Overdue Task Nudges — Automated Reminders

Last updated: April 17, 2026

Sweeps your workspace for overdue or upcoming-due tasks, sends personal Slack DMs to assignees with contextual messages, and logs each nudge as a task comment so people don't get double-pinged.

Before You Begin

  1. Numeric MCP connected.

  2. Numeric Toolkit installed.

  3. Slack MCP connected (for DMs). An email MCP (Gmail, SES, etc.) is optional — only used for tasks that explicitly set channel: email.

  4. At least one open period with pending tasks.

Per-task preferences live in each task's description under a ## Reminder preferences section. The skill reads them, applies them, and syncs them back after each run.

How It Works

  1. Ask Claude to send reminders. Example prompts:

    • "Remind assignees about overdue tasks."

    • "Send close reminders for this week."

    • "Nudge people on late recs."

  2. Claude asks: run reminders for all pending tasks, or specific ones? Naming a single task triggers a quick-mode path (no full workspace sweep).

  3. For each task, Claude reads the ## Reminder preferences section (or uses defaults).

  4. Claude filters to tasks that need a nudge: past due, unblocked, outside the cooldown window.

  5. Claude determines recipients from task descriptions (Notify: lines, @mentions) or falls back to the preparer/reviewer.

  6. Claude sends one Slack DM per person, grouping all their tasks into a single message.

  7. Claude logs 🔔 Numeric reminder sent comment on every task — this enforces the cooldown on future runs.

  8. Claude syncs preferences back to each task description so next run picks up your tweaks.

What You Get

A run summary like:

✅ Messaged 3 people across 12 tasks
  • Jane Smith — Cash Recon, AP Subledger, Payroll Accrual
  • Bob Chen — Fixed Assets
⏸  Skipped (cooldown): 2 tasks
🔒  Skipped (blocked by dependency): 1 task
⏭   Skipped (no due date): 4 tasks
❌  Could not resolve Slack handle: 1 person

Default preferences (overridable per task):

remind_days_before_due: 0        # 0 = on/after due date only; raise to nudge earlier
reminder_cooldown_hours: 24      # minimum hours between nudges for a given task
channel: slack                   # slack = DM; email = send via email MCP if connected

Troubleshooting

Issue

What to Check

Someone got two reminders

Cooldown check reads task comments. If a comment wasn't posted correctly, the check fails. Verify the task's comment log.

Slack DM failed

Recipient's handle couldn't be resolved. They appear in the "Could not resolve" section.

channel: email didn't work

Only fires if an email MCP (Gmail/SES/etc.) is connected — the skill tells you when it skips.

Recipient isn't in the workspace roster

Skill can't match the @mention. Add them or put a full email in the task description.

Blocked task got a nudge

Skill detects Blocked by: / Depends on: / Waiting on: patterns. If your phrasing is different, adjust the description.

FAQ

  • Can I run this on a schedule? Yes — pair with schedule for daily close-week sweeps.

  • Can I remind someone who isn't the assignee? Yes — add Notify: Jane, Bob or @handles in the task description.

  • How does it handle blocked tasks? Detects dependency references and skips — no point nudging someone on work they can't complete.

  • Does email fallback work? Only if an email MCP is connected (Gmail, SES, etc.). Otherwise logs what would have been sent and skips.

Download & Install

Download the full Numeric Toolkit (15 community skills, including this one):

🔗 numeric-mcp-toolkit.zip

Install via Claude Code CLI:

/plugin marketplace add geoff-lew/numeric-toolkit
/plugin install numeric-mcp-toolkit

Direct link to the Skill

🔗 overdue-task-nudge.skill

In Cowork, go to Customize in the left sidebar, click +, select the Skills tab, and click Install to upload the downloaded skill file.

Need help? Reach out to support@numeric.io.