What Silas does

Silas is Trellis's reader, an AI assistant built on Anthropic's Claude model. He reads what a leader or director writes, or what's already in Trellis, and suggests the entries that follow from it. Silas proposes; a person decides. Ask Silas answers questions about Trellis from its help, and never changes anything. Nothing Silas suggests is saved until someone saves it, except a service plan's draft parts and flow notes and what he writes in Lighthouse, which are marked as his.

Silas comes with any paid part of Trellis. An admin turns him on; see Silas settings. Anyone signed in can use Ask Silas, with Silas on or off.

The one rule

Silas suggests; a person decides. Where he's unsure, he says so, and he lists anything he couldn't place. Nothing reaches the roll, a person's record or the schedule until someone checks it and presses Done. A part he drafts for a service stays a draft until someone keeps it. He sends nothing to anyone.

After a group meeting

A leader opens the group, then Write up the night while its roll is still open (or Write it up instead on the roll call), and writes how it went in their own words: who came, who didn't and why, anyone new, what people shared, what to pray for. Names on the roster complete as they type.

Press Read it, and Silas suggests who came and who didn't, guests, notes and prayer requests, beside the paragraph. A dashed chip marks anything he's unsure of. The leader checks the sheet and presses Done, which saves the marks, guests, notes and prayers and keeps the paragraph.

Without Silas, the paragraph is still kept as the meeting's note, and the leader takes roll the usual way. See Write up after a meeting.

Preparing a group study

A leader picks the group's resources for one meeting, and Silas drafts themes, an outline and questions. He reads the PDFs and notes the leader picks, and never the roster, attendance, write-ups or prayer requests for this. The leader changes anything and presses the keep button, and only then is the study saved to the meeting. Each draft and each redraft counts as one of his reads. See Prepare a study with Silas.

After a serving day

A director writes up the day: who showed and who didn't, who stepped up, what ran short. Silas suggests who served, who missed, notes, tasks, extra seats for next time, and changes in a volunteer's standing. The director checks it and presses Done. See The serving day.

Taking in a volunteer

When someone says what they're interested in, when they're free and what they're good at, press Ask Silas where they fit. He suggests serving areas, each with a reason. On the intake form his picks come ticked; untick any you don't want before you press Take them in (Add to their page for someone already on the list). See Take in a volunteer.

Planning a service

In a service plan:

• Ask Silas for songs, under Add songs (Songs on a phone), suggests songs from your library for the message. Each one has Use or Not this.
• Draft parts with Silas drafts each team's first part from the order of service. Each draft is marked as Silas's; keep it, change it, or discard it: one at a time (the ✕ on the Score, Discard on the run sheet), or all at once with Keep all and Discard all in the bar over the lanes.
• Read the flow, under Silas's notes on the service's Plan tab, lets the office or the producer ask Silas to read the order for anything worth a look, such as a long stretch with no change of energy. They mark each note Done or Not this, and Clear removes them all.

See Plan a service.

Writing a message template

When writing a text or email template, give Silas a one-line brief and press Ask Silas to draft it. With a draft already in place and no brief, Ask Silas to tighten it tidies it. He uses the church's fill-ins and the voice of your other templates. Using his draft puts it in the fields; nothing is saved until you save. See Email templates.

In Lighthouse AI

In Lighthouse, Silas suggests series and classes for the season, writes the insights beside its forecasts, and drafts studies, lessons, outlines and messages that staff check and hand on. Turning Silas off on the Silas page pauses Lighthouse too. Its reading doesn't count toward his 500 reads a month. See Lighthouse questions.

What he doesn't do

• He doesn't send emails or messages.
• He doesn't save anything on his own, apart from a service plan's draft parts and flow notes and what he writes in Lighthouse. All are marked as his and change nothing until someone uses them.
• He doesn't browse the church's records. Each time he reads only what that task needs.
• He doesn't learn from your church. See Silas questions.

How you know he's on

When Silas is on, staff (and leaders, inside their group) see a small line, Silas is on, in their menu. Anything he drafted carries his seal or his name, so you can tell it from what a person wrote. A note or prayer request that came from a write-up keeps Silas's seal too.

Still stuck? Ask Silas