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To add a new meeting group, you need to do three things: create four template files, register the group in both GitHub Actions workflows, and add npm scripts to package.json.
1

Create the four template files

All template files live in the templates/ directory and follow a strict naming convention using a short identifier for your group — referred to here as <shortname>.templates/invited_<shortname>A list of GitHub team mentions for everyone who is always invited to the meeting. Typically a single line referencing a GitHub Team.
* TSC Members: @nodejs/tsc
templates/observers_<shortname>A list of observers who consistently attend but are not full members. This file can be empty if there are no standing observers.
* @therebelrobot (Oz Haven - observer)
* @ParidelPooya (Pooya Paridel - observer)
templates/meeting_base_<shortname>A dotenv-format config file containing the meeting’s calendar and GitHub metadata. This file is parsed by dotenv at runtime.
CALENDAR_FILTER="Node.js My Group Meeting"
ICAL_URL="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/...public/basic.ics"
USER="nodejs"
REPO="my-group"
GROUP_NAME="My Group"
AGENDA_TAG=my-group-agenda
HACKMD_TEAM_NAME="openjs-nodejs"
JOINING_INSTRUCTIONS="

* link for participants: Will be added a few minutes before meeting starts
* For those who just want to watch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPYJluYC_sn_Qz_XE-YbTQ/live"
PropertyDescription
CALENDAR_FILTERExact name of the calendar event to match
ICAL_URLiCal URL for the group’s calendar feed
USERGitHub organization (typically nodejs)
REPORepository where meeting issues are created
GROUP_NAMEFull display name of the group
AGENDA_TAGGitHub label used to collect agenda items
HACKMD_TEAM_NAMEHackMD team workspace for minutes documents
JOINING_INSTRUCTIONSZoom link, YouTube stream URL, or other join info
templates/minutes_base_<shortname>A HackMD-compatible Markdown template for the meeting minutes document. Use the template variables listed below — they are substituted at runtime.
# $TITLE$

## Links

* **Recording**:
* **GitHub Issue**: $GITHUB_ISSUE$
* **Minutes**: $MINUTES_DOC$

## Present

$INVITED$
$OBSERVERS$

## Agenda

### Announcements

*Extracted from **my-group-agenda** labelled issues and pull requests from the **nodejs org** prior to the meeting.*

$AGENDA_CONTENT$

## Q&A, Other

## Upcoming Meetings

* **Node.js Foundation Calendar**: https://nodejs.org/calendar

Click `Add to Google Calendar` at the bottom left to add to your own Google calendar.
The supported template variables are:
VariableDescription
$TITLE$Generated meeting title including date
$AGENDA_CONTENT$Markdown list of agenda issues from GitHub
$INVITED$Contents of invited_<shortname>
$OBSERVERS$Contents of observers_<shortname>
$GITHUB_ISSUE$URL of the created GitHub issue
$MINUTES_DOC$URL of the HackMD minutes document
2

Add the group to GitHub Actions workflows

The scheduled workflow discovers groups automatically by scanning templates/ for meeting_base_* files, so creating the template file in Step 1 is sufficient for scheduled runs.For the manual workflow, you must also add the group as an allowed input value. Open .github/workflows/create-meeting-artifacts-manual.yml and add your shortname to the workflow_dispatch inputs:
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      meeting_group:
        description: 'Meeting group to create artifacts for'
        required: true
        type: string
The manual workflow accepts a free-form string input, so no additional options list is required — just dispatch the workflow with your group’s shortname as the meeting_group value.The scheduled workflow (.github/workflows/create-meeting-artifacts-scheduled.yml) automatically builds a matrix from all meeting_base_* files in templates/:
- name: Get config basenames
  id: set-matrix
  run: |
    CONFIGS=$(find templates/ -maxdepth 1 -type f -name 'meeting_base_*' | \
      jq -R -s -c 'split("\n")[:-1] | map(sub(".*meeting_base_";"")')
    echo "configs=$CONFIGS" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
Because the matrix is derived dynamically, your new group is picked up automatically once the meeting_base_<shortname> file exists.
3

Add npm scripts to package.json

Add two entries to the scripts section of package.json — one for production use in CI and one for local development:
{
  "scripts": {
    "my-group-meeting": "node create-node-meeting-artifacts.mjs my_group",
    "my-group-meeting:dev": "node --env-file=.env create-node-meeting-artifacts.mjs my_group"
  }
}
Use kebab-case for the script name (my-group-meeting) because npm script names follow shell conventions where hyphens are conventional word separators. Use snake_case for the group parameter (my_group) because the parameter maps directly to filenames in the templates/ directory — for example, meeting_base_my_group — and underscores are safer in filenames across operating systems.The :dev variant passes --env-file=.env so Node.js automatically loads your local credentials without needing to export environment variables manually.

​
Test the new group

Before running the full workflow, verify your templates are correct with a dry run: 
node --env-file=.env create-node-meeting-artifacts.mjs <shortname> --dry-run
This prints the generated issue content to the console without creating any GitHub issues or HackMD documents. See Using Dry Run Mode for details on what dry run does and does not do.
You can get the ICAL_URL for a group’s calendar from the Node.js Foundation calendar. On the calendar page, find the group’s calendar, open its settings, and copy the iCal (.ics) subscription URL.
The CALENDAR_FILTER value must match the calendar event name exactly, including capitalization and punctuation. If it does not match, the tool will find no meeting in the upcoming week and exit without creating any artifacts.

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