SYD · User Guide
SYD User Guide
The complete field manual — every feature, every page, every workflow explained and linked.
All systems
SYD Mission Control
User Guide
SYD is Nick's personal AI operating system — a layered stack of agents, skills, scheduled tasks, and vault structure that runs his work, family, faith, and projects from a single coherent command centre. This guide maps every page, explains every workflow, and gives you the exact phrases to run the system.
36+ Skills13 MCPs20 Scheduled TasksMac Mini · MacBook · iPhone
Workspace
The home base. Every session starts here.
Nick — Personal Tools
Your vault, your goals, your ideas. Everything personal in one section.
Memory / KG
Obsidian vault graph explorer. Browse your knowledge base visually.
/memory
Journal
Daily log. Capture reflections, session notes, and quick thoughts.
/journal
Goals
Tick-off goals tracker. Weekly, quarterly, and life goals in one view.
/goals
Epics
High-level initiatives. Long-arc work that spans multiple sprints.
/epics
Backlog
Kanban of what's next. Triage, prioritise, and pull from here into active work.
/backlog
Kanban
Multi-agent board. See which agents are doing what across all active sessions.
/kanban
Pipeline
Capture any idea. Agents classify it, estimate effort, and draft a plan automatically.
/pipeline
Web Clipper
Harvest any URL into vault-ready markdown. Includes automatic security scan before saving.
/clipper
Training
Learn from world-class professor personas: AI strategy, German, leadership, finance, faith.
/training
User Guide
This page. Full reference for every SYD Mission Control feature.
/guide-syd
Export / Manifest
Rebuild SYD from scratch. Export the full capability manifest and configuration.
/export-syd
Agents
Each agent has a domain. Route work to the right one or broadcast to all.
All Agents
Group chat with every agent simultaneously. Broadcast a task or let them collaborate.
/room
Claude
Anthropic's Sonnet / Opus. Deep reasoning, long-context analysis, multi-step tasks.
/claude
Hermes
Orchestrator. Routes tasks to the right agent, manages handoffs, tracks completion.
/hermes
ICA
IBM work agent. Box-only. Client names, engagements, HR data, budgets — never iCloud.
/ica
Copilot
Microsoft suite agent. Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook integration.
/copilot
OpenClaw
Open-source agent. Runs local models, community tools, and experimental integrations.
/openclaw
Tools
Infrastructure and integrations that power the whole system.
Docling
Document AI. Convert PDFs, Word docs, and images into structured vault-ready content.
/tools/docling
Tailscale
Mesh VPN. Secure access to Mac Mini and vault from anywhere.
/tools/tailscale
SYD Capabilities
Audit, monitor, and understand the system itself. Meta-SYD.
Anatomy
SYD components and wiring. Interactive body diagram of every module.
/anatomy
Design
Session loop diagram. How SYD's habit loop flows from brief to close.
/design
Security
Privacy audit. Armor scan results, data boundary map, IBM confidentiality status.
/security
Summaries
Daily and weekly summaries archive. Browse past session outputs and open threads.
/summaries
Test Harness
Playwright integration tests. Verify all SYD routes and agent endpoints are live.
/test
Value
Monthly value audit. What SYD saved, created, or accelerated — quantified.
/value
AI Learnings
Captured insights from working with AI. Grows every session. Referenced in every brief.
/ai-learnings
Notebook
NotebookLM integration. Deep-dive into vault documents with AI-powered Q&A.
/notebook
Projects
Long-running initiatives with dedicated agent workflows.
Ancestry
Family history research. GEDCOM patching, MacFamilyTree integration, registry harvests.
/ancestry
Financials
Household finances. Expense analysis, Baby Steps tracker, budget reviews.
/financials
Mom's Estate
Estate management. Documents, timelines, legal tracking.
/moms-estate
A&A
A&A 1942 project. Research, documentation, and publishing pipeline.
/aa
Key Workflows
The SYD habit loop runs on five phrases. Deviate from this and the brief goes stale.
SYD Habit Loop — Daily Cycle
1
SYD brief— BOD orientation. Verse → priorities → open threads → mail → intention. Run this first, every day.
2
SYD start-a-task to [task]— Opens a task card. Reads task log, detects your project context, surfaces the single best next move.
3
SYD harvest [item]— Off-task capture during session. Sends anything out-of-scope to backlog without derailing the session.
4
close-a-task— Non-optional. Writes closure card to task log and change log. Without this, tomorrow's brief is blind.
5
SYD weekly sweep (Fridays)— EOW review. Productivity:update --comprehensive sweeps calendar + Gmail for missed todos, triages TASKS.md.
How to Clip Content — Web Clipper
1
Open /clipper or say 'SYD harvest [URL]'— Paste any URL. The clipper fetches the page content.
2
Security scan runs automatically— Checks the domain and content for known threats before anything hits the vault.
3
Review the markdown preview— SYD formats the content as vault-ready markdown with frontmatter (title, source, date, tags).
4
Choose destination— Save to SYD/97 - AI Inputs/, a specific project folder, or the backlog as a new candidate.
5
Change log auto-updates— The write is logged to change-log-all.md. No manual tracking needed.
How to Capture Ideas — Pipeline
1
Open /pipeline or say your idea out loud— Raw idea input — no structure needed. Messy is fine.
2
Agents classify the idea— Hermes routes to the right domain (work, personal, project, learning, faith).
3
Effort + next action drafted automatically— Pipeline estimates size (S/M/L/XL) and drafts the first concrete step.
4
Review and approve— You confirm or edit. Nothing hits the backlog without your go-ahead.
5
Lands in /backlog— Appears as a new candidate row ready for triage in the next planning session.
How to Use Training
1
Open /training— Pick a professor persona: AI strategy, German, leadership, finance, or faith.
2
Choose a course or ask freely— Pre-built course tracks are available, or start an open conversation with the professor.
3
Professor adapts to your level— Each persona knows you're an IBM Executive Partner with 26 years of enterprise tech experience — no basics.
4
Capture learnings— Interesting insights get harvested to SYD/00 - KG Wiki/06 - Email and Notes/AI Learnings.md.
5
Learnings appear in future briefs— Captured AI learnings surface in morning briefs to reinforce retention.
Quick Reference
The exact phrases that trigger SYD capabilities. Say them verbatim.
SYD MISSION CONTROL · USER GUIDE · v4.9
VAULT ROOT → ~/Documents/SYD/ · MAC MINI PRIMARY · ICLOUD SYNC