Briefing

Briefing Skill

Compile a daily briefing from brain context.

Filing rule: When the briefing creates or updates brain pages, follow skills/_brain-filing-rules.md.

Contract

• Every fact in the briefing includes an inline [Source: slug, updated DATE] citation.
• Meeting participants are resolved against the brain; gaps are explicitly flagged.
• Active deals and action items include deadlines and recency context.
• The briefing is read-only: no brain pages are created or modified unless the user explicitly requests it.
• Stale alerts surface pages relevant to today's context, not just all stale pages.

Phases

0. Hot memory pulse (v0.32). Before composing anything else, run:

   gbrain recall --since-last-run --supersessions --pending --rollup --json
   

   Fold the result into the briefing under a "Brain pulse" section at the top:

   1. Contradictions resolved overnight — the --supersessions output. Lead with these because they're new corrections to your model of the world.
   2. Top mentions — top_entities from --rollup (top 5 entity slugs by fact count in the window).
   3. New facts since last briefing — group the facts array under each entity from the rollup; include kind, notability, and confidence.
   4. Pending consolidation footer — when pending_consolidation_count > 0, note N facts await dream-cycle consolidation so the operator can decide whether to run gbrain dream before reading further.

   The --since-last-run flag advances ~/.gbrain/recall-cursors/<source>.json so the next briefing picks up exactly where this one left off. If you're running this as a cron job, pass --source <slug> or set GBRAIN_SOURCE explicitly — cron doesn't start in your repo-root cwd, so dotfile resolution may miss the right source. Thin-client installs (gbrain init --mcp-only) route through the remote brain transparently.

1. Today's meetings. For each meeting on the calendar:

   • Search gbrain for each participant by name
   • Read their pages from gbrain for compiled_truth context
   • Summarize: who they are, recent timeline, relationship to you

2. Active deals. List deal pages in gbrain filtered to active status:

   • Deadlines approaching in the next 7 days
   • Recent timeline entries (last 7 days)

3. Time-sensitive threads. Open items from timeline entries:

   • Items with deadlines in the next 48 hours
   • Follow-ups that are overdue

4. Recent changes. Pages updated in the last 24 hours:

   • What changed and why (read timeline entries from gbrain)

5. People in play. List person pages in gbrain sorted by recency:

   • Updated in last 7 days
   • Have high activity (many recent timeline entries)

6. Stale alerts. From gbrain health check:

   • Pages flagged as stale that are relevant to today's meetings

GBrain-Native Context Loading

Before generating any briefing, load context from gbrain systematically.

Before a meeting

For every attendee on the calendar invite:

• gbrain search "<attendee name>" -- find their brain page
• gbrain get <slug> -- load compiled truth, recent timeline, relationship context
• If no page exists, note the gap ("No brain page for Sarah Chen -- consider enrichment")

Before an email reply

Before drafting or triaging any email:

• gbrain search "<sender name>" -- load sender context
• Read their compiled truth to understand who they are, what they care about, and your relationship history. This turns a cold reply into an informed one.

Daily briefing queries

Run these queries to populate the briefing sections:

• gbrain query "active deals status" -- deal pipeline snapshot
• gbrain query "meetings this week" -- recent meeting pages with insights
• gbrain query "pending commitments follow-ups" -- open threads and action items
• gbrain search --type person --sort updated --limit 10 -- people in play

Output Format

DAILY BRIEFING -- [date]
========================

MEETINGS TODAY
- [time] [meeting name]
  Participants: [name] (slug: people/name, [key context])

ACTIVE DEALS
- [deal name] -- [status], deadline: [date]
  Recent: [latest timeline entry]

ACTION ITEMS
- [item] -- due [date], related to [slug]

RECENT CHANGES (24h)
- [slug] -- [what changed]

PEOPLE IN PLAY
- [name] -- [why they're active]

Back-Linking During Briefing

If the briefing creates or updates any brain pages (e.g., new meeting prep pages, updated entity pages), the back-linking iron law applies: every entity mentioned must have a back-link from their page. See skills/_brain-filing-rules.md.

Citation in Briefings

When presenting facts from brain pages, include inline citations:

• "Jane is CTO of Acme [Source: people/jane-doe, updated 2026-04-01]"
• This lets the user trace any claim back to the brain page and assess freshness

Anti-Patterns

• Briefing without brain queries. Never generate a briefing from memory alone; always query gbrain for current data.
• Uncited facts. Every claim must include [Source: slug, updated DATE]. A fact without a citation is unverifiable.
• Stale context presented as current. If a page hasn't been updated in 30+ days, flag the staleness explicitly rather than presenting it as fresh.
• Modifying brain pages unprompted. The briefing is read-only by default. Do not create or update pages unless the user explicitly requests it.
• Ignoring coverage gaps. When a meeting participant has no brain page, say so. Silence about gaps hides ignorance.

Tools Used

• Search gbrain by name (query)
• Read a page from gbrain (get_page)
• List pages in gbrain by type (list_pages)
• Check gbrain health (get_health)
• View timeline entries in gbrain (get_timeline)

Source: garrytan/gbrain → skills/briefing/SKILL.md