Skills

#How skills work

A skill is a short set of instructions with a name and a one-line description. Synonode sees only the names and descriptions until a skill is needed, then reads the whole skill. That keeps every conversation light, however many skills you have.

Synonode loads a skill by itself when the work matches its description, with its Skill tool, as Claude Code does (the chat shows Load the pdf skill). When the words of your message match a skill, connector, agent or workflow (a presentation, an Excel file, supabase), it is reminded of it right after your message, once per conversation, so it doesn't do the work another way. In a long conversation the whole list is also put back in front of it now and then, so it picks the right one whatever language you write in. You can also start one yourself: type / and its name in the message box, for example /pptx turn my notes into a 10-slide deck.

#Built-in skills

Skill	For
/docx	Making or changing a Word document: a report, letter, CV or form.
/xlsx	Making, changing or analysing an Excel workbook: tables, formulas, charts.
/pptx	Making or changing a PowerPoint deck.
/pdf	Reading, filling, merging, splitting or making PDF files.
/research	Researching a question across many sources, with a linked report.
/dashboard	A dashboard from your data: numbers, charts and tables on one page.
/motion	A short animation that plays like a video: an explainer, moving charts, a walkthrough.
/compare	Screens that should match, or one screen before and after a change, in one picture: the same part of each, one under the other, with a list of every difference and the fix. "Compare the headers of the home, product and cart pages on a phone."

#Design in everything it makes

Decks, Word and PDF documents, posters, logos, animations and spreadsheets get the same design effort as an app. Before making one, Synonode decides a direction from the subject: its colours, type and one memorable touch, instead of the default theme. When the look is open (a new deck, a logo, a poster), it first shows you 2 or 3 directions as pictures on a question card, and makes the one you pick. If you gave it your brand or a template, it follows that.

Before calling it done, it looks at the whole thing in one picture: every slide or page numbered, an animation as frames across its length, a logo at 16 to 256 px on light and dark. Under the picture it gets what a picture can't count: type under 18 pt, slides with more than 40 words, the same layout on every slide. It fixes what it finds and looks again. Word, Excel and exact slide pictures need LibreOffice on your computer; without it, decks are still drawn from their shapes, and Synonode offers to install LibreOffice.

#Write your own

1. Open Settings → Skills

   Choose Write a skill.

2. Name it

   Lowercase letters, numbers and dashes. In a chat it's started with /name.

3. Say what it's for, in one line

   This is all Synonode sees until it loads the skill, so say when to use it: Write our weekly status update. Use when asked for the weekly update.

4. Write the instructions

   What Synonode should do, step by step, as you'd tell a capable colleague.

Your skills are kept on the computer with the runner and work in every project there. Switch any skill off on the same page without deleting it, or turn all skills off with Skills in Settings → Capabilities.

#Design systems

A design system is a skill for your look: colours with their codes, fonts, sizes, how buttons and cards are shaped, how the brand speaks. Add one under Settings → Design systems with Write a design system, and Synonode's designs and builds follow it.