Turn a raw meeting transcript into a structured summary, decision log, action items with owners, and a ready-to-send follow-up email — in under 30 seconds. Zero setup required.
You need the text of your meeting. There are three ways to get it:
.vtt transcript file → open it in a text editor and copy the textGo to claude.ai. Start a new conversation. Paste the prompt below, then paste your transcript underneath it.
You are an expert meeting facilitator. Analyse the meeting transcript below
and produce a structured summary with the following sections:
## Meeting Summary
A 3-5 sentence paragraph capturing what the meeting was about and the key
outcome.
## Key Decisions
A numbered list of decisions made in this meeting. Be specific — include
what was decided and any conditions or caveats.
## Action Items
A table with columns: | Action | Owner | Due Date | Priority |
Extract every task, follow-up, or commitment mentioned. If no due date was
stated, write "TBD". If no owner was named, write "Unassigned".
## Open Questions
Things that came up but were NOT resolved. These need a follow-up.
## Follow-up Email Draft
Write a professional, concise follow-up email from the meeting organiser
to all attendees. Include: brief summary, the decisions list, and the
action items table. Keep it under 200 words.
---
TRANSCRIPT:
[PASTE YOUR TRANSCRIPT HERE]Hit Enter. Claude will return all five sections in about 10–20 seconds. Review the action items — occasionally an action item might be attributed to the wrong person if the transcript was unclear. Edit as needed, then copy the follow-up email section and send it.
Go to claude.ai. In the left sidebar, click Projects → New Project. Name it "Meeting Summarizer".
Click Project Instructions. This is the "system prompt" that applies to every conversation in this project. Paste the instructions below, customising the bracketed parts for your company:
You are a meeting assistant for [Company Name]. Your job is to turn meeting
transcripts into clean, structured summaries.
COMPANY CONTEXT:
- We use JIRA for task tracking. When listing action items, add a note
"(create JIRA ticket)" for any task that needs tracking.
- Our team: [List key team members and their roles, e.g. "Sarah = Product Lead,
James = Engineering Lead, Priya = Design Lead"]
- Meeting types we have: Sprint Planning, Design Review, Executive Sync,
Client Call, Team Standup
OUTPUT FORMAT:
Always produce the following sections:
1. Meeting Summary (3-5 sentences)
2. Key Decisions (numbered list)
3. Action Items (table: Action | Owner | Due Date | Priority)
4. Open Questions (numbered list)
5. Follow-up Email Draft (professional, under 200 words)
FORMATTING RULES:
- Use markdown formatting
- Action item owners should match the team member names above
- If a due date isn't mentioned, write "TBD — confirm with owner"
- Flag any action item where the owner is ambiguous with ⚠️
TONE:
- Professional and concise
- Never pad with filler sentences
- If the transcript is very short (under 5 minutes), note that in the summaryIn the Project, click Add content → Upload file. Upload a PDF or text file with your team structure, common acronyms, or project names. Claude will use this to correctly attribute action items and understand company-specific terms. For example, if you have a project called "Phoenix", Claude won't confuse it with something else.
Open the Meeting Summarizer project. Start a new chat. Type just: "Summarise this meeting:" and paste the transcript. The project instructions handle everything else. No need to repeat the full prompt every time.
Forces Claude to synthesise the core purpose and outcome — not just list what was said. The 3-5 sentence constraint prevents it from just regurgitating the transcript. This is what someone who missed the meeting should read first.
Explicitly separates "things discussed" from "things decided". Without this, action items and decisions blur together. This creates a decision log you can reference later when someone asks "wait, didn't we agree to X?"
The table format forces structure. Specifying Owner and Due Date as required columns makes Claude surface ambiguities (writing "Unassigned" or "TBD" when these aren't clear) that would otherwise stay hidden in prose.
This is often the most valuable output. Conversations often surface real problems without resolving them. Claude picks up on phrases like "we should look into...", "I'm not sure about...", "let's revisit..." and surfaces them explicitly.
The 200-word constraint is intentional — it forces conciseness. Most follow-up emails are too long to read. Including the decisions and action items inline means recipients can act without opening a separate document.
## Meeting Summary
This sprint planning session covered Q2 sprint 4 priorities for the mobile
team. The team agreed to prioritise the checkout flow redesign over the
notification feature due to the upcoming product launch deadline. Three
engineers were assigned to the checkout work, with the goal of completing
a working prototype by end of week.
## Key Decisions
1. Checkout flow redesign is the P0 priority for Sprint 4 (due to April 15
launch deadline)
2. Notification feature is deferred to Sprint 5
3. James will handle backend API changes; Sarah and Raj take frontend
4. Daily standups move from 9am to 9:30am starting Monday
## Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due Date | Priority |
|-------------------------------------|-------|-----------|----------|
| Finalize checkout UI mockups | Sarah | Fri Apr 4 | High |
| Implement payment API endpoint | James | Tue Apr 8 | High |
| Set up staging environment | Raj | Mon Apr 7 | Medium |
| Update project timeline in JIRA | Priya | Today | Medium |
| Send updated standup invite to team | Sarah | Today | Low |
## Open Questions
1. ⚠️ Who owns the QA pass for the checkout flow? Not discussed.
2. Does the April 15 deadline include App Store review time (~2 days)?
3. Are there any analytics requirements for the new checkout — TBD with
data team
## Follow-up Email Draft
Subject: Sprint 4 Planning — Decisions & Actions
Hi team,
Thanks for a productive planning session. Here's a quick recap.
**We agreed:** Checkout flow is our P0 for Sprint 4. Notification feature
moves to Sprint 5. Daily standups shift to 9:30am Monday.
**Action items:**
- Sarah: Finalize checkout UI mockups by Fri Apr 4
- James: Implement payment API endpoint by Tue Apr 8
- Raj: Staging environment setup by Mon Apr 7
- Priya: Update JIRA timeline today
- Sarah: Send updated standup invite today
**Open items needing follow-up:** QA ownership for checkout, App Store
review timing vs launch date, analytics requirements.
Let me know if I've missed anything.
[Your name]Go to n8n.io → click Start for free. No credit card needed for the trial. This is the automation canvas where you'll connect everything.
In n8n, click New Workflow → Add first step → Webhook. Copy the webhook URL — you'll use this to trigger the workflow when a new transcript is ready. Set the HTTP method to POST.
Click the + button to add a node. Search for Anthropic. Select Message model. Add your Anthropic API key (get one at console.anthropic.com). Set the model to claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022. In the prompt field, paste the meeting summary prompt and use {{ $json.transcript }} as a variable to insert the transcript text from the webhook payload.
Add a Gmail or Microsoft Outlook node. Set the To field to the attendee list (passed in the webhook payload). Set the Subject to "Meeting Summary — {{ $json.meeting_name }}". Set the Body to Claude's output from the previous step.
The trigger depends on your platform: Zoom supports webhooks natively (Zoom App Marketplace → build an app → subscribe to the "recording.completed" event). Microsoft Teams via Power Automate (trigger: "When a meeting recording is available" → HTTP action → POST transcript to your n8n webhook URL). Manual: Use a simple web form (n8n has a built-in Form trigger) where you paste the transcript and hit submit.
Tip: For Zoom, the transcript is in a .vtt format. Add a Code node in n8n before the Claude node to strip the timestamp tags: return items[0].json.transcript.replace(/^\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}\.\d{3} --> .+$/gm, '').trim()
Add to your prompt: "Also extract: (1) Pain points the client expressed, (2) Commitments our team made to the client, (3) Objections raised and how they were addressed, (4) Agreed next steps with dates."
Add: "Format the Key Decisions section as a formal resolution log with wording: 'It was resolved that [decision].' Include any votes or approval references. The summary should be suitable for board minutes."
Add: "Include a 'Design Feedback' section listing every piece of feedback given on designs, grouped by: Approved as-is | Needs iteration | Rejected. Note who gave each piece of feedback."
Add: "Structure the output as a post-mortem report with sections: Timeline of events | Root cause analysis | Contributing factors | What went well | Corrective actions (with owners and deadlines) | Preventive measures."