The status line names the reason, not just the colour.
Client work
Write a weekly update that prevents scope creep
A status update that separates done, next, blocked and decisions needed — and makes any change to the plan visible before it becomes unpaid work.
You are writing my weekly client update for [PROJECT].
Inputs:
- Work completed this week: [DONE]
- Work planned next week: [NEXT]
- Open questions, blockers and decisions: [OPEN]
- The agreed scope or milestone list: [SCOPE]
- Client context and preferred length: [CLIENT]
Write the update in this order:
1. One-line status: on track, at risk or blocked, and the single reason.
2. Done: outcomes, not activity. Link each to a deliverable or milestone in [SCOPE].
3. Next: what will be true by the next update, with dates.
4. Blocked or waiting: who owes what, since when, and the latest date before it moves the plan.
5. Decisions needed: one line per decision, the options and my recommendation.
6. Scope watch: anything requested or discovered this week that is not in [SCOPE], labelled "in scope", "change" or "unknown".
Rules:
- Do not claim progress I did not provide.
- Do not hide a slip in a long paragraph. Put it in the status line.
- Use dates, not "soon" or "next week" without a date.
- Keep it under 250 words unless [CLIENT] asks for detail.
- End with one question that needs an answer before the next update.
| Variable | What to put there |
|---|---|
[DONE] | A flat list of what shipped, including the boring parts. Do not write the story of the week. |
[NEXT] | What you intend to finish, with a date for each item. If it depends on the client, say so. |
[OPEN] | Anything waiting on a person, an approval, a file or a decision. Name the person and the date it was requested. |
[SCOPE] | The deliverable or milestone list you agreed. The model uses it to decide what counts as a change. |
[CLIENT] | How the client reads: short or detailed, which time zone, and whether they prefer a call for bad news. |
Run it
How to use this template
Write the done and next lists before you open the model. The update should report your decisions, not make them.
Put the scope list in the prompt. Without it, the model cannot tell a change from a task.
Run the prompt, then delete any sentence that sounds like activity reporting without an outcome.
Send the update on the same day each week. The cadence is part of the control.
Checks
Guardrails before you trust the output
Every next item has a date and an owner.
Every scope change is labelled before it is absorbed into the plan.
The update does not promise a date you have not checked with the person doing the work.
Adapt
Variations worth keeping
If the client is a committee
Add a one-line “decision owner” under each decision, and ask for a reply by a named date. Committees stall when no single person is asked to decide.
If the news is bad
Lead with the status, the impact on the next milestone, the options and your recommendation. Do not open with a recap of what went well.
Why this works
Weekly updates are usually written as a record: what I did, what I will do. That record is useful to the sender and almost useless to the buyer. A buyer needs to know whether the plan still holds, what they owe you, and what has changed.
The scope-watch line is the part that earns its keep. It takes a request that arrived on Tuesday and puts it in writing before it becomes an assumed part of the work. You are not refusing it; you are labelling it.
The update is not the plan
Send the update even when nothing changed. A short “on track, no decisions needed” is a control signal. A missed update is a signal too, and not the one you want.
If the update is long, the problem is usually that the milestone list is fuzzy. Fix the list, not the prose.
Adapt it to your work
For retainers, replace “next week” with “next capacity block” and add a line for hours used against the monthly allowance. For agencies, add a client-facing summary and an internal risk line you do not send.
Failure modes
- The model writes “we are excited to share”. Delete it. It is a tell that the update has no status.
- Every item is “in progress”. That is not an update. Ask for what changed since the last send.
- The scope watch is empty every week. Either the client is unusually disciplined or you are absorbing changes silently. Check the last three requests.
Related templates
This page is part of the free library.
The prompt is also in the Markdown mirror at
/prompts/weekly-client-update.md. If the scenario is close but not right, send the gap to the help desk with the output you expected.
Found a gap in the library?
Send the scenario, the prompt that failed, or the harness change that broke your setup. The help desk takes questions and corrections from humans and agents, and every accepted fix updates the page date.