Imported from DevinVinson/skills (skills/standup/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add DevinVinson/skills --skill standup. Copyright stays with the author.

Standup

Facilitate daily standup check-ins using markdown daily notes in a user-provided or discovered daily note directory. Many users keep these in an Obsidian-style vault, but do not hardcode a single personal path. Use date-named files in the format YYYY-MM-DD.md.

Setup and Discovery

Before editing anything, determine the daily note directory in this order:

1. If the user gave a path, use it.
2. Otherwise, look for likely daily note directories relative to the current workspace, preferring Daily/, Daily Notes/, or Notes/Daily/.
3. If multiple candidates exist or none are obvious, ask the user which directory to use.

Expected Structure

When creating a new note, prefer this structure:

# Daily Notes - YYYY-MM-DD

## Todo

## Notes

## Agent Notes

Treat ## Agent Notes as optional. Create it only when a short factual session log is useful.

When reading an existing note, be tolerant of variations. Do not reformat older files unless needed. If a note lacks a ## Todo section, use the closest equivalent section such as ## Today, or fall back to top-level checklist items while preserving the file's existing content.

Standup Flow

1. Resolve the Target Date

Use the user's requested date if they specify one. Otherwise, use the system's current local date. If the user refers to a different timezone or the date is ambiguous, ask before proceeding.

2. Check the Target-Day File

If the file exists, read it first and continue with an update-oriented standup.

If the file does not exist, create it and then find the most recent prior daily note.

3. Find the Previous Daily Note

Do not only check "yesterday." Search the daily note directory for the latest YYYY-MM-DD.md that is earlier than the target date.

• This must handle Mondays by finding Friday's note when weekend notes do not exist.
• This must also handle skipped days, vacations, and irregular standup usage.
• When the previous note is older than one day, refer to it as the "last note from YYYY-MM-DD," not "yesterday."

4. Extract Carryover Safely

Only extract carryover tasks from the main actionable task section of the previous note:

• Prefer ## Todo
• Otherwise fall back to ## Today
• Otherwise use top-level checklist items if the file is legacy or unstructured

Stop at the next same-level heading. Do not pull unchecked items from ## Notes, ## Agent Notes, audit sections, future-planning sections, transcript summaries, or any other non-primary section.

Carry forward only incomplete checklist items matching - [ ] ....

• Deduplicate repeated items with identical or near-identical wording.
• Preserve wording that helps disambiguate similar tasks.
• If the previous note contains a large backlog or stale tasks, summarize it and ask the user which items still matter instead of dumping everything into today's note.

5. Create the New Note

Initialize the new note with the standard structure.

If ## Agent Notes is present or useful, add a brief entry such as:

• Started standup for YYYY-MM-DD.
• Previous daily note found: YYYY-MM-DD.

If no earlier dated file exists, record that no previous daily note was found.

Do not automatically copy a large backlog of unchecked tasks into today's ## Todo without confirming with the user first.

6. Interactive Check-in

For new files:

1. If carryover exists, present a concise summary.

   "Good morning! I found 3 open items from your last daily note on 2026-04-29. Are these still active today?"

2. Ask what the user is working on today.
3. Add confirmed tasks under ## Todo.
4. Put context, blockers, and meeting takeaways under ## Notes.

For existing files:

1. Summarize today's ## Todo section only.
2. Ask focused questions about incomplete items.
3. Update items based on the user's response.

7. Update Behavior

• Mark completed items as - [x].
• Keep still-open items as - [ ].
• Remove items only when the user confirms they are no longer relevant.
• Save changes after each meaningful update.
• Keep ## Agent Notes short and factual when present.

8. Completion

Listen for completion signals such as:

• "all done"
• "that's it"
• "nothing else"
• "I'm good"
• "that's all"

When detected:

1. Append a short summary to ## Agent Notes if that section exists or is useful.
2. End with a positive closing message.

Interaction Guidelines

Do:

• Be specific about outstanding items.
• Ask about ambiguous or stale tasks.
• Treat Monday and post-gap standups as a continuation from the last existing note.
• Keep carryover focused and deduplicated.
• Preserve the user's existing note style when reading legacy files.

Don't:

• Say there is "no today file" and stop.
• Assume the previous note is always yesterday.
• Scan the entire previous file for unchecked boxes.
• Pull tasks from audit or reference sections.
• Flood the user with a huge backlog without triage.
• Rewrite older notes just to match the template.

Example Openings

New day after a weekend or gap:

"Good morning! I created today's daily note and found your last note from Friday, YYYY-MM-DD. You still had 3 open todo items in the main Todo section. Which of these are still active today?"

Returning to an existing day:

"Welcome back! I see 2 open items and 4 completed items in today's Todo section. What changed since the last check-in?"