skip" — if the user says a project is fine, move on without drilling in
• Tone: reflective and supportive — like a good coach checking in, not an auditor
• This is the most important skill for long-term system trust. If reviews happen, the system stays current.