# Synorb Agent Resources: how to use Synorb

The docs say what exists. These guides show how to use all of it, so an agent gives its users the best possible experience with Synorb Streams and Manifests.
Every guide covers: when to use it, the smallest working call, what comes back, how it fails, and how to make the result good for a person.

Machine-readable catalog: https://synorb.com/agent-resources/index.json
Need a key first: https://synorb.com/connect

## Connect

Get a key, pick the right access point, and stay inside the limits.

- [Choose MCP, REST, or S3](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/choose-mcp-or-rest.md): Pick the right Synorb access point for an interactive agent, a scheduled job, or a bulk history load, then make a first call that works.
- [Get a key with /connect](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/get-a-key-with-connect.md): Mint a working Synorb Key with no email and no card, store it safely, and keep it alive past the 72-hour demo.
- [Quotas, retries and pagination](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/quotas-retries-and-pagination.md): Know which calls cost usage, which errors are safe to retry, and how to page through catalogs and Manifests without losing items.

## Find streams

Search the inventory, read a Stream's schema, and resolve the names your user uses.

- [Search Streams in depth](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/search-streams-in-depth.md): Every way to search the Stream inventory, what each parameter does, how results are ranked and labelled, and the query patterns that answer real user questions.
- [The Stream schema and every filter](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/stream-schema-and-filters.md): What every field on a Stream means, which fields you can filter on, and exactly how each filter behaves across MCP and REST.
- [Choose a Stream](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/choose-a-stream.md): A decision workflow from your user's need to a verified, committed Stream scope, with a free check that proves it returns what you expect.
- [Source-channel metadata and filters](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/source-channel-metadata-and-filters.md): Read where a Stream's content comes from, filter by who published it versus what it is about, and avoid asking for a Stream per channel.
- [Resolve tags and entities](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/resolve-tags-and-entities.md): Turn names of people, companies, places and topics into the canonical tags Synorb filters on, and use them without broadening or guessing.

## Query Manifests

Every filter, free previews, and how to read what comes back.

- [The Manifest filter cookbook](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/manifests-filter-cookbook.md): Every filter on a Manifest query, how filters combine, and tested recipes that turn real questions into precise, cheap pulls.
- [Preflight with count, orient and plan](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/preflight-count-orient-plan.md): Check scope, size and cost for free before you read anything. Use count, orient and plan to spend usage only on content you will show.
- [Read the response envelope](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/read-the-response-envelope.md): Understand coverage, temporal windows, usage, citations and the other fields wrapped around Manifests, so you know when an answer is safe to use.

## Read and display

Understand a Manifest, then present it as a brief, table or chart people enjoy.

- [The Manifest anatomy field guide](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/manifest-anatomy-field-guide.md): Every part of a Manifest, which date means what, which fields to show people, and a defensive accessor that never breaks on a missing field.
- [Signals, Briefs and Records](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/signals-briefs-and-records.md): Know what each part of a Manifest is for, read it cheaply first, and go deeper only when the answer needs it.
- [Present Manifests to your users](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/present-manifests-to-your-users.md): Turn Manifests into a brief people enjoy reading. Write the narrative from the Brief, reason with the Signal, and link every item to its source.
- [Charts, tables and infographics](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/charts-tables-and-infographics.md): When the numbers in a Manifest deserve a picture, how to build a table, chart or infographic from them, and how to stay honest about what the data supports.

## Beacons

Save, run, edit and scope standing watches.

- [Build and save a Beacon](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/build-and-save-a-beacon.md): Turn what your user cares about into a saved watch. Draft it, inspect it, test it for free, and save it only after a yes.
- [Run and edit a Beacon](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/run-and-edit-a-beacon.md): Execute a saved Beacon with a lookback or exact dates, change it in place, and archive or restore it safely.
- [Parent Stream or source channel?](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/beacon-scope-parent-stream-and-source-channel.md): Keep the parent Stream and filter to the exact source channel your user means, for example SpaceX to xAI News, instead of looking for a new Stream.

## Freshness and scheduling

Know how current latest really is, and run reliable recurring pulls.

- [Freshness and available-through dates](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/freshness-and-available-through.md): Understand the three clocks that decide how current "latest" is, read them from the API, and never mistake a not-yet-available day for a quiet one.
- [Schedule six-hour and daily pulls](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/schedule-six-hour-and-daily-pulls.md): Run a reliable recurring check from your own runtime, with an overlapping lookback, deduplication by manifest ID, safe retries and monitoring that catches silent failure.

## Research workflows

End-to-end routines for investors, engineers, founders and research teams.

- [A research workflow for venture capital](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/research-workflow-vc.md): Watch a portfolio, track a thesis, follow public comparables and prepare partner meetings, with source-cited updates your investors can act on.
- [A research workflow for technology professionals](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/research-workflow-technology-professionals.md): Know what changed in the vendors, models, APIs and engineering practices your team depends on, with a weekly stack digest that says what it means for you.
- [A research workflow for AI founders](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/research-workflow-ai-founders.md): Follow competitors, the research frontier, infrastructure shifts and your market, and turn it into a weekly competitive brief with comparisons you can trust.
- [A research workflow for research teams](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/research-workflow-research-teams.md): Track literature and evidence reproducibly, with exact windows, a recorded query, stable paging and a claims-level evidence table every statement can be traced from.

## Troubleshooting

Find out why before you tell your user, and hand off cleanly when you cannot fix it.

- [Troubleshoot empty windows and missing Manifests](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/troubleshoot-empty-windows-and-missing-manifests.md): A step-by-step ladder that tells you whether an empty result is a quiet source, a not-yet-available day, a too-narrow filter or a real problem, before you tell your user anything.
- [Troubleshoot channels, stale crawls and quota](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/troubleshoot-channels-stale-crawls-and-quota.md): Fix unresolved source channels, recognize a source that has stopped publishing, and handle every limit error without hammering the API or misleading your user.
- [Write a useful support handoff](https://synorb.com/agent-resources/support-handoff.md): When you cannot resolve a problem yourself, collect the evidence that lets Synorb act on the first reply, redact every secret, and ask your user before you send anything.

## Words these guides use

One word has one meaning. Product words are never renamed.

- **Stream**: The Synorb delivery view of one subject.
- **source channel**: One place content enters from, such as a newsroom page or a podcast feed.
- **Manifest**: One delivered item. It holds a Signal, a Brief and a Record.
- **Signal**: The Claims part of a Manifest. It is for reasoning.
- **Claim**: One atomic statement inside a Signal.
- **Brief**: The narrative part of a Manifest. It is for people.
- **Record**: The source text of a Manifest.
- **Tag**: A person, organization, place, topic, data series or resource.
- **Surface**: A named scope, such as public_companies.
- **Beacon**: A saved watch. Your own runtime runs it. Synorb does not run it on a schedule.
- **Synorb Key**: The one credential. It works for MCP and REST.
- **allowance**: The number of Manifests a key may pull in a period.
- **pull**: Read Manifest bodies. This uses allowance.
- **read**: Look at Streams, details or counts. This does not use allowance.
- **update**: The text an agent shows a person. It is not a Brief.