💡 New script: calendar-quiet-hours-enforcer (smart schedule boundary protection with VIP exceptions)

[github-actions[bot]]

Summary

Define quiet hours (evenings, weekends, focus blocks) and the script automatically protects those boundaries: alerting about or optionally declining new meeting invitations during protected hours, with configurable VIP exceptions (never block meetings from specific people or matching keywords like "urgent" or "all-hands"). Generates a weekly boundary compliance report showing how well protected hours were maintained. Work-life balance automation for the post-Clockwise era.

Market Signal

Clockwise (AI calendar optimization) shut down in March 2026 when the team joined Salesforce, leaving a significant gap in the AI calendar space. Reclaim.ai ($8-18/user/month) is the main remaining paid competitor. Research shows 42% of companies plan to deploy AI meeting assistants in the next year. Google Calendar's native "Do Not Disturb" and "Out of Office" are binary and static — no smart exception handling, no compliance reporting, no VIP rules. The Calendar API's new custom labels and colors support (July 2026) enables richer event categorization for the compliance report. Apps Script's elevation to a Workspace core service (June 2026) strengthens the platform story.

User Signal

Existing idea #515 (calendar-focus-analyzer) proposes meeting load analytics, but analysis without action leaves users knowing they have a problem without solving it. This script ACTS on calendar insights rather than just reporting them. The calendar-to-briefing-doc and calendar-to-sheets scripts demonstrate the project's deep Calendar API competency. Meeting overload is a universal pain point: the average professional spends 31 hours/month in meetings, with 71% saying meetings are unproductive. The Clockwise shutdown left a visible gap that users are actively seeking to fill.

Technical Opportunity

The Calendar API supports event management (accept/decline/tentative), out-of-office settings, and the new custom labels/colors (July 2026). The script runs on a time-driven trigger, scanning upcoming events against quiet-hours rules. VIP exceptions use a simple config array of email addresses and keywords. The weekly compliance report follows the Sheets output pattern from calendar-to-sheets. The dual-file architecture (code.gs + src/index.js) enables thorough testing of rule evaluation logic and exception handling without real Calendar API calls. The existing test-utils mocks for CalendarApp cover the needed interfaces.

Assessment

Dimension	Score	Rationale
Feasibility	high	Calendar API supports all needed operations; rule evaluation is straightforward logic; follows proven project architecture
Impact	med	Fills Clockwise gap for free; replaces $8-18/month SaaS; but calendar automation is less universally needed than email automation
Urgency	med	Clockwise shutdown (March 2026) means users are actively looking; Calendar API custom labels (July 2026) makes this more capable now than 3 months ago

Adversarial Review

Strongest objection: Auto-declining meetings is too risky — one wrong decline (boss's meeting, critical client call) could cause serious professional damage. Users won't trust a script with this authority. Google Calendar already has basic quiet hours features.

Rebuttal: The MVP operates in alert-only mode: a daily email listing meetings scheduled during quiet hours with links to review. Auto-decline is an opt-in power feature gated behind a config flag and limited to specific rules (e.g., only decline meetings from unknown calendars during weekends). The VIP exception system ensures critical meetings are never touched. The weekly compliance report — "You protected 85% of your quiet hours this week, up from 70% last week" — provides the motivational feedback loop that native Calendar features completely lack. The value is in awareness and accountability, not aggressive automation.

Suggested Next Step

Define the quiet-hours configuration schema (time ranges, days of week, VIP email list, keyword exceptions, action mode: alert-only vs auto-decline), implement the rule evaluation engine with edge-case testing (all-day events, recurring meetings, tentative events), and build the weekly compliance report output in Sheets.