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 use-spark 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

spark meetings --filter "subject:topic-keyword newer_than:30d"

If the subject filter misses relevant meetings, broaden:

spark meetings --filter "newer_than:30d"

For each relevant meeting, read the summary:

spark meeting <id>

Pull full detail only for meetings where the topic was a major agenda item:

spark meeting <id> --transcript --notes

Record: date, participants, and the key points related to the topic.

Step 3: Gather email data

spark search "topic keyword"

For threads that are clearly relevant, read the full conversation:

spark thread <id>

If there are specific people associated with the topic, also pull their threads:

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

• spark search 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 --transcript 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 recipe-decision-tracker — 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.