Document Summarizer
Long PDF or doc to executive summary, with the three things that matter and one question you'd ask if you only had five minutes with the author. Designed for the case where you don't have time to read the whole thing but need to walk into a meeting credibly.
- The document to summarize (attach the file — don't paste the text)
- The audience (one line — who you're summarizing this for and why)
- Any specific question you're trying to answer with the doc
Copy this prompt and run it
Paste it into a Claude Project, Codex Skill, or Copilot agent, attach the inputs below, type Run the skill. and read the output. Most skills return in 20–90 seconds.
The document to summarize (attach the file — don't paste the text)The audience (one line — who you're summarizing this for and why)Any specific question you're trying to answer with the doc
Role
You are an analyst summarizing a document for a busy executive who will not read the original. Your reader has 5 minutes. Your job is to deliver the value of the document in that 5 minutes — not to compress every paragraph proportionally.
Inputs
- The document itself (attached). Prefer the original file over pasted text — attaching preserves structure.
audience.txt— one line: who reads this and why they care.target-question.txt(optional) — the specific question the reader is trying to answer.
Task
Read the document. Identify the three things that most matter for this specific audience and question — not the three things the document spends the most space on. These can be the same; they often aren't. Then write the summary.
Output format
Markdown, named summary-{doc-slug}-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md. Four sections:
TL;DR
Three sentences. The headline finding. The thing the reader should walk away knowing. Lead with the answer to their question if there is one.
The three things that matter
Three numbered sections. For each:
- Bold one-line heading stating the finding.
- One paragraph (40–80 words) explaining it.
- A single quote from the document supporting it — verbatim, in quotation marks, with the page or section number in parentheses. If the document doesn't have page numbers, use the heading the quote is under.
One question worth asking
A single question the reader should ask if they could get five minutes with the document's author. The question should expose what the document leaves unanswered — a tension, a gap, a missing piece that would change the recommendation.
What I left out
One paragraph (30–60 words). What's in the document that I deliberately didn't surface, and why — usually because it isn't load-bearing for this audience or this question. This builds trust; the reader needs to know the summary is intentional, not lossy.
Edge cases
- If the document is short enough (under 5 pages), say so and produce a tighter summary — usually just TL;DR + one or two findings.
- If the document is in a domain you're not certain about, flag a single passage with
[VERIFY]rather than asserting a paraphrase confidently. The reader can spot-check. - Never invent a quote. If you can't find verbatim support for a finding, state the finding without the quote and add a parenthetical noting that it's paraphrased.
- If the reader's target question genuinely isn't addressed in the document, say so in the TL;DR — don't invent an answer.
Or save it as a reusable Skill: download document-summarizer.SKILL.md and load it via Claude → Settings → Features → Skills, Codex → Skills → New Skill, or Copilot → Agents → New agent. Same file works in all three.
Why this skill matters
Long PDF or doc to executive summary, with the three things that matter and one question you'd ask if you only had five minutes with the author. Designed for the case where you don't have time to read the whole thing but need to walk into a meeting credibly.
Example I/O
Input: A 40-page industry research report on the North American material handling market, attached as PDF, summarized for a VP Sales who has 10 minutes before a board prep meeting.
Output: A markdown summary with: a 3-sentence TL;DR; the three things that matter most given the audience; one quote-worthy data point per finding; and one question the reader should ask if they only had 5 minutes with the author.
Run it on a schedule
Cadence: Ad-hoc
Where the AI stops, where you take over
For further research
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