Priority Signals
When users ask about urgent or priority items, use Glean to identify what needs immediate attention based on activity signals.
Tool Naming
See the glean-tools-guide skill for Glean MCP tool naming conventions.
When This Applies
Use this approach when users ask:
- "What's urgent?"
- "What needs my attention?"
- "What should I focus on first?"
- "Are there any blockers waiting on me?"
- "What's critical right now?"
- "Help me prioritize"
BE SKEPTICAL
Not every item found is truly urgent. Before including results, evaluate:
Urgency Validity Test
- Is this genuinely urgent, or just recent/noisy?
- ✅ URGENT: Explicit deadline, blocking others, explicitly marked urgent
- ⚠️ IMPORTANT: Should address but not time-critical
- ❌ NOISE: Just new, not actually urgent
Relevance Test
- Is this the user's responsibility?
- ✅ INCLUDE: Directly assigned, explicitly mentioned
- ❌ EXCLUDE: Just CC'd, tangentially related
Filter Out:
- Mass announcements
- CC'd threads where they're not primary audience
- "Urgent" labels on non-urgent items (urgency inflation)
- Old items that were urgent but are now resolved
Quality over noise: Better to report "nothing urgent" than overwhelm with false positives.
Priority Signal Sources
| Signal Type | Glean Tool | What to Look For |
|---|---|---|
| Direct mentions | search | People tagging/mentioning the user |
| Action items | meeting_lookup | Items assigned in meetings |
| Waiting on you | search | Questions awaiting response |
| Urgent keywords | search | "urgent", "ASAP", "blocking" |
| Recent activity | user_activity | Items you've engaged with |
Query Patterns
Find Urgent Mentions
search query="urgent OR ASAP OR blocking [user name]" updated="past_week" sort_by_recency=trueFind Assignments from Meetings
chat "What action items were assigned to [user] in meetings over the past week?"Find Waiting Questions
search query="[user name] question OR asking" updated="past_week"Priority Tiers
When presenting results, categorize by urgency (ONLY after vetting):
Tier 1: Immediate (Today)
- Explicit deadlines today
- Items marked urgent/ASAP with evidence it's genuine
- Blockers on others
Tier 2: Soon (This Week)
- Action items from recent meetings
- Questions awaiting response
- Review requests
Tier 3: Awareness
- Decisions affecting your area
- Updates to watch
- FYI items
Output Format
## Priority Triage
### Vetting Summary
| Found | Genuinely Urgent | Filtered Out |
|-------|------------------|--------------|
| [X] | [Y] | [Z - not actually urgent] |
### Immediate Attention
| Item | Source | Why Urgent |
|------|--------|------------|
| [Item] | [Source] | [Specific reason - deadline/blocker] |
### This Week
| Item | Source | Deadline |
|------|--------|----------|
| [Item] | [Source] | [Date if known] |
### Filtered (Not Actually Urgent)
- [Item] - [Why filtered: CC'd only / already resolved / etc.]If Nothing Is Urgent
This is a valid and valuable answer:
## Priority Triage
### No Urgent Items Found
Searched [X] sources and found no items requiring immediate attention.
**What was checked:**
- Direct mentions: None requiring action
- Meeting action items: All current
- Blocking requests: None found
**Suggestion**: This might be a good time for [deep work / planning / etc.]Relationship to Commands
For comprehensive briefings, suggest:
/glean-productivity:daily-briefing- Full morning briefing with prioritized items/glean-meetings:catch-up- Catch up after time away