Things Week Ahead Digest

Build a repeatable Things planning digest with four sections:

• Snapshot
• Recently Active
• Week/Weekend Ahead
• Suggestions

Inputs

Collect data with Things MCP tools:

1. things_read_areas
2. things_read_projects with status="open"
3. things_read_todos with status="open" (set limit high enough for a full view, usually 300-500)
4. things_read_todos with status="completed" and completed_after=<today-7d>
5. Optional: things_read_todo for top candidate tasks (include_notes=true) when notes/checklist signals are needed

If any call fails because of permissions, report the missing permission and continue with the best available subset.

Workflow

1. Build urgency buckets from open todos:

• overdue: deadline < today
• due soon: deadline <= today + 3 days
• week/weekend ahead: deadline between today and today + 4 days

2. Score recent activity by project and area using:

• recent completions (last 7 days)
• open tasks
• due soon / overdue counts
• checklist-like hints from notes (- [ ], - [x], multiline bullet blocks)

3. Identify top active projects/areas from the score.
4. Generate 3-5 concrete suggestions:

• one next action for top projects
• one risk/triage action for overdue work
• one planning action for weekend or Monday readiness when relevant

5. Format with the template in references/output-format.md.

Keep tone concise and operational. Prefer verbs and specific task titles over generic advice.

Scripts

Use scripts/build_digest.py when deterministic scoring/formatting is preferred (automation, repeatability, large datasets).

python3 scripts/build_digest.py \
  --areas areas.json \
  --projects projects.json \
  --open-todos open_todos.json \
  --recent-done recent_done.json

The script reads JSON exported from Things MCP responses and prints Markdown digest output.

Automation Templates

Use $things-week-ahead-digest inside automation prompts so Codex reliably loads this workflow.

For ready-to-fill Codex App and Codex CLI (codex exec) templates, including Things MCP fallback guidance, placeholders, and customization knobs, use:

• references/automation-prompts.md

References

• Scoring and suggestion rules: references/suggestion-rules.md
• Output shape and section template: references/output-format.md
• Automation prompt templates: references/automation-prompts.md