Pieces comes with built-in single-click summaries like Morning Brief, Day Recap, and Time Breakdown. But your workflow is unique — and sometimes the pre-built options don't quite match what you need.
Custom Summary Templates let you build your own single-click summaries. Define the name, pick a color and icon, set your scoping parameters (time range, websites, projects, apps), and save it. Once saved, your template lives right alongside the built-in options and can be triggered with a single click — no reconfiguration needed, ever.
Build it once, use it forever.
Introduced in Pieces 5.0.3 (PiecesOS 12.3.8). Requires Pieces Desktop 5.0.3 or later.
custom-summary-templates-1.mp4
The built-in summaries cover common use cases, but they can't anticipate every workflow. Custom templates let you:
- Eliminate repetitive setup — Stop re-entering the same filters and time ranges every time you need a specific summary
- Standardize your output — Get consistent formatting and scoping across recurring summaries
- Match your reporting cadence — Daily standups, weekly client updates, monthly reviews — all one click away
- Focus on what matters — Scope by project, app, website, or time range so you only see relevant context
From your Home Dashboard in the Pieces Desktop App, tap Custom Summary. If it's not visible on your Home Dashboard, tap Discover More to view all available single-click summary options. Then select Custom Summary.
Set up the scoping for your template:
- Time Range — Choose how far back the summary should look (last 24 hours, this week, last week, etc.)
- Signals — Scope to specific project signals Pieces has detected
- Applications — Filter by specific apps (VS Code, Chrome, Slack, etc.)
- Websites — Include or exclude specific websites to narrow the focus
Combine multiple dimensions for precise results — for example, "Last 3 days, VS Code only, focused on the authentication project."
Give your template a name, pick a color, and choose an icon. This is how it will appear in your summary library alongside the built-in options, so make it easy to recognize at a glance.
Tap Save. Your custom template now lives in your summary library and can be triggered with a single click anytime — just like Morning Brief or Day Recap.
Whenever you need this summary, find your template in the summary library and tap it. Pieces generates the summary using the exact parameters you saved — no setup required.
Custom Summary Templates shine when you have recurring needs. Here are examples across different roles and workflows that you can use as inspiration — or copy the prompt descriptions and adapt them to your own work.
Create a template that summarizes your last few hours of activity so you can quickly re-orient after a break, lunch, or the next morning.
Summarize what I was working on in the last 4 hours — include files edited, pages visited, and any conversations I had.
Scope a template to a single project so you can generate a focused progress update anytime a stakeholder asks "where are we?"
Generate a status update for the authentication project covering the last week — include code changes, discussions, and open items.
Build a template that pulls context related to a specific teammate — useful for managers preparing for 1:1s or checking in on project contributions.
Summarize what Sarah worked on this past week based on our shared discussions, code reviews, and meeting context.
Capture all the links and articles you visited during a research session so you don't lose track of what you found.
List all the websites and articles I visited today related to cloud infrastructure, with a brief summary of each.
Generate a professional weekly update scoped to a specific client's project — ready to paste into an email or shared doc.
Generate a weekly progress report for the Acme Corp project covering the last 7 days — include milestones, deliverables, and next steps.
At the end of a sprint, generate a summary of what was shipped, what slipped, and how time was distributed.
Summarize this past 2-week sprint: features shipped, bugs fixed, items that carried over, and how time was allocated across tasks.
After a day of meetings, generate a digest of everything that was discussed so you can send follow-ups or update your notes.
Summarize all meetings and calls from today — include key decisions, action items, and who was involved.
Pull together a high-level summary of strategic activity over the past month — portfolio reviews, board discussions, and key decisions.
Generate a monthly summary of board meetings, strategic discussions, and portfolio activity from the last 30 days.
Scope a template to a specific client matter so you can generate a running summary of research, consultations, and case activity.
Summarize all activity related to the Smith v. Jones matter over the last 2 weeks — include research, document review, and client communications.
Generate a summary of all review-related activity for a specific engagement during audit season.
Summarize my audit-related work for the past week — include spreadsheet activity, review calls, and documentation updates.
Track what you've been learning across tutorials, documentation, and courses — great for developers ramping up on new technologies.
Summarize everything I researched and learned about Kubernetes this past week — include articles read, videos watched, and notes taken.
If you're not sure exactly what to scope, start with a wider time range and fewer filters. Once you see the output, refine the parameters and re-save the template.
If you generate the same kind of summary more than twice, it's worth saving as a template. Weekly client updates, sprint retros — make them all one-click.
Name your templates clearly so you can find them instantly. "Weekly Acme Update" is better than "Custom Summary 3."
Templates give you the structured starting point. If you need to go deeper on a specific item in the summary, start a chat from the summary and ask Pieces Copilot to elaborate.
Your workflow evolves. Periodically review your saved templates and update the parameters — add new projects, adjust time ranges, or retire templates you no longer need.
- Tighten your filters — Add more scoping dimensions (specific projects, apps, or websites) to narrow the focus
- Shorten the time range — A narrower window means less noise in the output
- Widen the time range — If there isn't enough activity in the scoped period, the summary will be thin
- Remove overly restrictive filters — If you're filtering to a single app and a single project, there may not be enough data
- Make sure PiecesOS is capturing — Verify that PiecesOS is running and actively capturing context from the relevant applications
- Make sure you completed the save step — if you closed the builder without saving, the template won't persist
- Try restarting the Pieces Desktop App if a saved template isn't showing up
Custom Summary Templates turn your recurring summary needs into single-click actions. Define the parameters once — time range, websites, projects, apps, name, color, icon — and generate consistent, focused summaries whenever you need them.
Key Takeaways:
- Build your own — Create templates with custom names, colors, icons, and scoping parameters
- One click to generate — Your templates live alongside built-in summaries like Morning Brief and Day Recap
- Scope precisely — Filter by time, websites, projects, and applications for focused output
- Consistency matters — Same format every time, no reconfiguration needed
- Adapt to any role — Developers, managers, lawyers, consultants, executives — templates work for any workflow
Stop rebuilding your summaries from scratch. Save a template and make it a single click.
If you run into any issues or have questions, we're here to help:
- Support Portal — Visit pieces.app/support to browse FAQs and submit a request
- GitHub Issues — Report bugs or request features directly on our GitHub Issues page
- Book a Call — Schedule time with our team directly: Book a Call
Your workflow, your templates, your way — create custom summary templates and generate the exact summaries you need with a single click.
See also: How to Use the Workstream Activity Timeline — The visual timeline that templates draw their data from
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