---
title: "3. Prep-for (CRM)"
description: "One-page briefing on a person before a call."
source: "Obsidian Academy"
source_url: https://obsidian-academy.pages.dev/workflows/03-prep-for/
saved: 2026-05-16
tags: [obsidian-academy, saved-from-web, workflows]
---

**TL;DR** — Say "prep for [Name]" and Claude assembles their `60-People/` note, the last 3 meetings with them, recent vault mentions, and open threads into a one-page briefing displayed in chat. The briefing is ephemeral by default — your prep, not a saved artifact.

The point: walk into every call already remembering what you said you'd do, what they care about, and what's open between you.

## When to use it

- 5 minutes before a call you actually care about
- The morning of a recurring 1:1
- After a long gap with someone — refresh your memory
- Before sending a high-stakes message (so the message lands in their context, not yours)

> **Try it now:** `"prep for Alice"`
>
> Substitute the actual name. Variants that trigger: *"brief me on Alice"*, *"what do I know about Alice"*, *"I have a call with Alice"*.

You get back:

- Their role, org, relationship, last contact
- Context for this call (Claude infers from your calendar or asks)
- Recent threads (open items from past convos)
- What they care about (patterns from past notes)
- Mutual interests
- Open asks (their asks to you, your asks to them)
- Things to ask them this time
- A suggested opener — a specific, contextual hook for the first 30 seconds

## Under the hood

- **Skill location:** `~/.claude/skills/prep-for/SKILL.md`
- **Reads:**
  - `60-People/[name].md` — primary source
  - `70-Meetings/*` — searched for the name, last 90 days
  - All daily notes + project notes for incidental mentions (last 60 days)
- **Writes:** nothing by default. Display in chat.
- **Optional save:** if you ask, it writes to `70-Meetings/YYYY-MM-DD-prep-[name].md`.

## Watch out for

- **No person note exists** → the skill offers to create a stub from `90-Templates/person.md`. Say yes — even an empty stub anchors future mentions.
- **Ambiguous name** (two Alexes?) → it asks which one. Save it the trouble by using last initials in your person notes (`Alex K.md`, `Alex T.md`).
- **No recent meetings** → still useful, just lighter. The "things to ask" section pulls from longer-tail vault mentions.
- **Don't fabricate.** The skill is instructed to say "no record of this" instead of inventing context. Trust missing data — it's information too.

## Make it yours

- **Different audience templates:** create `prep-for-executive`, `prep-for-customer`, `prep-for-candidate` variants that emphasize different sections (e.g., customer prep weighs revenue + product feedback heavier).
- **Auto-trigger from calendar:** if you integrate a calendar MCP later, set the skill to auto-prep for any meeting starting in the next 30 minutes.
- **Tighten the briefing:** strip sections you never use (e.g., remove "mutual interests" if you're prep'ing a customer call).

## Related workflows

- **[Meeting Machine](https://obsidian-academy.pages.dev/workflows/04-meeting-machine/)** — Captures the meeting itself; feeds future prep-fors
- **[Inbox Zero](https://obsidian-academy.pages.dev/workflows/02-inbox-zero/)** — Routes person mentions into 60-People/