Transcript to Action Items

The commitments made in a meeting are worthless if no one tracks who owns what by when. This skill pulls the accountable actions out of a conversation into a clean, trackable list, so nothing agreed in the room gets lost. It is narrower and more accountable than a general summary: its only job is the task list.

1. The transcript or notes.
2. Any known owners or a preference for how to order the list.

1. Find every commitment

Scan for anything someone said they would do, anything assigned to a person, and anything explicitly deferred. Include implied commitments only when the transcript clearly supports them.

2. Capture the four fields

For each: the action, the owner (as named, or "owner TBD" if unclear), the due date (as stated, or "no date set"), and one line of context. Guessing an owner or a date is worse than leaving it blank, so do not.

3. Separate commitments from ideas

A parking-lot idea is not an action item. Keep them apart so the task list stays honest.

4. Note dependencies

Where one item blocks another, flag it so sequencing is clear.

5. Order for use

Default to due date; offer to group by owner instead.

ALWAYS use:

# Action Items: [Meeting] | [Date]
## Action items
- [ ] **Action** | Owner: [name or TBD] | Due: [date or none set] | Context: [one line]
## Parking lot (not committed)
## Dependencies to watch

• Listing things the transcript does not actually support.
• Assigning an owner who was not named (use TBD and flag).
• Inventing due dates.
• Mixing ideas into the committed list.

A standup transcript yields six action items with owners and dates, two "owner TBD" items flagged for the manager to assign, a parking-lot idea kept separate, and one dependency noted.