Synthesis Meeting Transcripts

A protocol for fetching AI-generated meeting transcripts from the user's Gmail and Google Drive into a local markdown archive. Designed for teams where Google Meet + Gemini (or equivalents) produce meeting notes + word-for-word transcripts that live in Google Docs, and the user wants them mirrored locally alongside their project context.

This skill provides the protocol — how to find a meeting's Gemini-generated doc, extract both the notes summary and the full transcript, and save them to the right local folder. A per-project config file (.claude/meeting-transcripts.yaml) provides the specifics: which Google account, which meeting patterns to recognize, where to save locally.

This skill is tool-agnostic. It works with:

• Anthropic's hosted Claude Connectors for Gmail + Drive (single-account, most common)
• Self-hosted multi-account servers like taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp (a bundled auto-start helper is in optional-workspace-mcp/)
• Any other MCP that provides equivalent Gmail search + Drive file read capabilities

The skill describes the workflow; it does not prescribe which tools must be used.

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Configuration

Create .claude/meeting-transcripts.yaml in each project that uses this skill:

# .claude/meeting-transcripts.yaml — Meeting transcript sync configuration

# REQUIRED
workspace: example-workspace
# Identifier for the workspace. Determines transcript subdirectory:
#   {transcripts_path}/{workspace}/meetings/

google_account: user@example.com
# The Google account whose Gmail/Drive will be searched.
# With Anthropic hosted connectors: must match the account authenticated in Claude Connectors.
# With workspace-mcp: any authenticated account.

transcripts_path: projects/_transcripts/
# Relative to ai_knowledge_repo. Meetings land in {transcripts_path}/{workspace}/meetings/

ai_knowledge_repo: ~/projects/ai-knowledge
# Absolute path to the ai-knowledge repo where transcripts are stored.

# OPTIONAL — Named meeting patterns
# Maps a short name the user types ("pull the standup") to a Drive search query.
# The query is a Drive API v3 search expression matched against doc names.
# Values with unspecified patterns fall back to the generic {{name}} pattern.
meeting_patterns:
  standup: 'name contains "Daily Standup" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'
  retro: 'name contains "Retrospective" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'
  # Add your team's common meetings here.

# OPTIONAL — Generic fallback pattern for meetings not in meeting_patterns.
# {{name}} is substituted with the user's natural-language meeting name.
generic_pattern: 'name contains "{{name}}" and name contains "Notes by Gemini"'

# OPTIONAL — Filename date format for saved transcripts. Default: YYYY-MM-DD
# Produces: {transcripts_path}/{workspace}/meetings/{meeting-name-slug}-{date}.md
filename_date_format: "YYYY-MM-DD"

If the config file is missing, the skill should warn and ask the user to create one. A minimal working config has workspace, google_account, transcripts_path, ai_knowledge_repo.

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Prerequisites

• A Gmail MCP and a Drive MCP must both be connected and authenticated for google_account. This skill doesn't care which specific MCPs — it will use whatever Gmail/Drive tools are available in the session.
• Local transcript directory must exist or be creatable at {ai_knowledge_repo}/{transcripts_path}/{workspace}/meetings/.

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Protocol

Step 1: Resolve the meeting

Accept a natural-language meeting reference from the user (e.g., "today's standup", "Monday's PDE sync", "the 2 pm design review"). Extract:

• Meeting name — lookup in meeting_patterns first; fall back to generic_pattern with the meeting name substituted.
• Date — parse relative dates ("today", "yesterday", "Monday") against the system date. Verify with date before using.
• Account — usually google_account from config, but user may override ("from my work account" or "from my personal account" when multiple are configured).

Step 2: Find the Gemini meeting doc

Use the available Drive search tool to find docs matching the resolved pattern with a modifiedTime filter bracketing the target date. Typical query:

name contains "Daily Standup" and name contains "Notes by Gemini" and modifiedTime > "2026-04-21T00:00:00" and modifiedTime < "2026-04-22T00:00:00"

If no docs match:

• Retry with a broader window (±1 day) in case of timezone drift.
• If still no match, search Gmail for the corresponding Gemini notes email (from:gemini-notes@google.com with subject containing the meeting name on the target date) — the email usually links to the doc.
• If still no match, report to user and stop. Do not guess or fabricate.

If multiple match:

• Prefer the doc whose name exactly contains the date.
• If ambiguity remains, list candidates and ask the user to pick.

Step 3: Fetch the doc content

Use the available Drive file-read tool to fetch the full content. Gemini notes docs typically have two tabs:

1. Notes — summary, next steps, paraphrased details with timestamps
2. Transcript — word-for-word transcription with speaker attribution

A well-behaved Drive file-read tool returns both tabs in a single fetch (verified: workspace-mcp's get_drive_file_content does this). If the tool only returns the first tab, note the limitation and fetch the second tab explicitly via the Docs API tabs feature if available.

Step 4: Save to local transcript archive

Write to {ai_knowledge_repo}/{transcripts_path}/{workspace}/meetings/{meeting-slug}-{date}.md with this header:

# {Meeting Title} — {Weekday}, {Month} {Day}, {Year}

**Source:** Gemini meeting notes + full transcript
**Google Doc:** {doc URL}
**Fetched via:** {tool used} ({google_account}) — {fetch date}
**Meeting start:** {time if known} | **Duration:** {duration if known}

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{full doc content — both tabs}

If a file already exists at that path:

• Check if it's identical to what was just fetched. If yes, report "already synced" and skip.
• If different (Gemini sometimes regenerates), prefer the newly-fetched version but preserve the old one as {path}.old-{timestamp}.md so nothing is lost.

Step 5: Update indices (optional)

If the project uses a daily action plan or CONTEXT.md that tracks meeting transcripts:

• Add a reference to the saved transcript.
• Note any decisions / action items surfaced in the Notes section.

Step 6: Cleanup and commit

• Never leave downloaded transcripts in ~/Downloads/. The whole point of this skill is to bypass that path.
• Commit the new transcript file to the ai_knowledge_repo with a descriptive message.
• Push if the repo is normally push-on-save.

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When Multi-Account Matters

Anthropic's hosted Gmail and Drive connectors support one Google account each (as of early 2026). If the user routinely needs transcripts from a work account different from their personal account, they'll hit this limit.

Workarounds:

1. Switch the connector account. Works if the user primarily uses one account. Tedious if they switch often.
2. Use a self-hosted multi-account MCP server. Recommended: taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp. A bundled setup helper is in this skill's optional-workspace-mcp/ directory — it provides start.sh, stop.sh, install-autostart.sh (macOS + Linux), and a cross-platform fetch-meeting.sh that shells out to the MCP server directly for deterministic pulls.
3. Use one Claude account per Google account. Claude Desktop can run two separate instances (macOS: open -n -a "Claude" --args --user-data-dir=...), each signed into a different Claude account with different connectors. Heaviest setup.

The skill's Step 2 and Step 3 work identically across all three paths. Config only needs to specify google_account; how authentication is wired up is the user's problem to solve once.

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Date Verification

Before writing any dated file, cross-check the target date against at least two independent signals:

1. The system date (date)
2. The Google Doc's modifiedTime from Drive search results
3. The user's stated meeting date if explicit

Same discipline as the sibling Slack sync skill in this repo. The currentDate system value is captured at session start — if a session crosses midnight, that cached value goes stale and subsequent dates will be wrong.

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Integration With synthesis-daily-rituals

This skill can be invoked from the daily rituals' Day-Start Step 2b ("Meeting Transcripts") as an automated alternative to the manual Downloads-folder-scanning path. The rituals skill calls this one with the day's scheduled meetings (from the calendar MCP, if configured), fetching transcripts for any that have already completed.

See the daily rituals skill for the integration contract.

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Why Tool-Agnostic Matters

Most teams use Anthropic's hosted Gmail + Drive connectors — that's the default and it works. This skill is intentionally built so that the common path "just works" with the default connectors. The multi-account self-hosted route exists for users like the author whose work life spans multiple Google Workspace domains, but it's deliberately optional and lives in a subdirectory so it doesn't clutter the core workflow for users who don't need it.

If a future MCP ecosystem produces a multi-account Gmail/Drive connector with Anthropic-hosted convenience, this skill should work against that too with zero changes. The workflow stays; the tool bindings update.