Meeting Minutes to Action Register Prompt

Start here

Paste the prompt into any ordinary AI chat that accepts text. Then paste your meeting-minute draft under the heading MINUTES, in the same message or as a follow-up. Nothing else is needed: no terminal, no accounts, no integrations.

What to paste

• The complete prompt text (appended with this asset).
• Your raw minutes: attendees, decisions, discussion notes, action-like sentences, incomplete placeholders. Rough is fine.

Where to paste

An ordinary AI chat window that accepts text. The prompt tells the model to wait for MINUTES before working, so you can send the prompt first and the draft second.

How to check the output

• Does every register row trace to a phrase in your minutes? Delete anything that does not.
• Are Owner, Due date and Status blank wherever your draft was silent, instead of filled with guesses?
• Are tentative words like "maybe", "should" or "could" kept tentative rather than upgraded into commitments?
• Does section D list at least one question per field you left blank?

If the register invents an attendee, owner or deadline, reject that row and re-run with the instruction to leave blanks.

What this prompt does

A rough minute draft mixes decisions, discussion and half-formed follow-ups. The prompt converts it into five sections: a meeting snapshot, a Markdown action register (number, faithful wording, owner, due date, status, source quote, notes), decisions recorded, open questions, and a short confidence-and-limits note. It also flags duplicates, dependencies, vague wording and role-unconfirmed owners.

Limits and privacy

• This is a drafting task only. The prompt does not send messages, assign work, schedule anything, or update any system.
• It does not browse or look up names, and gives no legal, financial or HR advice.
• Output quality depends entirely on the pasted text. A fragment produces a partial register, labelled as such.
• Meeting minutes often contain personal or confidential information. Check your own organisation's rules before pasting content into a third-party AI tool.
• source reviewed; runtime not tested.

FAQ

My minutes have no owner or date anywhere. Is the register still useful? Yes. The prompt leaves those columns blank throughout and repeats that fact in section E, so the register shows exactly which facts a human still needs to confirm.

The model filled in a plausible owner anyway. What now? Delete the invented value, restore the blank, and re-run with a reminder that a blank is better than a guess. Then verify each remaining row against its source quote.

Complete reusable prompt

You are helping me convert a rough meeting minute draft into a clean action register. Work only from the text I paste. Do not invent attendees, owners, deadlines, decisions, or outcomes. This is a drafting task: you are preparing a register I can review, not sending messages, assigning work, or updating any system.

INPUT I WILL PROVIDE I will paste a meeting minute draft below under the heading MINUTES. It may contain:

• meeting title or date
• attendees or roles
• decisions
• discussion notes
• action-like sentences, some vague
• incomplete placeholders

YOUR TASK

1. Read the MINUTES once and identify every sentence or fragment that implies a future action, follow-up, or deliverable.
2. Turn each into one register row. Keep the wording faithful to the source; do not upgrade a suggestion into a commitment.
3. For each row, populate only what the source supports. Leave owner, due date, and status BLANK where the source does not name them. A blank is better than a guess. If the source strongly implies a role but no name, write the role and mark it as unconfirmed.
4. Separate true decisions from actions. Decisions are not actions unless the source states a next step.
5. Flag rows that are duplicates, overlapping, or depend on another row.
6. List every unresolved question the register cannot answer from the supplied text.

OUTPUT FORMAT Return these sections in this order:

A. Meeting snapshot

• Title/date as stated, or Unknown
• Attendees/roles as stated, or Unknown
• Total action-like items found

B. Action register Use a Markdown table with these columns: | # | Action (faithful wording) | Owner | Due date | Status | Source quote/phrase | Notes | Rules: leave Owner, Due date, Status blank if unknown. In Source quote/phrase put the exact snippet or a close paraphrase marked as such. In Notes, mark duplicate, dependency, vague, or role-unconfirmed.

C. Decisions recorded Bullet list of decisions only, each with the source phrase. If none, write None stated.

D. Open questions before follow-up Numbered list of missing inputs, naming exactly which register row each question affects. Examples: who owns row 3; is the date in row 5 a deadline or a meeting date; are rows 2 and 6 the same task.

E. Confidence and limits One short paragraph: what the register cannot establish from the draft, and what a human must confirm.

EXAMPLE (fictional, labelled) MINUTES (mini): "Standup 12 May. Priya said the client deck needs a final pass. Tom will chase the invoice, maybe by Friday. We agreed to keep the old logo for now. Someone should update the shared folder."

Illustrative output shape:

• Snapshot: Standup, 12 May; attendees: Priya, Tom (roles Unknown); 3 action-like items.
• Register row 1: Action = Final pass on client deck | Owner = blank | Due = blank | Status = blank | Source = "client deck needs a final pass" | Notes = possibly Priya, unconfirmed.
• Register row 2: Action = Chase the invoice | Owner = Tom | Due = blank ("maybe by Friday" is tentative) | Status = blank | Notes = date uncertain.
• Register row 3: Action = Update the shared folder | Owner = blank | Due = blank | Notes = vague; no named person.
• Decisions: keep the old logo for now.
• Open questions: 1. Who owns row 1? 2. Is Friday a firm date for row 2? 3. Who owns row 3 and what does "update" mean?

CHECKS BEFORE YOU FINISH

• Does every row trace to a phrase in MINUTES? If not, delete it.
• Are Owner, Due date, and Status blank wherever the source is silent?
• Did you avoid converting tentative language ("maybe", "should", "could") into firm commitments?
• Did you list at least one open question per unknown field you left blank?
• Did you avoid adding new actions not present in the text?

BOUNDARIES

• Do not browse, look up names, send anything, or schedule work.
• Do not give legal, financial, or HR advice.
• If MINUTES is empty or contains no action-like content, say so and stop.
• If the draft is too garbled to parse, list what you could read and mark the rest unreadable.

MISSING INPUT HANDLING If I paste only a fragment, produce the register for that fragment and state clearly at the top: Partial input received. If no date or owner appears anywhere, leave those columns blank throughout and repeat that fact in section E rather than filling them in.

Now wait for me to paste MINUTES.

References and reuse

• ChatGPT release notes · Reviewed 2026-10-04

Original TokRepo prompt · CC BY 4.0. Reference documents retain their own rights.