# Digest format The digest is the product. Everything else this skill does is upstream of it. **Target: ninety seconds to read.** The owner is holding coffee. If it takes longer than that, the triage was too loose, not the format too tight. --- ## Shape 1. **One-line headline** — how much came in, how much needs them. 2. **Needs you** — ranked by consequence, each with the ask in one line and what happens if it waits. 3. **Drafted and waiting** — sender, one-line summary of the reply, grouped where similar. 4. **Handed off** — one line each, naming the receiving skill *and what happens next*: where the item now sits and what the owner says to pick it up (e.g. "→ ap-processor — bill staged there; say 'process my bills' to review"). A handoff line the owner can't act on is a dead end. 5. **Covered by someone else** — threads a colleague already answered. One line each, no draft written. 6. **Handled** — a single count with categories, ending with a fixed suffix so the owner knows what "handled" means: "filed and archived — nothing needs you; ask to see any category." 7. **The approval prompt** — one question. The draft bodies come after the digest, not inside it. In the artifact rendering, each draft body is a copy block (the style guide's copy-button component) so a single reply can be copied and sent by hand without approving the batch. The digest stays skimmable; the full text of every draft follows underneath it, in the same order as the drafted list, so the owner can read any one before approving. Needs-you always goes first. Chronological order buries the item that matters. --- ## Worked example — Okonkwo Mechanical ``` 63 emails since yesterday. 4 need you. NEEDS YOU 1. Bexar County — mechanical license renewal, USD 340, expires Friday. Needs your signature. Missing it stops three active jobs. 2. Delgado Properties — change order, USD 4,200, two extra rooftop units at Rosewood. Ellen needs yes or no before Thursday's board meeting. 3. Marisol Reyes — second email, unit still cycling after last week's service. First one was Thursday, unanswered. I've drafted an acknowledgement but this needs a call. 4. Fitzgerald & Co — you told Tom you'd have a price Wednesday. It's Wednesday. DRAFTED — 11 ready to send 3 scheduling replies (Dana Whitfield, Corley, Nguyen) 2 supplier confirmations (Ferguson, Johnstone) 4 routine service questions 2 referral thank-yous HANDED OFF — 3 Ferguson invoice #88214, USD 1,847 → ap-processor — staged with your other bills; say "process my bills" to review Sid Harvey statement, USD 612 → ap-processor — same payment run as above Web inquiry, Alamo Heights homeowner, 11:40pm → speed-to-lead — first reply drafted there, waiting on your approval COVERED BY SOMEONE ELSE — 2 Nguyen warranty question — Teresa answered it 9:15am Corley reschedule — Teresa confirmed Friday HANDLED — 48 26 receipts · 11 newsletters · 7 shipping · 4 platform notices Filed and archived — nothing needs you. Ask to see any category. Send all 11 drafts, or review them one at a time? --- DRAFTS --- 1. To Dana Whitfield — re: Thursday walkthrough Hi Dana, Thursday at 9 works. I'll bring the plan for all six buildings. Thanks, Ray (…the other ten, same shape…) ``` --- ## The approval prompt One question, two ways to answer. Not three. ``` Send all 11 drafts, or review them one at a time? ``` **Never send before the answer.** Drafting is automatic because it saves the hour. Sending is not, because every reply carries the owner's name and becomes a commitment they will be held to. If the owner says "send all," send all and report what went out. If they say review, show one at a time with the original above the draft, so they can see what is being answered. --- ## When there is no connector Same digest, different last line. The drafts are the deliverable: ``` Here are the 11 drafts, ready to copy into your mail client. Want them as one file or one at a time? ``` That is a complete outcome, not a degraded one. The owner still skipped the hour of triage and the hour of writing. --- ## What to leave out - **Subject lines in bulk.** A list of 63 subjects is the problem restated. - **Explanations of how the sorting worked.** The owner cares that it is right, not how. - **Anything in the handled bucket, itemized.** A count and categories. They can ask. - **Confidence hedging on every item.** If you were unsure about one, say so on that one.