summarization

Summarization

Produce concise, accurate summaries that capture what matters. A good summary saves the reader time while preserving the information they need to make decisions or take action.

Before You Summarize

Understand the context:

1. What type of content is this? (Business doc, technical spec, conversation, research paper, code)
2. Who is the audience? (Executive, engineer, general reader)
3. What's the purpose? (Decision-making, catch-up, reference, sharing)
4. How long should the summary be? (If not specified, scale to content complexity — not just length)

These determine which approach to use and what to emphasize.

Reference Materials

• Load summary-templates.md for ready-to-use templates for each summary type (Executive, Technical, Meeting, Research, Changelog). Use these as starting structures and adapt to the specific content.

Summarization Approaches

Choose the approach that matches the content type:

Executive Summary

For business documents, reports, proposals, and strategy decks.

Structure:

1. Bottom line first: Lead with the key decision, recommendation, or conclusion
2. Critical metrics: Include the 2-4 numbers that matter most (revenue, timeline, cost, impact)
3. Key findings: 3-5 bullet points covering what was discovered or decided
4. Risks and concerns: What could go wrong, what's uncertain
5. Next steps: Who does what by when

Example pattern:

**Recommendation:** [One sentence with the core decision]

**Key metrics:** [2-4 data points]

**Findings:**
- [Most important finding]
- [Second most important]
- [Third]

**Risks:** [1-2 key risks]

**Next steps:** [Action items with owners and deadlines]

Guidelines for executive summaries:

• Use business language, not technical jargon
• Every sentence should help the reader make a decision
• If you can't state the bottom line in one sentence, the source material may be unclear — flag this
• Include specific numbers, not vague qualifiers ("revenue grew 23%" not "revenue grew significantly")