create-todos

create-todos

Read back Rich's most recently posted 15-5 and create one Basecamp todo per "priority for next week" item in the Misc Todos list of the 🏠 Rich Nash project.

This skill is the natural follow-on to 15-5-report: the 15-5 produces a list of priorities, and this skill puts each priority on a tracked todo list so it doesn't disappear in a Basecamp comment.

Basecamp tools

This skill uses whatever Basecamp MCP server is currently connected — it does not require a specific one. Tool names vary between Basecamp servers, so match by capability rather than exact name. The operations needed, with common name variants:

• List comments on a message — e.g. list_comments, get_comments
• List todos in a todolist — e.g. list_todos, get_todos
• Create a todo — e.g. create_todo

At the start, look at the available tools, find the connected Basecamp server (its tools are usually prefixed basecamp or grouped under a Basecamp connector), and use its equivalents for each operation below. If no Basecamp tool is available, stop and tell the user no Basecamp connector is connected.

Fixed locations

These IDs are stable for Rich's account and should be used as-is:

• 15-5 message: https://3.basecamp.com/4206247/buckets/25906397/messages/9428630577
  • project_id: 25906397
  • recording_id (the message): 9428630577
• Target todolist: "Misc Todos" in the 🏠 Rich Nash project
  • project_id: 25906397
  • todolist_id: 5377896272
  • App URL: https://3.basecamp.com/4206247/buckets/25906397/todolists/5377896272

Workflow

1. Fetch the most recent 15-5

Using the connected Basecamp server's "list comments" tool, fetch the comments on project_id="25906397", recording_id="9428630577" (parameter names may vary slightly by server — e.g. recording_id, message_id). Basecamp returns comments in chronological order; the most recent 15-5 is the last comment in the response (or the first when sorted by created_at descending). Pick the one whose author is Rich Nash and whose content has the 15-5 section headers.

If no comments exist on the message, stop and tell the user: "No 15-5 has been posted yet — run /15-5-report first."

2. Read it back to the user

Convert the comment's HTML body back to readable markdown and print it in chat as a fenced block, preceded by a one-line header like Most recent 15-5 (posted YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM):. Strip the <div>, <strong>, <ul>, <li>, and <a> tags; keep the link URLs as [Title](URL); preserve the section question lines as bold markdown (**…**).

3. Extract the priorities

Find the section under the What are your priorities for next week? header. Each <li> inside that section's <ul> becomes one todo. Strip surrounding whitespace and any leading bullet marker. Skip any bullet whose text is a placeholder like [add priorities] or that is empty.

4. Create todos

For each priority bullet, call the connected Basecamp server's "create todo" tool with:

• project_id: "25906397"
• todolist_id: "5377896272"
• content: the bullet text as plain text (strip HTML tags, but preserve URLs by appending them in parentheses if they were inside an <a> — e.g. Coordinate prod push of First Year Section Assignment (https://linear.app/...))
• description: omit unless the bullet had additional sentences beyond the first; in that case put the extra sentences here in HTML
• due_on: Try to discern the due date from the context. But, unless you're sure, set the due_on date to the Monday following the 15-5.
• assigned_to: Assign all todo's to me, Rich Nash

Make these calls sequentially, not in parallel, so a failure on one doesn't orphan the others.

5. Report back

After all todos are created, print a short summary in chat:

Created N todos in Misc Todos:
- <todo text> — <app_url>
- ...

Use the app_url from each create_todo response so the user can click straight to each todo. End with a single link to the todolist itself: https://3.basecamp.com/4206247/buckets/25906397/todolists/5377896272

If any todo failed to create, list it separately under a Failed: heading with the error message.

Notes and constraints

• Always pull the latest 15-5 comment, never an older one, unless the user names a specific date.
• Never create duplicate todos. Before creating, use the connected Basecamp server's "list todos" tool with todolist_id=5377896272 and skip any priority whose content already matches an open todo's content (case-insensitive substring match on the first 60 characters is enough).
• Do not modify the 15-5 comment.
• Do not mark any todos as complete.
• If the user asks to create todos for a different week, look further back in the comments and pick the comment matching that Week of YYYY-MM-DD header.
• If the priorities section is missing or empty, stop and tell the user — do not invent todos.

Required tools

Provided by whichever Basecamp MCP server is connected (names vary — match by capability):

• List comments on a message — fetch comments on the 15-5 message
• List todos in a todolist — dedupe check
• Create a todo — create each todo