The Synoptic Key of Life is an effort to understand all the formal taxonomic descriptions in the biological literature with machine learning and make them accessible to the amateur taxonomist.

You can find the source at SKOL@github. There are presentations covering specific projects under the ISTnnn directories. The MASMC2025 poster gives an overview of the project to date.

We use Trello to track tasks and system behaviors.

Please use the GitHub Issues tool to report bugs in the Synoptic Key of Life or this web site. However, check existing bug reports before reporting a new bug.

Pre-alpha search site is available at https://synoptickeyof.life/skol. You may create an account, but there are no account-specific behaviors yet. Odds are good that I won't purge the account database between now and beta release at the end of May 2026.