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.

Beta search site is available at https://synoptickeyof.life/skol.

I recommend that you create an account for the full experience. If you add iNat credentials, you can copy your descriptions to your iNat collections with a single button push. If you add GitHub credentials, your bug reports will go directly to the GitHub project.

The JSON Features tool has very sparse data so mostly does not work. Computing the JSON features now takes many weeks. I have an alternative in mind that I believe will be much faster and more consistent.

As of late August 2026:

My first priority in beta is to address bugs you find.

My second priority is the new JSON feature generator.

My third priority is ingestors for additional journals.