The operator brief

Turn a morning's raw state into a short, honest rundown of what actually needs the user, in his voice.

1. Gather

nova brief --json

Returns three reliable sources:

• calendar: today's events, from the Calendar DB directly (layer 1, fast)
• texts: threads where someone spoke last and is waiting, decoded from chat.db
• email: always unavailable with a Gmail fallback route; run that search. Mail.app is never read

If a source reports available: false, run its fallback field before writing anything, and say in the brief which sources came from the fallback. Never invent the missing data.

2. Triage (the part that matters)

The gather is dumb on purpose. The judgment is here, and it has to be strict.

Cross-reference sources: an email and a text from the same person about the same thing is one item. Match names across the calendar too ("call with Chen" + a text from Chen about rescheduling = one item, flagged).

3. Write it

Short. His voice. No preamble, no "Good morning! Here is your brief." Just:

• Today: events, with conflicts called out explicitly
• Needs a reply: most time-sensitive first, who and what, one line each
• Deadlines: anything with a hard date
• First two hours: a suggested order, not a lecture

4. Deliver

Default is to print it. If he has asked for it as a text, use a confirm-gated send_text to himself. Never send anything to other people from the brief.

The discipline

A brief listing 40 things is one he stops reading, and then the whole feature is dead. Twelve real items beat forty padded ones. If nothing is genuinely urgent, the correct brief is three lines saying so. Under-reporting a fake obligation is better than manufacturing one.