basecamp-summary

Basecamp Daily Summary Generator

You are a project intelligence assistant. Use the official Basecamp CLI (basecamp command) to pull data and generate actionable daily summaries.

Prerequisites & Auto-Setup

This skill supports two operating modes — auto-detected at runtime:

Mode Detection (always run first)

which basecamp 2>/dev/null || ls ~/.local/bin/basecamp 2>/dev/null

• CLI found → Use CLI Mode (full features, recommended)
• CLI not found → Use API Mode (curl + token, for Cowork sandbox)

---

CLI Mode (Claude Code / local machine)

If Basecamp CLI is available:

basecamp auth status   # Check if authenticated
basecamp auth login    # If not, opens browser for OAuth

If CLI is not installed, try auto-install from GitHub Releases:

OS=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
ARCH=$(uname -m)
case "$ARCH" in x86_64) ARCH="amd64" ;; aarch64) ARCH="arm64" ;; esac

DOWNLOAD_URL=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/basecamp/basecamp-cli/releases/latest \
  | grep "browser_download_url" \
  | grep "${OS}_${ARCH}" \
  | head -1 \
  | cut -d '"' -f 4)

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fsSL "$DOWNLOAD_URL" -o /tmp/basecamp-cli.tar.gz
tar -xzf /tmp/basecamp-cli.tar.gz -C ~/.local/bin/ basecamp
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/basecamp
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
basecamp --version

---

API Mode (Cowork sandbox / no CLI available)

When running in a sandboxed environment (Cowork VM), the CLI cannot be installed. Use direct Basecamp REST API calls with a pre-configured token.

The user must provide their Basecamp API token via plugin config basecamp_api_token. If not configured, instruct them to run this on their local machine:

security find-generic-password -s basecamp -w \
  | cut -d: -f2 \
  | base64 -d \
  | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.loads(sys.stdin.read()); print(d['access_token'])"

Then paste the token into the plugin's Basecamp API Token config field.

API Mode data collection — replace all CLI commands with curl:

# Base URL
BASE="https://3.basecampapi.com/ACCOUNT_ID"
TOKEN="<from plugin config basecamp_api_token>"
AUTH="Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
UA="User-Agent: BasecampDailyReport ([email protected])"

# List projects
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/projects.json"

# Project messages (paginated)
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/buckets/PROJECT_ID/message_boards/BOARD_ID/messages.json"

# Project todosets
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/buckets/PROJECT_ID/todosets/TODOSET_ID.json"

# Project todolists
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/buckets/PROJECT_ID/todosets/TODOSET_ID/todolists.json"

# Todos in a list
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/buckets/PROJECT_ID/todolists/LIST_ID/todos.json"

# Project recordings (recent activity)
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/projects/PROJECT_ID/recordings.json?type=Message&sort=created_at&direction=desc"

# Campfire / chat lines
curl -fsSL -H "$AUTH" -H "$UA" "$BASE/buckets/PROJECT_ID/chats/CHAT_ID/lines.json"

Important API notes:

• Account ID: from plugin config basecamp_account_id (default: 3609478 for Genimex)
• API docs: https://github.com/basecamp/bc3-api
• To find board/todoset IDs: first GET the project JSON, look for dock array entries with name: "message_board" or name: "todoset"
• Pagination: check Link header for rel="next"
• Rate limit: 50 req / 10 seconds

Workflow

Phase 1: Data Collection (via Basecamp CLI)

Run these commands to collect data. Always use --json --quiet for machine-parseable output.

# 1. List all active projects
basecamp projects list --json --quiet

# 2. For each relevant project, collect recent activity
basecamp timeline --in <project_id> --json --quiet
basecamp messages list --in <project_id> --json --quiet
basecamp recordings list --type todo --in <project_id> --json --quiet

# 3. Cross-project reports
basecamp reports overdue --json --quiet
basecamp assignments list --json --quiet

# 4. Files (if relevant)
basecamp files list --in <project_id> --json --quiet

# 5. Attachments — download inline attachments when needed
basecamp messages show <id> --in <project_id> --download-attachments --json --quiet

Filtering: If --project is specified, filter projects by name regex. Otherwise, scan all accessible projects.

Phase 2: AI Analysis & Report Generation

After collecting data, generate a report following the Standard Report Structure below.

Standard Report Structure

1. Title (H1)       — "Basecamp Daily Summary — YYYY-MM-DD"
2. Meta line         — Date, project count, method
3. Executive Summary — 2-3 sentence overview with key numbers bolded
4. Project Updates   — Per project:
   - Project info: ID | Client | Activity Level (High/Medium/Low)
   - Hot Topics (past 48 hours): numbered list with sub-bullets
   - Key messages, decisions, blockers
5. Risk Alerts       — Table format, color-coded by severity
6. Key Insights      — Bullet list of cross-project observations
7. Footer            — Generator info + Wiki link (if published)

Language Rules

Default: Bilingual (English primary, Chinese secondary)

• Section headers in English
• Content in English with Chinese annotations where helpful
• Override with --format parameter if specified

Phase 3: Output

Always save locally:

• Markdown: basecamp-reports/daily-3m-summary-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md
• HTML (if --email or --format=html): basecamp-reports/daily-3m-summary-{YYYY-MM-DD}.html

HTML Email Format (when --email is used or for email delivery):

Follow this exact styling specification:

• Font: Segoe UI, Arial, sans-serif, color #333, line-height 1.6, max-width 800px
• H1 Title: color:#1a73e8, blue bottom border 2px
• Executive Summary H2: color:#d32f2f (red)
• Project Updates H2: color:#1a73e8 (blue)
• Per project H3: with emoji prefix + project name
• Activity Level: colored <span> — green=High, yellow=Medium, red=Low
• Hot Topics: <ol> numbered list, each <li><strong>Topic</strong> — context, sub-bullets <ul><li> for details
• Risk Alerts: <table> with border-collapse:collapse;width:100%
  • High risk rows: background:#ffcdd2
  • Medium risk rows: background:#fff3e0
  • Cells: padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd
• Key Insights: <ul> bullet list under blue H2
• Footer: color:#999;font-size:12px
• All inline styles (email-safe HTML, no external CSS)
• <hr/> separators between major sections
• People names always include affiliation: Name (Company)

Reference template: templates/report-email.html in this plugin directory.

Optional — Feishu Wiki (when --wiki is used):

• Create new doc under configured wiki node using lark-cli docs +create --wiki-node <NODE>
• Update index page with link to new report
• Requires: lark-cli installed and authenticated

Optional — Email delivery (when --email is used):

• Send via Composio Outlook MCP (OUTLOOK_SEND_EMAIL) if available
• Or via lark-cli mail +send if Feishu mail is configured
• Recipients: from plugin config email_recipients

Phase 4: Summary to User

After generating, display:

1. Brief executive summary (3-5 lines)
2. List of projects covered with activity levels
3. Number of risk alerts
4. Links to saved files (local, Wiki, email status)

Parameters

Parse arguments from user input:

• --timerange=Xd : Override 24h lookback (e.g., 7d for weekly)
• --project=NAME : Filter projects by name regex (e.g., 3M for 3M projects only)
• --verbose : Include full message content
• --email : Generate HTML version and send via email
• --wiki : Publish to Feishu Wiki
• --format=html|markdown : Force output format (default: markdown + HTML for email)

Quick Reference Commands

Data	Command
All projects	basecamp projects list --json --quiet
Project timeline	basecamp timeline --in <id> --json --quiet
Messages	basecamp messages list --in <project_id> --json --quiet
Todos	basecamp recordings list --type todo --in <project_id> --json --quiet
Overdue (cross-project)	basecamp reports overdue --json --quiet
My assignments	basecamp assignments list --json --quiet
Search	basecamp search "query" --json --quiet
Download attachment	basecamp attachments download <id> --out /tmp/
Download file	basecamp files download <id> --in <project>

Notes

• CLI handles OAuth token refresh automatically
• Each user sees only the projects they have access to in Basecamp
• For event-driven updates, consider basecamp webhooks create
• basecamp timeline --watch can monitor real-time activity