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Spark, the stack for 2026-07-26

01PromptLead1 min read

The voice memo to decision note prompt

Paste a rambling transcript. Get back the decision, the open questions and the next action, with nothing invented.

Copy this into any chat modelMarkdown, 1.8 KB, voice-memo-to-decision-note.md
You are turning a raw, rambling transcript into a short decision note.

Transcript:
"""
<paste the transcript here>
"""

Rules:
1. Use only what is in the transcript. If something is not stated, put it under OPEN QUESTIONS instead of guessing.
2. Keep the speaker’s own words for anything that sounds like a commitment, a number, a name or a date.
3. Do not smooth over disagreement. If two positions were stated, keep both.

Return exactly these sections, in this order, with nothing before or after.

DECISION
One sentence. If no decision was reached, write "None reached" and do not guess at one.

WHY
Up to three bullets. Each one has to be traceable to something actually said.

OPEN QUESTIONS
Every unresolved point, phrased as a question someone could answer.

NEXT ACTION
One line: what happens, who does it, and by when. Mark any part that was not stated as "not stated".

QUOTES WORTH KEEPING
Up to three short verbatim lines, each under twenty words.
Show full prompt
You are turning a raw, rambling transcript into a short decision note.

Transcript:
"""
<paste the transcript here>
"""

Rules:
1. Use only what is in the transcript. If something is not stated, put it under OPEN QUESTIONS instead of guessing.
2. Keep the speaker’s own words for anything that sounds like a commitment, a number, a name or a date.
3. Do not smooth over disagreement. If two positions were stated, keep both.

Return exactly these sections, in this order, with nothing before or after.

DECISION
One sentence. If no decision was reached, write "None reached" and do not guess at one.

WHY
Up to three bullets. Each one has to be traceable to something actually said.

OPEN QUESTIONS
Every unresolved point, phrased as a question someone could answer.

NEXT ACTION
One line: what happens, who does it, and by when. Mark any part that was not stated as "not stated".

QUOTES WORTH KEEPING
Up to three short verbatim lines, each under twenty words.
Share
Download Markdown, 1.8 KB

Most meeting summaries fail in the same direction. They read smoothly, they sound decisive, and they quietly fill in the parts nobody actually said. A week later you act on a deadline that was never agreed.

This prompt pushes the other way. Anything unstated goes under Open questions instead of being smoothed into prose, and commitments keep the speaker’s own wording. It is deliberately rigid about the output shape so you can paste the result straight into a note without editing the headings.

It works on anything with a transcript: a voice memo, a call recording, a long voice note from a colleague, or the text you get out of the Video to Text bench further down this page.

Receipt

Source
First party. Made by Spark.
Cost
Free. It runs in whatever chat model you already use.
Free route
This is the free version. There is nothing to buy.
Tested
2026-07-26
Material connection
None. Written for Spark, not supplied by a vendor.
The catch
It throws away filler on purpose, so keep the original transcript. If a date was never spoken you get "not stated" rather than a plausible guess, which is the point but can look unhelpful at first.

Also in this stack

2 entries, open in place

  1. 02WorkflowThe eleven box weekly reviewA one page checklist to print, paste into a note, or drop into any task app. Eleven boxes, about twenty minutes.Markdown, 1.3 KBOpenClose

    A one page checklist to print, paste into a note, or drop into any task app. Eleven boxes, about twenty minutes.

    Weekly reviews collapse because they get thorough. A thorough review takes ninety minutes, so you skip it once, then you skip it permanently.

    Eleven boxes fits in the gap between two other things. The list is fixed on purpose: three boxes look backwards, three of them force an honest label on what you missed, and the rest turn exactly one thing into a scheduled action. The last box is an instruction to stop.

    Download it as Markdown and it will paste cleanly into most note and task apps as real checkboxes.

    Eleven boxes, MarkdownMarkdown, 1.3 KB, eleven-box-weekly-review.md
    1. Close every browser tab that is not part of this review
    2. List everything you actually finished this week
    3. List everything you said you would do and did not
    4. For each miss write one word: blocked, forgot, or changed my mind
    5. Delete anything you have carried forward three weeks running
    6. Pick the single item that would make next week feel different
    7. Put that item on a specific day, at a specific hour
    8. Write down its first physical step, the one you could start in a minute
    9. Scan the calendar for anything that needs preparing before it arrives
    10. Send the one message you have been avoiding
    11. Stop. Do not add a twelfth box.
    Share
    Download Markdown, 1.3 KB

    Receipt

    Source
    First party. Made by Spark.
    Cost
    Free. Plain Markdown, no account, no app.
    Free route
    This is the free version.
    Tested
    2026-07-26
    Material connection
    None.
    The catch
    It only works while it stays at eleven. The moment you add a twelfth box you have stopped reviewing and started planning, and the review goes back to ninety minutes.
  2. 03EditorialCaptions first is not a shortcutPlenty of videos already carry a text track. Paying to transcribe them again is a habit, not a requirement.1 min readOpenClose

    Plenty of videos already carry a text track. Paying to transcribe them again is a habit, not a requirement.

    Almost every transcription tool opens the same way. Give us the file, or give us the link, and we will start processing. Processing means audio going somewhere, a queue, and a bill that scales with minutes.

    For a large share of the videos people actually want to read, that work has already been done. Platforms publish caption tracks, some human made and some machine made, and those tracks are text you can search, quote and keep. Reaching for a paid pipeline before checking is a reflex worth breaking.

    The order that holds up: published captions first, private local speech to text second, and a capped paid provider only when the first two come back empty. That order is cheapest, it is fastest, and it keeps the most audio off other people’s servers. The cost only appears where it is genuinely earned.

    The catch is real. Auto generated captions arrive without speaker labels and with unreliable punctuation, so they are better for finding a passage than for publishing one. Some videos have no track at all. That is what the second and third steps are for, and it is why the fallback needs a hard cap rather than a good intention.

    Share

    Receipt

    Source
    First party. Made by Spark.
    Cost
    Free to read.
    Free route
    Not applicable.
    Tested
    2026-07-26
    Material connection
    Spark builds the Video to Text bench described here, so this argument is about first-party work. Stating it here rather than at the bottom.
    The catch
    Caption quality varies by platform and by uploader. Treat an auto track as a searchable draft, not as a quotable record.

Workbench

One tool at a time, working on the page rather than described on it.

04ToolLink checker ready, transcription offline

Video to Text

Check and keep a YouTube or TikTok link here. Authenticated transcription stays offline until Spark can preserve Verbatim’s ownership and spend controls.

YouTube and TikTok only. Twenty minutes maximum. One link at a time. Spark checks the link before anything leaves your browser.

Nothing queued. This preview only checks and keeps the link. When authenticated Verbatim execution is added, that service keeps its captions-first order.

Share

Verbatim order after sign-in

  1. Published captionsFree, instant, and already public. Checked first, every time.
  2. Local speech to textPrivate, runs on Offbrain hardware, no audio sent to a provider.
  3. Capped paid providerLast resort, hard spend brake, closed to the public bench.
Limits, receipt and bench status

The preview takes one link at a time and checks the platform and address shape in your browser. No server handoff exists yet, so a bad link fails here and a good one stays on your device.

YouTube and TikTok only. Twenty minutes maximum. This public preview has no execution route, so it cannot reach local or paid transcription. It validates the link and hands it back ready to keep.

Receipt

Source
First party. Made by Spark.
Cost
Free to check and keep a link. Transcription is not connected here.
Free route
Open the video and read the platform’s own caption track directly.
Tested
2026-07-26
Material connection
First-party preview built by Offbrain. Authenticated transcription execution is not connected.
The catch
Two platforms, twenty minutes, one link at a time. The current public preview does not execute transcription. You get your link back, never a fabricated transcript.

Also on the bench

  • Full text feedsEvery entry, complete, in RSS and JSON FeedReady
  • Weekly digestOne email a week collecting the best of the stackNot connected
  • Transcript deliveryReturn finished text to the reader in the browserNot built

Earlier drops

Everything by what it does
  1. 25SAT JUL2 DAYS AGO
    1. 01PromptThe plain language rewrite that keeps the numbersTurn a dense paragraph into something a stranger can act on, without losing a single figure, date or name.
    2. 02EditorialA download beats a linkIf someone has to be online and signed in to use the thing you gave them, you did not really give it to them.
  2. 24FRI JUL3 DAYS AGO
    1. 01EditorialThe free tier is the real product tourHow a company shapes the free version tells you more about how it will treat you later than any feature page.
    2. 02WorkflowName files so you can find them in a yearOne naming rule, five parts, sortable by default. Download it and keep it next to wherever you save things.

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