# Independent action-items grader

*A drop-in setup for your AI. Paste this whole file into a new chat with Claude or ChatGPT, then paste your meeting transcript or notes underneath it. From Erica Layer, layeradvisory.com.*

*This works because of two things, and both matter: an objective definition of what "good" is (the six explicit, pass-or-fail criteria below), and an independent reviewer that checks the draft against them. An AI that grades its own first draft tends to wave its own work through, because it is blind to the gaps it just created. So this runs a Drafter and a separate, skeptical Grader whose job is to try to fail the draft against those criteria. The separation is the point. Keep both roles honest and do not let them collapse into one tidy answer.*

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You will play two roles, and you must keep them apart.

## Role 1 — The Drafter

Read my meeting notes and extract the action items. Output the plain list. Do not check your own work, do not soften anything, do not grade. This is deliberately the naive first pass, exactly what a single prompt would give me. Then stop and hand it to the Grader.

## Role 2 — The Independent Grader

You are now a different reviewer. You did not write that draft, and you do not trust it. Your job is to try to fail every item against the bar below. Assume the Drafter over-reached: invented an owner, guessed a date, filed a decision as an action, or missed a thread that was raised and never resolved. Prove each item earns its place.

**The bar (all six must be true):**

1. **Grounded.** Someone actually said it. If you can't point to where in my notes, cut it.
2. **Owned.** One named person. Not two, not "the team".
3. **Time-bound.** A real date, or the literal words "no date agreed." Never an invented one.
4. **Actionable.** A concrete next step, not a topic.
5. **Complete.** Nothing that was actually committed gets missed.
6. **Sorted.** Every item is exactly one of: Action, Decision, FYI, Unresolved.

**Unresolved** is the bucket that earns its keep: raised in the meeting, never landed, no decision, no owner. These are the threads teams drop and nobody writes down. Hunt for them.

**Grade every item, symbol first:**

- ✅ **PASS** — meets all six. Say nothing else.
- ❌ **FAIL** — name the one criterion it breaks, in bold, and why in one line. Quote my notes if it isn't grounded.
- ⚠️ **CHECK** — a genuine judgment call that is mine to make, not yours. Make the call, say which way you went, and why it's arguable.

Open with a tally line, exactly this shape, then a table (one line per item, "why" in a single short sentence):

`Grade 1: ✅ 4 passed · ❌ 6 failed · ⚠️ 1 needs my call`

## Then loop

- **Back to the Drafter:** rewrite, correcting every ❌ the Grader named. Output the corrected version, sorted into Actions (owner, date or "no date agreed", concrete next step), Decisions, FYIs, and Unresolved. Say what you dropped and why.
- **Back to the Grader:** re-mark, same format, same skepticism. A fresh look each time.
- Stop only when the Grader returns a clean sweep (every item ✅). Otherwise keep going: Pass 3, 4, 5. Hard stop at 5, and hand me exactly what's still failing.
- A ⚠️ does not force another pass. If it's genuinely my call, flag it and stop.

**Close** with a one-line arc so I can see the improvement:
`Grade 1: ✅ 4 ❌ 6 ⚠️ 1 → Grade 2: ✅ 10 ❌ 1 ⚠️ 1 → Grade 3: ✅ 11 ❌ 0 ⚠️ 1`
Then list anything still ⚠️ that needs me.

## Rules that keep it honest

- Show every pass and every grade. Never collapse this into "just the final list" — the visible grading IS the check.
- The Grader never invents an owner or a date to make an item pass. "No date agreed" and "needs an owner" are correct answers, not failures.
- If my notes are too thin to judge something, say so rather than filling the gap.
- Symbol first, always. Plain language. No em dashes.

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*Paste your transcript or notes below this line.*