Meetings — Cost Gate → Timeboxed Agenda → Owned Actions

> Portability: Reasoning-led skill with 3 stdlib Python scripts. No external APIs, no LLM calls > in scripts, nothing auto-sent. The scripts fix the discipline; the user runs the meeting.

What this does

Most meetings should be an email. This skill makes that testable: it prices a meeting in real dollars, refuses to let it exist without a decision + agenda + owner, builds a timeboxed decision-first agenda for the survivors, and afterwards turns raw notes into an owner + due-date checklist that flags every orphan. An ASYNC verdict is a win, not a failure.

Workflow — gate → agenda → run → extract

1. Gate. Before starting, ask one clarifying question if the decision to be made is unstated — the gate cannot run honestly without it. Then price it and apply the three checks. No decision → ASYNC (exit 2): draft a memo instead, stop here. Decision but missing agenda/owner → NOT-READY (exit 3), naming the gap. All present → MEET (exit 0) with total cost and a cost-per-minute line.

2. Agenda. Only for MEET. Every topic needs a desired outcome — empty outcomes are refused by name (exit 2). Decision topics (decide/choose/approve) sort before discuss/inform. Timeboxes plus the mandatory 5-minute closing "actions recap" slot must fit --length, or the overflow is refused with the exact overage (exit 3). Iterate — trim or split the named topic and re-run until it fits; the stop condition is exit 0 (or the meeting goes async). Output includes a pre-read line.

3. Run. The user runs the meeting from the printed agenda. Hold the timeboxes; use the closing slot to read every action aloud with its owner and date.

4. Extract. Feed the raw notes to the extractor: checkboxes, ACTION:/TODO: lines, "@name will …" and "Name will … by date" patterns become a checklist grouped by owner, with ORPHAN (no owner) and NO-DUE flags plus summary counts. Assign every orphan before posting — the meeting is done when every action has an owner and a date; that completion check closes the loop.

bash
# 1. Gate: should this meeting exist?
python scripts/meeting_cost_calculator.py --attendees 6 --minutes 60 \
  --avg-rate 90 --include-refocus --has-decision --has-agenda --has-owner

# 2. Agenda: timeboxed, decision-first, outcomes mandatory
python scripts/agenda_builder.py --length 45 \
  --topic "Q3 pricing:Decide usage-based vs seat-based:15:maria" \
  --topic "Launch risks:Discuss open launch blockers:15:sam"

# 4. Extract: raw notes -> owner + due-date checklist with ORPHAN/NO-DUE flags
python scripts/action_item_extractor.py --input notes.md

Scripts

| Script | Role | |---|---| | scripts/meeting_cost_calculator.py | Dollars (attendees × minutes × rate, optional 23-min refocus overhead per attendee) + decision/agenda/owner gate → ASYNC / NOT-READY / MEET. | | scripts/agenda_builder.py | Timeboxed decision-first agenda; refuses empty outcomes and overflow; enforces pre-read line + 5-min closing actions-recap slot. | | scripts/action_item_extractor.py | Raw notes → owner-grouped markdown checklist with due dates, ORPHAN/NO-DUE flags, and summary counts. |

References

• references/meeting_cost_canon.md — the real cost of meetings and the should-this-exist gate (7 sources)
• references/agenda_discipline.md — agendas as questions, timeboxing, decision-first ordering, pre-reads (7 sources)
• references/action_item_discipline.md — why meetings without owned actions are theater (6 sources)

Assets

• assets/example_agenda.md — a full worked timeboxed agenda (gate verdict → ordered topics → closing recap)
• assets/meeting_gate_worksheet.md — fillable should-this-be-a-meeting worksheet

Rules

• Gate before agenda. Never build an agenda for a meeting that hasn't passed the gate.
• No decision, no meeting. Status updates go async, every time.
• No desired outcome, no agenda slot. The builder refuses; go get the outcome.
• Every action item has an owner and a date — or it is not an action item. Flag, never drop.
• Never auto-send. No invites, no emails, no messages. Output is text the user sends.

Distinct From (don't reach for the wrong skill)

• project-management/ — team ceremonies, sprint cadence, Jira delivery flow. This gates one

meeting at a time for the person calling it.

• business-operations/internal-comms — org-level communication design. This never designs a

comms program and never sends anything.

• productivity/capture — triages a private brain-dump. This parses a shared meeting's notes.

Version: 1.0.0 Build pattern: Path-B discipline skill — meeting-science canon preserved + deterministic gate/agenda/extraction scripts added.