Capture-Task Skill

What this does

Captures an actionable item. Out of the box (no Notion configured) it writes a task note to 00-inbox/ — the pure-vault default, zero external services. If you have connected the Notion MCP and pinned your task database (see Setup below), it instead creates a task there, with explicit user confirmation before writing. Either way it fills all four fields — Task name, Due Date, Priority, and Category — inferring what it can from the description and asking the user for the rest.

Setup (optional — Notion only)

The vault path needs no setup. To route tasks to Notion instead of 00-inbox/:

1. Connect the Notion MCP (see _meta/integrations.md).
2. Pin your task database's data-source ID in _meta/notion-bridge.md under the <YOUR_TASK_DB_DATA_SOURCE_ID> placeholder. (To find it: open the database in Notion, copy its link, and pull the data-source/collection ID from the URL.)
3. Confirm your field names map to Task / Due Date / Priority / Category / Done (or record the mapping in notion-bridge.md if yours differ), and note your existing Category select options.

If <YOUR_TASK_DB_DATA_SOURCE_ID> is still an unfilled placeholder, the skill skips Notion entirely and uses the 00-inbox/ path (step 7).

Steps

1. Read input. If invoked as /capture-task <description>, use the description. If empty, prompt: "What's the task?"

2. Build the four required fields. Every task gets all four filled — never leave one blank. First infer what you confidently can from the description; then ask the user (in ONE batched prompt) for anything still missing. Never fabricate a value.

   • Task (title) — taken from the description; always present.
   • Due Date — natural language ("by Friday", "tomorrow", "next week") → ISO date. There is no sensible default, so if it isn't clearly stated, ask.
   • Priority — one of Very High / High / Medium / Low. Infer only when clearly implied (e.g. "urgent"/"ASAP" → High or Very High); otherwise ask, offering the four options.
   • Category — must be an existing option in your task system (never invent new ones). Read the options you recorded in _meta/notion-bridge.md (or, pure-vault, just use a short free-text label that matches how you already tag work). Infer when the description clearly maps to one of your existing options; otherwise ask, offering the list. If the user's answer isn't on the list, map to the closest existing option or use a generic catch-all (e.g. Other) — do not create a new category.

   Batch every unknown into a single question round (e.g. "Due date? Priority? Category?") instead of asking one at a time. Once all four are set, proceed. (If the description also clearly names a known 10-projects/ or 15-workspaces/ item, note it for the [[wikilink]] rule below — verify by listing those folders.)

3. Decide the target. If no Notion task DB is configured (the <YOUR_TASK_DB_DATA_SOURCE_ID> placeholder in _meta/notion-bridge.md is unfilled, or the Notion MCP isn't connected) → skip to step 7 (the 00-inbox/ default). If a task DB IS configured, continue.

   Target the pinned task database directly — do NOT search for it. Read the data-source ID you pinned in _meta/notion-bridge.md.

   ⚠️ Never use Notion search to discover the task DB. Notion ships a built-in default "My Tasks" database that ranks high in search because it's Notion's native task system — and it is almost always the WRONG target. Writing there is the exact bug pinning prevents. Always write to the data source you pinned yourself.

   If a create call against the pinned data source fails (e.g. it was moved or renamed), report the failure and jump to step 7 (fallback). Do not silently fall back to searching for "tasks".

4. Show always-confirm preview. All four fields must be filled — no "—" placeholders. If any is still blank, go back to step 2 and ask for it.

   Create in Notion → <your task DB>:
     Task:     <task title>
     Due Date: <ISO date>
     Priority: <Very High | High | Medium | Low>
     Category: [<category>]
   Confirm? (y/n)

5. On y: call mcp__claude_ai_Notion__notion-create-pages with:
   • parent: { "data_source_id": "<YOUR_TASK_DB_DATA_SOURCE_ID>" }
   • properties — all four are always set (collected in step 2), using your mapped field names:
     • Task — the title
     • date:Due Date:start — ISO date (also set date:Due Date:is_datetime = 1 if a time was given)
     • Priority — Very High / High / Medium / Low
     • Category — JSON array of existing option(s), e.g. ["Personal Work"]; never invent new options On success, report the Notion page URL. Stop.
6. On n: report "Not captured." Stop. Do not retry.
7. Default / fallback path (00-inbox/) — used when no Notion is configured or a Notion create failed. You will already have collected all four fields in step 2 — preserve them. Write 00-inbox/{{date}}-task-{{slug}}.md with:

   ---
   type: task-pending
   date: {{date}}
   status: needs-notion-sync
   tags: [needs-notion-sync]
   due: {{ISO due date}}
   priority: {{Very High | High | Medium | Low}}
   category: {{category}}
   source: "/capture-task (vault fallback)"
   ---
   
   # {{task title}}
   
   {{description body}}
   
   _Captured by /capture-task. If you later configure a task manager, push this there
   and archive the note._

   If a task DB was configured and the create failed, tell the user the MCP failed and they can re-run /capture-task once it's back. If no task manager is configured at all, this note IS the task — that's the expected pure-vault behavior, not an error.

Rules

• Never write to Notion without explicit y. The bridge policy is non-negotiable.
• Never leave Task, Due Date, Priority, or Category blank — infer it or ask. Never invent a Category outside your task system's existing options.
• Never silently retry more than once.
• Never overwrite an existing inbox file. Auto-rename with -2, -3, etc.
• Use [[wikilinks]] if the task description mentions a known project/person/area.
• Frontmatter source: field reflects whether the Notion or fallback path was used.