Recipe: Topic Timeline
For a given project or topic, build a unified chronological narrative by interleaving meeting discussions and email threads. Useful for catching up, briefing someone new, or preparing a status update.
Prerequisite: Read the
base skill for command reference and filter syntax.
Access level required: read-only.
Steps
Step 1: Define the scope
Ask the user for:
- The topic or project name (keywords to search on)
- The time range (default to 30 days if unspecified)
Step 2: Gather meeting data
bash
spark meetings --filter "subject:topic-keyword newer_than:30d"
If the subject filter misses relevant meetings, broaden:
bash
spark meetings --filter "newer_than:30d"
For each relevant meeting, read the summary:
Pull full detail only for meetings where the topic was a major agenda item:
bash
spark meeting <id> --transcript --notes
Record: date, participants, and the key points related to the topic.
Step 3: Gather email data
bash
spark search "topic keyword"
For threads that are clearly relevant, read the full conversation:
If there are specific people associated with the topic, also pull their threads:
bash
spark emails --filter "from:person@co.com subject:keyword newer_than:30d"
Record: date of each message, participants, and the substance.
Step 4: Merge into a timeline
Combine all entries (meetings and emails) and sort by date. For each entry:
- Date
- Channel: Meeting / Email
- Participants
- What happened: one or two sentences summarizing the key substance
Step 5: Annotate the timeline
Layer on editorial notes:
- Mark turning points where direction changed
- Flag open threads that don't have a resolution
- Note gaps — periods with no activity that might indicate stalled progress
Step 6: Present the timeline
Start with a one-paragraph executive summary of where the topic stands now, then present the full timeline oldest-to-newest. End with:
- Current status: the latest known state
- Open items: anything still unresolved
- Next touchpoint: upcoming meeting or pending email that will advance the topic
Tips
- is relevance-ranked and returns full bodies — it's the best starting point for email discovery.
- Meeting summaries usually capture the topic well enough. Reserve for meetings where you need exact quotes or attribution.
- For topics that span many months, work in chunks (e.g., month by month) to avoid overwhelming the output.
- This pairs well with — use that recipe when you only need the decision points, and this one when you need the full narrative.
- If building this for someone else (e.g., onboarding a new team member), call out any assumed context that an outsider wouldn't have.