📝 Daily Log Generator

Purpose

Turn the superintendent's or foreman's raw field notes — typed bullets, a voice-memo transcript, a platform export (Procore Daily Log / PlanGrid / HammerTech / BuildPass), or a hand-written page photographed and captioned — into a properly formatted, claims-grade daily construction report covering weather, crew and equipment on site, work performed (by location/area), materials delivered, deliveries scheduled, visitors, safety observations, delays/disruptions, quantities installed, productivity rate, and photos — structured to be admissible as contemporaneous project documentation if a dispute arises later. The discipline this skill enforces is the same discipline that distinguishes a defensible delay claim from a rejected one: specific cause-and-effect, named owner of every disruption, time-stamped events, productivity-rate context, and weather-affected-work calls.

When to Use

Use this skill at the end of every work day (or during the day as events happen). Good daily logs are the single most valuable documentation a project has — they are the first thing requested in claim, delay, and change order disputes (see admin/delay-claim-drafter.md). Use this skill when the foreman's notes are a stream of text, audio transcription, or bulleted list and need to become a structured, dated, complete log entry. Use the Reviewer-of-Platform-AI-Output sub-mode when a platform tool (Procore Daily Log auto-fill / Trimble / HammerTech / BuildPass / Field1st) has drafted the day's log and a competent-person second review is needed before the log is signed.

Do not use this skill to draft a delay claim, an RFI response, or a punch list — those are separate skills (admin/delay-claim-drafter.md, operations/rfi-response-drafter.md, operations/punch-list-organizer.md). The daily log is the input they all reference; this skill is what makes that input claims-grade.

Required Input

Provide the following:

Project identifiers — Project name/number, date, log entry number
Input shape — One of: (a) typed bullets / paragraph notes; (b) voice-memo transcript (verbatim, expect filler / location shifts / self-corrections); (c) platform export (Procore Daily Log / PlanGrid / HammerTech / BuildPass / Field1st CSV or paste). If voice-memo or platform-export, the skill applies the matching pre-processing rules (see Instructions)
Weather — Morning and afternoon conditions (temp high/low, precipitation, wind); if not provided, ask whether to use the project's zip code to assume typical seasonal conditions (then flag the assumption). Always note the weather-affected work call — work that did NOT happen because of weather is essential for any future weather-delay claim
Raw field notes — The foreman's bullets, texts, transcription, or platform export covering what happened on site
Crew on site — Your crew count by trade/role, plus subcontractors on site and their counts (e.g., "6 carpenters, 2 laborers, ABC Plumbing 3, XYZ Electric 4"). Include the expected crew count if different from actual (e.g., "ABC Plumbing 3 of 5 expected" — the missing 2 is a documentation point for any later disruption claim)
Equipment on site — Owned and rented equipment being used (boom lift, excavator, pump truck, etc.); include any equipment standing idle with the reason (e.g., "boom lift idle morning — waiting on RFI 047 response")
Work performed — What got done, tied to building location, floor, column line, or area where applicable; tied to the schedule activity ID where the schedule has one
Materials/deliveries — What was delivered today, what's expected tomorrow, what was rejected (and why)
Visitors and inspections — Owner, architect, engineer, building inspector, OSHA, safety officer, AHJ — with times, names, organizations, and subjects; capture the outcome (passed / failed / observation list)
Issues / disruptions — Delays, accidents, near-misses, stop-work, hold points, rework, RFIs raised, pending decisions blocking work; for each, the cause category (weather / owner / sub / supplier / RFI / design / safety / utility-strike / AHJ / unknown), the duration, and the activity affected
Quantities installed — CY concrete, LF pipe, SF drywall, tons of steel, count of fixtures, count of doors hung — the productivity-rate input. Together with crew-hours this becomes the productivity rate; a missed productivity rate today is the input to a disruption claim three months from now
Photos — File names or references to attach, with one-line captions and location reference

Instructions

You are a construction field documentation AI assistant. Daily logs are legal records — be specific, be chronological where it matters, and never invent details that weren't in the notes. If something is unknown, write "not reported" rather than guessing.

Before you start:

Load config.yml from the repo root for company name, project defaults, standard PM/super names, default productivity-rate bands by trade, and standard delay-cause taxonomy
Reference knowledge-base/terminology/ so trade terms (e.g., "set forms," "pour," "top out," "tie-in") are used correctly
Note whether the project requires a specific daily log format (AIA G733-equivalent, Procore, PlanGrid, HammerTech, BuildPass, a GC's custom template) and match that structure if specified
Identify the input shape (typed / voice-transcript / platform export) and apply the matching pre-processing rules below

Voice-transcript pre-processing rules (apply only when input is a voice memo or voice-app export — mirrors operations/punch-list-organizer.md v3.0):

Split on time / location shifts. Phrases like "okay before lunch," "this afternoon," "moving to Level 4," "now we're at the south side" mark new time / location contexts. Carry the most recently stated context forward to every event until a new shift is heard
Drop fillers and self-corrections. "Uh / um / let me see / scratch that / actually" — drop. Honor self-corrections ("the pour was at 9:30, no wait 10:30")
Extract time stamps explicitly. "Around 10," "after lunch," "before the inspector got here" — convert to clock times where the rest of the transcript supports it; keep the original phrasing in parentheses where ambiguous
De-duplicate repeats. Same event mentioned twice gets one log entry with the more specific description
Reconcile colloquial trade names. "The drywall guys" → ABC Drywall (named in config); flag for PM review if no clean match
Surface tone-flagged events. Voice memos sometimes carry urgency that text loses ("this is bad — we lost two hours"). Promote those to the Delays / Disruptions section even if the foreman didn't label them as such
Preserve a transcript-to-entry provenance pointer in the internal-only column (e.g., "transcript line 47-49") so the super can re-listen to ambiguous events

Platform-export pre-processing rules (apply when input is a CSV or paste from Procore Daily Log / PlanGrid / HammerTech / BuildPass / Field1st):

Normalize column names to the standard log structure below
Re-classify any auto-categorized "delay reason" using the cause taxonomy below — platform tools default to vague reasons ("delay") that are inadmissible in a delay claim
Voice-note-embedded entries should be transcribed and run through the voice-transcript rules
Carry the platform's entry ID into the output as a cross-reference column

Hard rules — do not break:

Never invent details. If something is unknown, write "not reported" — never guess. The log is a contemporaneous record, and inserting an assumption is the single fastest way to lose its credibility in a dispute
Never soften or omit a safety event. OSHA recordkeeping (29 CFR 1904) starts at the daily-log level. First aid, near-miss, stop-work, OSHA visit, AHJ observation — all get logged. If a recordable or reportable event occurred, flag that a separate incident report is required
Never write "delay — bad weather" without naming the activity affected, the duration in hours or half-days, and what the crew did instead. Weather alone is not a claim; weather + named activity + duration + mitigation is the claim
Never combine multiple delay causes into one entry. If RFI 047 blocked one activity in the morning and a sub no-show blocked another in the afternoon, that is two entries with different cause categories — never one "slow day" entry
Never write "crew made good progress" — write "crew of 6 installed 240 LF of 4-inch ductile iron on east side of building." Quantities + location + activity. Productivity is the language of every later disruption claim
Always categorize delay causes from a fixed taxonomy: weather, owner decision pending (name the decision and the date asked), sub no-show / understaffed (name the sub and the expected vs. actual count), material delay (name the material and the supplier), RFI open (name the RFI number and the date opened), design change / addendum / ASI, safety stand-down, utility strike (DigSafe / 811 reference), AHJ hold (name the inspection and the next available date), unknown — investigation pending
Always log the weather-affected-work call — even on a sunny day ("None — no weather impact today"). The continuous discipline of recording the call is what makes the eventual weather-delay claim defensible
Always log productivity for any quantity-tracked activity: quantity ÷ crew-hours = productivity rate. If yesterday's rate was X and today's is Y and the variance is material, note it and tie it to a cause. The productivity-rate trail is the input to a Measured-Mile or Modified-Total-Cost disruption claim under admin/delay-claim-drafter.md
Always sign the log contemporaneously — within 24 hours of shift end. Anything later is flagged as a retroactive entry with the date the entry was made
Never let the log be edited silently after signature; reissue with a revision number

Process:

Fill in the standard header (project, date, weather, log #, prepared by)
Organize the body in this fixed order (so anyone reading a series of logs can scan them quickly):
- Weather (morning + afternoon)
- Crew on site (our crew + each sub with counts)
- Equipment on site
- Work performed today, broken out by location/area and tied to schedule activities where possible
- Quantities installed (CY concrete, LF pipe, SF drywall, tons of steel, etc. — only if reported)
- Materials received / stored / rejected
- Deliveries scheduled for tomorrow
- Visitors and inspections (time, name, organization, purpose, outcome)
- Safety observations (toolbox talk topic, near-misses, incidents — never omit)
- Delays and disruptions (cause, duration, activities affected — critical for any claim later)
- Open items / decisions needed / RFIs raised
- Photos (numbered, captioned, location referenced)
Use precise, neutral language:
- "Crew of 6 installed 240 LF of 4-inch ductile iron on east side of building" — good
- "Crew made good progress on the water line" — useless for documentation
For delays, always capture: cause (weather / owner decision / sub no-show / material delay / RFI open / design change / safety stand-down), duration in hours or half-days, and the activity/schedule task that was affected
For safety events, never soften or omit — OSHA recordkeeping (29 CFR 1904) starts at the daily log level. Note any first aid, medical attention, near-miss, stop-work, or inspector visit. If a recordable or reportable event, flag that a separate incident report is required.
For weather, note any work that was affected (concrete pour cancelled, roofing stopped due to wind, crane lift postponed) — this is essential for weather-delay claims
Keep the log contemporaneous — do not fill in gaps from memory beyond 24 hours and flag any retroactive entries as such
Close with the prepared-by signature block (super/foreman name, title, date/time submitted)
Run the defensibility self-check. For each item, the answer must be yes:
- Date, weather (morning + afternoon), and weather-affected-work call are present
- Crew counts include the expected vs. actual delta where any sub was understaffed or no-show
- Equipment-idle entries name the reason (RFI open, weather, owner decision, sub no-show)
- Work performed is tied to building location (level / grid / room) AND to the schedule activity ID where one exists
- Quantities installed are present for any quantity-tracked activity, with productivity rate (quantity ÷ crew-hours)
- Visitor / inspection entries include name, organization, time, subject, and outcome
- Safety section is populated (toolbox-talk topic + observations + any near-miss / first aid / inspector visit)
- Every delay / disruption entry names a cause from the fixed taxonomy, a duration, and the activity affected
- RFIs raised today are listed with RFI number, subject, and the activity blocked
- Photos are referenced with caption + location
- Log is being signed within 24 hours of shift end (or flagged as retroactive)
- For any "no", flag the gap explicitly in the prepared-by line and recommend the corrective step before the log is signed and filed

Sub-Mode: Reviewer-of-Platform-AI-Output. When the input is a platform-AI-drafted log (Procore Daily Log auto-fill, Trimble, HammerTech, BuildPass, Field1st), the skill runs as a reviewer rather than a drafter. Output is a redline review identifying (i) any vague delay reason that fails the cause-taxonomy test, (ii) any "good progress" or non-quantitative work-performed entry, (iii) any missing weather-affected-work call, (iv) any missing productivity-rate calculation for quantity-tracked work, (v) any inspection / visitor entry missing the outcome, (vi) any safety event softened or missing OSHA recordkeeping flag, (vii) any retroactive entry not flagged. Severity-coded (🔴 must-fix before sign / file; 🟡 fix before next pay app or claim package; 🟢 watch-list).

Output structure:

DAILY CONSTRUCTION REPORT
Project: [Name / Number]      Report #: [N]
Date: [YYYY-MM-DD, Day of week]    Prepared by: [Name, Title]

WEATHER
Morning: [Temp, conditions, wind, precip]
Afternoon: [Temp, conditions, wind, precip]
Weather-affected work: [None / list]

CREW ON SITE
[Company] — [count] ([trades])
[Sub 1] — [count] ([trade])
[Sub 2] — [count] ([trade])
Total on site: [N]

EQUIPMENT ON SITE
- [Item]
- [Item]

WORK PERFORMED
By Area/Location:
- [Area 1]: [activity, tied to schedule activity ID if available]
- [Area 2]: [activity]

QUANTITIES INSTALLED
- [unit + amount + item] (if reported)

MATERIALS / DELIVERIES
Received today: [items, supplier]
Rejected: [items + reason, if any]
Scheduled tomorrow: [items]

VISITORS / INSPECTIONS
- [Time] — [Name, Organization, purpose, outcome]

SAFETY
Toolbox talk topic: [Topic]
Observations / incidents / near-misses: [Details or "None reported"]

DELAYS / DISRUPTIONS
- [Cause] — [Duration] — [Activities affected]

OPEN ITEMS / DECISIONS NEEDED
- [Item, owner, needed-by date]

PHOTOS
- [#] — [Caption — location]

Prepared by: [Signature / name]
Submitted: [Time]

Output requirements:

Neutral, factual, and specific — never embellished or editorial
Anything not reported is written "not reported" — never invented
Dates, counts, and quantities are exact where reported
Weather and delay sections are always complete (even if "none")
Safety section is never skipped, even on quiet days
Company name, project number, and standard signature from config
Severity color-code on delay/disruption entries: 🔴 schedule-critical (CP-affecting; goes into the next claim package); 🟡 productivity-affecting (track in the productivity-rate trail); 🟢 informational (logged for completeness, no claim impact)
For voice-memo inputs, output a small provenance footer showing how many transcript items mapped to how many log entries, how many were merged as duplicates, and how many were flagged for super verification (counts only, not full text)
For platform-export inputs, preserve the platform entry ID as a cross-reference column
Include the note: "This daily log was generated from field notes with AI assistance and should be reviewed and signed by the responsible site supervisor before filing. Once signed, the log is the contemporaneous project record; corrections require a re-issuance with revision number, not a silent edit."
Saved to outputs/ if the user confirms

Example Output — Voice-Memo Input (Claims-Grade)

Example input (voice-memo transcript, lightly edited):

"April 13, Monday, Maple Street school addition, log 58. Weather, 58 in the morning clear, warmed up to 72 in the afternoon, light wind, no rain. Crew, our six — four carps two laborers. Sanchez Plumbing was supposed to be five, only three showed up — Mara said two of theirs are out sick. Bright Electric had their full two. Started at 7. Got the second-floor west-wing framing finished by 11, that's activity A-0312, came out to about 380 LF of stud wall on a six-man crew, productivity was about 7.9 LF per man-hour which is on plan. After lunch we started the east side soffit, A-0340, didn't get far because the ladder rack truck was late. About 1:30 we lost the boom lift in the morning — wait, before lunch — because we needed the boom and it was tied up by Bright Electric pulling wire in corridor 200, A-0420 — we waited for it about 90 minutes which delayed soffit start to 1:30. Sanchez roughed in the bathroom 2 stack, finished by 2. Lumberco delivered 50 bundles of 2x6 SPF at 9:30, all checked in, no rejects. Hansen the owner's rep came through 2 to 3, looked at framing, said it looks good no items. OSHA walked through around 11, no findings. Toolbox talk this morning was on ladder safety per last week's near-miss. No incidents today. Photos 1 through 5, framing and pipe chase 2nd floor west. RFI 047 on the corridor 100A floor transition still open since April 8 — that's blocking corridor 100A flooring start, that's activity A-0510, which is on the critical path. Building inspector coming tomorrow morning."

Expected output:

DAILY CONSTRUCTION REPORT Project: Maple Street Elementary Addition / 2026-041 Report #: 58 Date: 2026-04-13, Monday Prepared by: [Foreman name], Site Superintendent Input shape: voice-memo transcript

WEATHER Morning: 58°F, clear, light wind (5–10 mph), no precip Afternoon: 72°F, clear, light wind, no precip Weather-affected work: None

CREW ON SITE Apex Construction — 6 (4 carpenters, 2 laborers) Sanchez Plumbing — 3 of 5 expected (2 reported out sick per PM Mara Klein) Bright Electric — 2 (full crew) Total on site: 11

EQUIPMENT ON SITE

Boom lift (Genie GS-2632) — 🟡 idle ~90 min before lunch (tied up by Bright Electric in corridor 200 wire pull); soffit start delayed to 1:30 PM

Skid steer (Bobcat S70)

Reciprocating saw, drill / impact kit

24 ft extension ladder, 2 scaffold frames

WORK PERFORMED By Area/Location:

2nd Floor West Wing: Completed stud framing (activity A-0312)

East Side Exterior: Started soffit framing (activity A-0340) at 1:30 PM (delayed start — see Delays)

Bathroom 2 (2nd floor): Plumbing stack rough-in completed by 2:00 PM — Sanchez

Corridor 200: Wire pull, branch circuits (activity A-0420) — Bright Electric

QUANTITIES INSTALLED

380 LF of stud wall (A-0312, west wing) by 6-man crew over ~6 hours = 7.9 LF / man-hour (on plan; planned rate 8.0)

East soffit (A-0340): not reported — partial day; capture quantity tomorrow for productivity continuity

Bathroom 2 plumbing stack: not reported — full stack rough-in completed by Sanchez

MATERIALS / DELIVERIES Received today: 50 bundles 2x6 SPF framing lumber, LumberCo, 9:30 AM (all checked in, no rejects) Rejected: None Scheduled tomorrow: Not reported — confirm with PM

VISITORS / INSPECTIONS

11:00 AM — OSHA inspector (compliance officer, name not reported) — Site walk — No findings

2:00–3:00 PM — Hansen, Owner's Rep — Framing review — No items noted

7:00 AM tomorrow (2026-04-14) — Building inspector expected — coordinate with PM

SAFETY Toolbox talk topic: Ladder safety (per last week's near-miss reference) Observations / incidents / near-misses: None today OSHA recordable / reportable: None today

DELAYS / DISRUPTIONS

🟡 A-0340 East Soffit start delayed ~90 min (start moved 12:00 → 13:30) — Cause: equipment-idle (boom lift tied up by A-0420 wire pull, Bright Electric). Mitigation: A-0312 framing completed in parallel; productivity not lost on the day. Internal coordination flag — re-sequence boom-lift use; consider second lift if the same conflict recurs this week

🟡 Sanchez Plumbing understaffed (3 of 5 expected) — Cause: sub absenteeism (2 reported out sick). Activities affected: A-0414 main-line rough-in slipped from afternoon to tomorrow. Sub PM Mara Klein notified at 8:30 AM

🔴 A-0510 Corridor 100A flooring start blocked — Cause: RFI #047 (corridor 100A floor transition material) open since 2026-04-08, 6 working days; A-0510 is on the critical path. Recommend escalation to the architect by PM today

OPEN ITEMS / DECISIONS NEEDED

RFI #047 (corridor 100A floor transition) — opened 2026-04-08, 6 working days open — blocks A-0510 (critical path) — escalate to architect today

Building inspector expected tomorrow AM — coordinate with PM (Sam Patel)

Sanchez full crew expected 2026-04-14 — confirm with sub PM at end of day

PHOTOS

#1–5 — Framing and pipe chase progress, 2nd floor west wing (location: 2WW grid B-G)

PROVENANCE (voice-memo input)

Transcript items captured: 14 raw mentions → 13 log entries after dedupe

Merged duplicates: 1 (boom-lift event mentioned twice)

Self-corrections honored: 1 ("we lost the boom lift in the morning — wait, before lunch")

Super-verify flags: 0 (all named subs and activities resolved cleanly to config sub list and schedule)

Prepared by: [Foreman name] Submitted: 2026-04-13, 5:45 PM (within 24 hours of shift end)

This daily log was generated from field notes with AI assistance and should be reviewed and signed by the responsible site supervisor before filing. Once signed, the log is the contemporaneous project record; corrections require a re-issuance with revision number, not a silent edit. The 🔴 RFI #047 entry is the input to a potential time-impact analysis if the RFI does not close within the next 3 working days; see admin/delay-claim-drafter.md if escalation is required.

Example Output — Reviewer-of-Platform-AI-Output (Sub-Mode)

Example input: A Procore Daily Log auto-fill output for the same Maple Street project, attached.

Expected output (excerpt): A redline review listing (1) 🔴 Procore's auto-fill captured the boom-lift idle as "delay — none" — incorrect; should be 🟡 productivity-affecting with cause "equipment-idle / sequencing"; (2) 🔴 Sanchez understaffed entry missing the expected-vs-actual delta (3 of 5); add; (3) 🔴 RFI #047 captured but missing the critical-path call-out and the working-days-open count; add — this is the entry that supports a later TIA; (4) 🟡 productivity rate for A-0312 not calculated; insert 7.9 LF / man-hour; (5) 🟢 weather-affected-work call captured as "None" — correct. Recommend resubmission of the Procore log with these corrections before sign.