diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.rst b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
index c1edbeca0..d68622f60 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -70,9 +70,14 @@ We use `nox <https://nox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`__ to instrument our tests.
 - To test your changes, run unit tests with ``nox``::
 
     $ nox -s unit-2.7
-    $ nox -s unit-3.7
+    $ nox -s unit-3.8
     $ ...
 
+- Args to pytest can be passed through the nox command separated by a `--`. For
+  example, to run a single test::
+
+    $ nox -s unit-3.8 -- -k <name of test>
+
   .. note::
 
     The unit tests and system tests are described in the
@@ -93,8 +98,12 @@ On Debian/Ubuntu::
 ************
 Coding Style
 ************
+- We use the automatic code formatter ``black``. You can run it using
+  the nox session ``blacken``. This will eliminate many lint errors. Run via::
+
+   $ nox -s blacken
 
-- PEP8 compliance, with exceptions defined in the linter configuration.
+- PEP8 compliance is required, with exceptions defined in the linter configuration.
   If you have ``nox`` installed, you can test that you have not introduced
   any non-compliant code via::
 
@@ -133,13 +142,18 @@ Running System Tests
 
 - To run system tests, you can execute::
 
-   $ nox -s system-3.7
+   # Run all system tests
+   $ nox -s system-3.8
    $ nox -s system-2.7
 
+   # Run a single system test
+   $ nox -s system-3.8 -- -k <name of test>
+
+
   .. note::
 
       System tests are only configured to run under Python 2.7 and
-      Python 3.7. For expediency, we do not run them in older versions
+      Python 3.8. For expediency, we do not run them in older versions
       of Python 3.
 
   This alone will not run the tests. You'll need to change some local
diff --git a/synth.metadata b/synth.metadata
index 5a4e4dabb..4416e5d4e 100644
--- a/synth.metadata
+++ b/synth.metadata
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
       "git": {
         "name": ".",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/python-bigtable.git",
-        "sha": "d5624621647feb3a71a2509f5d29b68ac94cf17a"
+        "sha": "6fe87016a159bbdc6bf29856b1cf6e633e16216a"
       }
     },
     {
@@ -19,14 +19,14 @@
       "git": {
         "name": "synthtool",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/synthtool.git",
-        "sha": "33366574ffb9e11737b3547eb6f020ecae0536e8"
+        "sha": "4679e7e415221f03ff2a71e3ffad75b9ec41d87e"
       }
     },
     {
       "git": {
         "name": "synthtool",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/synthtool.git",
-        "sha": "33366574ffb9e11737b3547eb6f020ecae0536e8"
+        "sha": "4679e7e415221f03ff2a71e3ffad75b9ec41d87e"
       }
     }
   ],