Meeting notes to knowledge base with Claude Cowork

TL;DR. Take the pile of notes, transcripts, and Slack threads accumulating each week and turn them into structured KB entries — decisions, processes, FAQs, glossary additions. About 3 hours per week saved for a knowledge-ops lead. KB workflows are easy to start and hard to sustain; the discipline is in the weekly review and merge.

Job to be done#

Turn weekly notes into structured knowledge-base entries with cross-links and a change log.

Who runs it#

Knowledge ops, EAs, chief of staff, ops lead.

Inputs (inbox/)#

• Notes folder for the period (markdown, docx, txt)
• The KB's existing structure and style guide
• A taxonomy of entry types: decision, process, FAQ, glossary

Outputs (output/)#

• One markdown file per new entry, dropped into the right KB section
• kb-additions-log.md summarising what was added or updated this week
• Links between new entries and existing ones

Prompt seed#

Read /inbox/notes-[period]/.
For each note, classify into entry type per /CLAUDE.md/taxonomy.
For each classified item, produce one markdown file matching
/CLAUDE.md/kb-style.
Place the file in the correct section of /output/kb-staging/.
Cross-link new entries to existing entries where relevant.
Append a one-line entry per output to /output/kb-additions-log.md.
Plan first; ask before adding any new section.

Quality bar#

• Style consistent with existing KB entries.
• Cross-links are real — Cowork verified the target exists.
• Common trip-up: every Slack thread becomes a separate entry. Push back; cluster related items into a single entry.

Time saved (typical)#

About 3 hours per week for a knowledge-ops lead.

Upgrade path#

• Connector to the KB (Notion, Confluence, GitBook) so entries land directly.
• A weekly-kb-sweep skill scheduled Friday.

Tinkso's take#

KB workflows are easy to start, hard to sustain. The discipline isn't the prompt — it's the weekly review and merge so the KB doesn't bloat. Build the merge step into the cadence: every fourth weekly run, do a clean-up pass that consolidates near-duplicates. Without that, the KB doubles in size every six months and nobody can find anything.