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.