---
name: availability-proposal-format
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/availability-proposal-format@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: abd5eceddbe8
---

# Availability Proposal Format

Someone asks you to suggest times for a meeting. The times themselves are already
conflict-free — some upstream check has confirmed the calendar is open. Your job is the
*offer*: how those times get presented so the recipient can reply with a single pick.

Handed this, base models produce a wall of options — every open half-hour across the next
week, hedged with "I also have other slots if none of these work," clock times with no
timezone or only the sender's, no ranking, and often a slot that quietly violates something
the requester already said. A good offer is the opposite: short, ranked, unambiguous about
timezone, and clean of anything they told you to avoid.

## The offer form

1. **Give exactly the number asked for.** If they want three times, offer three — not two,
   not five. If no number is stated, offer a small ranked set (two or three), never an
   exhaustive dump of every open block.

2. **Rank them, best first.** Order carries meaning: the first slot is your recommendation,
   the last is the fallback. Don't present them as an unordered pool.

3. **Annotate every slot with the relevant timezone(s).** A bare clock time is ambiguous
   the moment more than one zone is in play. When participants span timezones, show each
   proposed time in *every* relevant zone (for example, a slot rendered as both the East
   Coast time and the London time), not just yours. When only one zone is involved, still
   name it once so there is no guessing.

4. **Honor every stated constraint on all slots.** Duration, day-of-week limits, "afternoons
   only," "not before 10," a hard deadline to meet by — whatever they said, every slot in
   the offer satisfies all of it. One convenient-but-non-conforming slot spoils the offer.

5. **Never propose a slot inside a declared no-meeting window.** If they keep mornings for
   focus, block lunch, or hold no meetings after a certain hour, nothing in the offer may
   fall in that window — not even the last-resort option. A no-meeting window is a hard
   floor, not a soft preference to trade against convenience.

6. **One clean offer, not a catalog.** Resist padding with "and I'm fairly open otherwise"
   or listing every remaining opening. A tight ranked set is easier to answer than a grid.

## When the constraints don't leave enough room

If you cannot produce the requested number of valid slots without breaking a constraint or
entering a no-meeting window, do not pad the list to hit the count. Offer the valid slots
you do have, say plainly that the constraints allow only that many, and name what would
have to give (a wider date range, a shorter duration) to get more. Fewer honest slots beat
the requested count with one rule quietly broken.