Watch a folder and report what changed
Ten minutes. At the end, something writes you a short report of what moved in a directory, on whatever schedule you choose — a project, a shared drive, a folder somebody else keeps putting things in.
1. Point a chat at the folder
Open a new chat and use the folder button above the composer to choose the directory.
This matters more than it looks: the agent may write anywhere inside the directory a chat is open in, and nowhere outside it. Choosing the folder is choosing the blast radius.
2. Ask for the report once
Use the weekly-report skill on this folder.
The weekly-report skill ships with the product. It works out what changed —
from git if the folder is a repository, from modification times otherwise —
and writes three sections: what finished, what is underway, and what needs a
decision.
That last section is the reason to read it.
3. Put it on a schedule
Background runs → Schedule a repeating one:
| Field | |
|---|---|
| What should it do | Use the weekly-report skill on this folder. Save it as report-<date>.md. |
| Name | Weekly report |
| How often | 7 days |
| Where to run | the folder you chose |
4. Check where it will run
If the folder is not inside your workspace and not a department, the first run will be held rather than started, and appear under Waiting for you.
That is deliberate. Allow the directory, or move the task into a department.
5. Read the first one
Run now, then open the run to read the output as it is produced.
If the report is thin, the folder had a thin week — the skill is told to say so in one line rather than padding, because a report padded out of an empty week teaches people to skip reports.
Doing this to somebody else's folder
Two things worth being careful about.
The agent reads everything it is pointed at, and reads are not restricted by the sandbox in any mode. A folder with things you would not send to your model provider should not be the folder you point it at — unless your model is on your own machine, in which case nothing leaves it.
A schedule outlives your attention. Something that runs weekly for a year is fifty-two runs you did not watch. Keep the directory tight.