How to Write a Five-Line Meeting Recap Email
A 10-minute writing skill for a meeting recap email people actually read. Five lines only: the decision, the owner, the date, one open question, and the next meeting. Ban a transcript dump. ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, then one human pass.
Anyone who just left a call can write a meeting recap email in 10 minutes: five lines only — the decision, the owner, the date, one open question, and the next meeting. Run it in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini before a transcript dump trains the room to archive without reading.
A meeting recap email is a routing slip, not minutes. Five lines tell a person who missed the room what changed and who owes what by when.
This skill is after the meeting. If you still need chairs and a clock, that is turning a Slack thread into a meeting agenda. An agenda is a plan. A recap is a receipt. If the source is a raw transcript, pull action items from the meeting transcript first, then force five lines. Do not paste the transcript into the email.
This loop is a skill. Read what a skill prompt actually is. If the recap has to land with someone already tense, finish the difficult email reply as a separate pass.
Write a meeting recap email in five lines
1. Name the one decision, not the hour
Instruct ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini: "Do not draft an email yet. Write one line: We decided [verb plus object]. If I did not name a decision, write UNKNOWN and stop. No summary. No we aligned."
Paste notes, not a dump of every joke. A model that invents consensus is lying on your behalf.
Banned: as discussed, circling back, recap below, we aligned, lots of good discussion, FYI.
2. Name one owner and one date
Send the decision line back. Instruct: "Line two is one named owner. Line three is one date with a time zone if the work crosses regions. Not a team. Not EOD. If I named no owner, write UNKNOWN. Do not invent a colleague."
Good: "Owner: Priya Chen." Good: "Due: Thursday 28 Aug, 17:00 WIB." Bad: "The product team will follow up next week." The product team is not a person. Next week is not a date.
If the owner has not agreed, do not put their name in. Ask first.
3. One open question, then the next meeting
Instruct: "Line four is one open question, or NONE. Line five is the next meeting as a weekday, date, and time, or No next meeting. Do not add a parking lot. Do not list three questions."
An open question is a blocker with a fact missing. "What is the budget cap?" counts. "Thoughts?" does not.
ChatGPT will add a warm hello. Claude will hedge the decision into leaning toward. Gemini will turn the next meeting into we should reconnect. Cut all three.
4. Force five lines, then stop the model
Now ask for the draft. Hard cap: five lines. No greeting. No sign-off. No quote from the transcript.
Tell the model: "Output exactly five lines labeled Decision, Owner, Date, Open question, Next meeting. If a banned phrase appears, rewrite the whole thing. Do not add a sixth line for context."
If a sixth line appears, you have minutes. Delete it.
5. One human pass against the calendar
Read the five lines as if you missed the call and have to act today.
Check three traps:
- A decision that is actually a topic. Pricing is a topic. Ship the $29 plan on Friday is a decision.
- An owner who does not know they own it.
- A date that does not match the calendar hold.
Fix those in your own words. Then send the edited five back: "Replace only the words I changed. Do not re-expand."
One pass. A second pass is how five lines become a novel. Paste them. Subject is the decision, not Recap. If a transcript is in the body, you have a dump. Stop.
Reusable skill card
Trigger: You just left a meeting and the draft in your head still starts with As discussed, here are the notes.
Input: The one decision in a verb-plus-object sentence, one named owner who agreed, one date, one open question or NONE, the next meeting or No next meeting, plus the banned-phrase list.
Output: Five lines labeled Decision, Owner, Date, Open question, Next meeting. No greeting. No transcript. UNKNOWN where a field is missing.
Stop: After one human pass against the calendar. No sixth line. No invented owner. No we should sync soon.
Takeaways
- Five lines: decision, owner, date, open question, next meeting. Then send.
- A transcript dump is not a recap. Ban it, then ban the synonyms.
- UNKNOWN on the owner or date is better than a model guessing the team.
- This is after the meeting. The agenda skill is before. Do not merge them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add a sixth line for context?
No. Context is a link or a pre-read. A sixth line is how five lines become minutes nobody opens.
What if the meeting made three decisions?
Send three recaps, or pick the decision that has an owner and a date. Three decisions in one five-line note is a transcript with better punctuation.
Should I use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for this?
Any of the three works. Claude is strict with the five-line cap. ChatGPT is fast at names and dates. Gemini is fine. All three will dump the transcript unless you ban it.
How is this different from pulling action items from a transcript?
Action items are a list you keep. A meeting recap email is five lines you send. Do not paste the list into the email. Run that skill first if you need the list, then force five lines.
What if no next meeting was booked?
Line five is "No next meeting" or a date you actually put on a calendar. Do not write "we should sync soon." Soon is not a meeting.