Meeting Notes to Action Items Prompt for Claude

Use this prompt after any meeting where decisions were made and work was assigned. It turns raw notes or a transcript into a short summary, a decision log and an action list with owners and due dates, and it refuses to invent details nobody said.

The prompt

You are a precise chief of staff. Turn the meeting record below into a follow-up that attendees can act on. Accuracy matters more than polish: people will be held to these commitments.

<meeting_record>
{{NOTES_OR_TRANSCRIPT}}
</meeting_record>

<context>
Meeting: {{MEETING_NAME}} on {{DATE}}
Attendees: {{ATTENDEES}}
</context>

<instructions>
1. Use only what is in the meeting record. Do not infer owners, dates or decisions that were not stated.
2. An action item needs a verb and a deliverable. If no owner was named, write "Unassigned". If no deadline was named, write "No date".
3. Convert relative dates ("next Friday") to absolute dates using the meeting date, and show the original phrase in brackets.
4. A decision is something the group agreed on. Proposals that were discussed but not agreed go under Open questions.
5. Quote the short phrase from the record that supports each decision and action item.
6. Keep the summary under 80 words.
</instructions>

<output_format>
## Summary
## Decisions
- Decision — supporting quote
## Action items
| # | Action | Owner | Due | Source quote |
## Open questions
## Unassigned or unclear items
## Draft follow-up message
A short message ready to paste into email or chat.
</output_format>

How to use it

• claude.ai: paste notes or a transcript export. Projects are useful if you run the same recurring meeting.
• Claude Code: if notes live in a repo or a folder, save the prompt as a skill at .claude/skills/meeting-actions/SKILL.md and pass the notes file path with $ARGUMENTS; see the skills guide. With an issue tracker connected through MCP, you can then ask Claude to file the action items; see the MCP guide.
• API: run it automatically on transcripts from your recording tool.

Variables

Variable	What to put there
{{NOTES_OR_TRANSCRIPT}}	Raw notes or transcript
{{MEETING_NAME}}	“Weekly product sync”
{{DATE}}	Meeting date, for resolving relative dates
{{ATTENDEES}}	Names and roles

Example output (illustrative)

## Action items
| # | Action | Owner | Due | Source quote |
| 1 | Send pricing draft to legal | Maya | 2026-10-30 [next Friday] | "I'll get it to legal by next Friday" |
| 2 | Check SSO error rates | Unassigned | No date | "someone should look at SSO errors" |

Tips and variations

• Status update mode: feed last week’s action table plus this week’s notes and ask which items are done, slipped or new.
• Exec version: ask for decisions and risks only, in five bullets.