When to use this prompt
After any meeting where decisions or commitments were made and you have a transcript or detailed notes. The goal is to convert ambient discussion into specific tasks that someone owns and can act on tomorrow morning.
Most meeting summaries fail because they document discussion, not action. This prompt forces structured action item output that is ready to paste into Asana, Linear, ClickUp, or whatever task system you use.
The prompt
<role>Executive assistant turning meeting transcripts into clean follow-up artifacts.</role>
<task>From the transcript below, produce three artifacts: a two-sentence summary, an action item checklist, and a list of open questions the meeting did not resolve.</task>
<inputs>
<meeting_date>[DATE]</meeting_date>
<attendees>[LIST]</attendees>
<purpose>[PURPOSE]</purpose>
<transcript>
[PASTE TRANSCRIPT]
</transcript>
</inputs>
<instructions>
1. Summary: exactly two sentences. Sentence 1 states what was decided or agreed. Sentence 2 states the most important thing for someone who was not in the room.
2. Action items: every item must follow this exact format on a single line:
- [ ] **Owner**: Action verb + specific deliverable. Due: YYYY-MM-DD. Context: one short sentence.
- Every action item starts with an action verb (Send, Draft, Review, Decide, Confirm, Schedule). Do not use "look into," "circle back," or "explore."
- Every action item has a named owner. Use "TBD" only if the transcript truly does not name anyone.
- Every action item has a date in YYYY-MM-DD format. If the transcript is vague, infer a reasonable interval from the meeting date and append [date estimated].
- Context is exactly one sentence so a person outside the meeting could act on the item.
3. Open questions: list questions the meeting raised but did not resolve. These are not action items. Limit to 5.
4. Do not invent action items that are not implied by the transcript. If the transcript has no clear action items, output "No action items captured in transcript."
</instructions>
<output_format>
**Summary:** [two sentences]
**Action items:**
- [ ] **Owner**: Verb + deliverable. Due: YYYY-MM-DD. Context: one sentence.
- [ ] ...
**Open questions:**
- [Question 1]
- [Question 2]
</output_format>How it works
The action verb requirement forces clarity. “Look into pricing options” is not a task; “Send updated pricing options to Maria by Friday” is. Most meeting tools generate the first version. The constraint here forces the second.
The exact YYYY-MM-DD date format is a 2025 best practice for getting reliable, parseable output. Frontier models follow format specs literally; vague specs (“a date”) produce vague results.
The “do not invent action items” line is a hallucination guard. Without it, models fill the action list to look productive even when the transcript has none. The explicit “No action items captured in transcript” fallback gives the model a way to be honest.
The “open questions” section is critical and almost always missing from meeting summaries. The questions a meeting fails to resolve are usually more important than the ones it did. Surfacing them prevents them from quietly dying between meetings.
Example output
Summary: The team agreed to launch the pricing page test on May 14 with three variants targeting mid-market buyers, and to delay the homepage hero refresh until results are in. The biggest open question for anyone outside the room is whether sales will need updated talking points before the test runs.
Action items:
- Maria: Send the three pricing variants to design for mockups. Due: 2026-05-09. Context: Variants are based on the analyst’s three buyer-persona segments from the April brief.
- David: Confirm the test slot with the analytics team and reserve traffic. Due: 2026-05-10. Context: Need at least 14 days of clean traffic for the test to reach significance.
- TBD: Decide whether to brief sales before launch or after. Due: 2026-05-12 [date estimated]. Context: Mentioned briefly but no owner assigned.
Open questions:
- Should the test include a fourth variant for enterprise buyers, or is mid-market scoped intentionally?
- Who is responsible for tearing down losing variants after the test ends?
Variations
- Decision-focused version: For meetings where the goal is a decision rather than action items, swap the action item section for a “Decisions made / decisions deferred” section.
- Customer call version: For sales or success calls, add a “buyer signals” section calling out language the customer used that signals intent or objection.
- Standup version: For recurring standups, use the same format but require the action items to be tied to the previous standup’s open items so progress is traceable across meetings.