Skills anthropics knowledge-work-plugins Productivity

update

Use it when:: You want TASKS.md and your workplace memory caught up with your project tracker and recent work.
It does:: Offers to add tasks assigned to you in a project tracker or GitHub Issues, flags stale tasks, and asks about people and projects memory lacks.
Triage:: Tasks past due, Active for 30+ days or with no person or project; you mark each done, reschedule it or move it to Someday.
With --comprehensive:: It also scans chat, email, documents and calendar for todos you haven't captured and new people or projects to remember.
Asks first:: Never adds tasks or memories without your confirmation.
Runs:: As /productivity:update, on the TASKS.md and memory/ that start sets up.

Skill 4 of 4 in the Productivity bundle, after memory-management.

Only works inside its bundle: Works on the TASKS.md and memory/ the other skills keep; without them it suggests running start first. Install Productivity instead.

TL;DR

The upkeep step of the productivity plugin, run once start has created TASKS.md and the memory/ folder; without them it suggests start first. It fetches open tasks assigned to you from a connected project tracker such as Asana, Linear or Jira, or from GitHub Issues with gh when you're in a repo, and matches them to TASKS.md by fuzzy title. New ones it offers to add, ones finished elsewhere it offers to mark done, and ones only in TASKS.md it flags as possibly stale. With no source connected, it skips the sync. It then flags overdue tasks, tasks Active for 30 days or more and tasks with no person or project, for you to mark done, reschedule or move to Someday. It checks every person, project and term in your tasks against memory, asks about the ones it can't place, and files your answers in the glossary, people or project files, along with links, status changes, relationships and deadlines found in tasks. --comprehensive adds a scan of recent chat, email, documents and calendar: likely todos you haven't tracked, new people and projects with how often they're mentioned, and projects quiet for 30 days to mark completed.

Summarizes the skill at ab4cb1c.

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill update

skills.sh page Source on GitHub All skills from anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins

Total Downloads: 5,000 on skills.sh, Nov 9, 2026
Repo stars: 35,234 anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
First seen: Mar 13, 2026 on skills.sh

Weekly Downloads

-40% over the 8 weeks to Nov 9

Weekly values

Week to	Installs
Sep 21	67
Sep 28	41
Oct 5	35
Oct 12	42
Oct 19	48
Oct 26	42
Nov 2	42
Nov 9	40

Category	category:agents category:documents category:software-engineering Build agents, orchestrate workers and give agents memory. Office files, notes and suites like Lark and Google Workspace. Everything for building software: planning, coding, debugging, design, frameworks, cloud, agents and skills.
Type	type:workflow A multi-step process the agent follows: interview, debug, run a TDD loop, review.
Effect	effect:local Its own steps create or change files, git state or local tools.
Needs	needs:none Instructions only. Works in any agent that supports skills.
Publisher	by:official A verified publisher on skills.sh, or the company or maintainer behind the product the skill operates.
Topics	memory notes issue-tracking

SKILL.md

From anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins at ab4cb1c. Checked daily, last changed Nov 6, 2026.

Frontmatter

name: update
description: Sync tasks and refresh memory from your current activity. Use when pulling new assignments from your project tracker into TASKS.md, triaging stale or overdue tasks, filling memory gaps for unknown people or projects, or running a comprehensive scan to catch todos buried in chat and email.
argument-hint: "[--comprehensive]"

Update Command

If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.

Keep your task list and memory current. Two modes:

Default: Sync tasks from external tools, triage stale items, check memory for gaps
--comprehensive: Deep scan chat, email, calendar, docs — flag missed todos and suggest new memories

Usage

/productivity:update
/productivity:update --comprehensive

Default Mode

1. Load Current State

Read TASKS.md and memory/ directory. If they don't exist, suggest /productivity:start first.

2. Sync Tasks from External Sources

Check for available task sources:

Project tracker (e.g. Asana, Linear, Jira) (if MCP available)
GitHub Issues (if in a repo): gh issue list --assignee=@me

If no sources are available, skip to Step 3.

Fetch tasks assigned to the user (open/in-progress). Compare against TASKS.md:

External task	TASKS.md match?	Action
Found, not in TASKS.md	No match	Offer to add
Found, already in TASKS.md	Match by title (fuzzy)	Skip
In TASKS.md, not in external	No match	Flag as potentially stale
Completed externally	In Active section	Offer to mark done

Present diff and let user decide what to add/complete.

3. Triage Stale Items

Review Active tasks in TASKS.md and flag:

Tasks with due dates in the past
Tasks in Active for 30+ days
Tasks with no context (no person, no project)

Present each for triage: Mark done? Reschedule? Move to Someday?

4. Decode Tasks for Memory Gaps

For each task, attempt to decode all entities (people, projects, acronyms, tools, links):

Task: "Send PSR to Todd re: Phoenix blockers"

Decode:
- PSR → ✓ Pipeline Status Report (in glossary)
- Todd → ✓ Todd Martinez (in people/)
- Phoenix → ? Not in memory

Track what's fully decoded vs. what has gaps.

5. Fill Gaps

Present unknown terms grouped:

I found terms in your tasks I don't have context for:

1. "Phoenix" (from: "Send PSR to Todd re: Phoenix blockers")
   → What's Phoenix?

2. "Maya" (from: "sync with Maya on API design")
   → Who is Maya?

Add answers to the appropriate memory files (people/, projects/, glossary.md).

6. Capture Enrichment

Tasks often contain richer context than memory. Extract and update:

Links from tasks → add to project/people files
Status changes ("launch done") → update project status, demote from CLAUDE.md
Relationships ("Todd's sign-off on Maya's proposal") → cross-reference people
Deadlines → add to project files

7. Report

Update complete:
- Tasks: +3 from project tracker (e.g. Asana), 1 completed, 2 triaged
- Memory: 2 gaps filled, 1 project enriched
- All tasks decoded ✓

Comprehensive Mode (`--comprehensive`)

Everything in Default Mode, plus a deep scan of recent activity.

Extra Step: Scan Activity Sources

Gather data from available MCP sources:

Chat: Search recent messages, read active channels
Email: Search sent messages
Documents: List recently touched docs
Calendar: List recent + upcoming events

Extra Step: Flag Missed Todos

Compare activity against TASKS.md. Surface action items that aren't tracked:

## Possible Missing Tasks

From your activity, these look like todos you haven't captured:

1. From chat (Jan 18):
   "I'll send the updated mockups by Friday"
   → Add to TASKS.md?

2. From meeting "Phoenix Standup" (Jan 17):
   You have a recurring meeting but no Phoenix tasks active
   → Anything needed here?

3. From email (Jan 16):
   "I'll review the API spec this week"
   → Add to TASKS.md?

Let user pick which to add.

Extra Step: Suggest New Memories

Surface new entities not in memory:

## New People (not in memory)
| Name | Frequency | Context |
|------|-----------|---------|
| Maya Rodriguez | 12 mentions | design, UI reviews |
| Alex K | 8 mentions | DMs about API |

## New Projects/Topics
| Name | Frequency | Context |
|------|-----------|---------|
| Starlight | 15 mentions | planning docs, product |

## Suggested Cleanup
- **Horizon project** — No mentions in 30 days. Mark completed?

Present grouped by confidence. High-confidence items offered to add directly; low-confidence items asked about.

Notes

Never auto-add tasks or memories without user confirmation
External source links are preserved when available
Fuzzy matching on task titles handles minor wording differences
Safe to run frequently — only updates when there's new info
--comprehensive always runs interactively