One meeting minutes format for the whole team, with AI

Agree the rules

1. The headings, in this order: decisions, action items, open questions, discussion, not covered.
2. What counts as a decision: only what was agreed; proposals go under open questions.
3. Every action has one person, never "the team", and a date or "no date set".
4. Who posts, where and by when: for example, the meeting's chair, in its channel, within an hour.
5. One owner for the format, who changes it when the team agrees.

A worked example: six meetings, one format

Illustration: a made-up business. A 25-person company runs six weekly meetings, and each chair wrote minutes their own way: some had no owners, one was a transcript summary. The operations lead, Ines, does three things:

• Agrees the rules with the six chairs in one 20-minute meeting, using the list above.
• Publishes a minutes skill to the organization on the company's Claude Team plan, with one example from the warehouse meeting.
• Tests it on two very different transcripts, the sales pipeline meeting and the all-hands, and fixes the one thing that went wrong: it listed "we should look at pricing" as a decision. The skill now says proposals nobody agreed to go under open questions.

A month later, every set of minutes has the same five headings, and the chairs post within the hour. The two actions that had "no date set" in the first week now come back as the first item of the next meeting.

Roll it out

1. Write the format once with one real example.
2. Share it where everyone's AI reads it: a skill published to the team, or a shared project for one meeting series.
3. Test it on two different meetings and fix what it gets wrong.
4. Tell each chair where to post and by when.
5. Review the format after a month with the chairs.

Next step: the rest of operations' repeated work

Once the minutes come out one way, the next step is the rest of operations' repeated work. Claude skills for operations covers the other skills, starting with SOPs. For one person's version, see saving a meeting minutes prompt.

Questions

What is a good standard format for meeting minutes?

Decisions first (only what was agreed), then action items with one named owner, a verb-first task and a due date or 'no date set', then open questions, three to five lines of discussion, and agenda items not covered. Someone who missed the meeting should be able to act after reading only the decisions and actions.

How do I get everyone's AI to write minutes the same way?

Put the format where everyone's AI reads it: a skill shared with the team or published to the organization (Claude Team and Enterprise; ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu), or a shared project's instructions for one meeting series. A format each person keeps in their own notes drifts within weeks.

Who should own the meeting minutes format?

One person, for example the operations lead, who changes it when the team agrees and tells everyone. Each meeting also needs a named person who posts the minutes, and a place and a deadline for posting.