Automation

Start with

Learn

• Will a scheduled AI task run if my computer is asleep?

  It depends where the task runs. ChatGPT tasks and Claude's cloud tasks do not need your computer. Claude Desktop tasks and /loop do, and a sleeping laptop skips them.

Guides

• Set a spending limit before you leave anything running

  An agent in a loop is an expensive agent, and you find out from the invoice. Every provider has a monthly cap. Set it before the first scheduled job.

• The morning brief: AI tells you your day before you look at it

  One message every morning with the day's shape and the thing you are avoiding. A version for a plain chat app, and one that runs itself.

• The weekly review: ten minutes on Friday that fixes Monday

  Paste what you did, what you said you would do, and what is coming. Get back the three things that slipped and the one thing to do first next week.

• Three automations that actually save time

  Not the impressive ones. Three boring, scheduled jobs that quietly changed how my week runs, what each one does, and the prompt to set it up.

• Use the cheap model for the boring 80 percent

  Most of what you ask an AI does not need the clever model. Switch the routine stuff to the small one: it is faster and saves your limit.

Compare

• Grok Bot vs Hermes: which AI worker setup?

  Both run persistent AI bots with roles, tools and scheduled work. One hands you the workers, the other hands you the parts. A practical comparison.

Tools

• n8n: the automation tool you can run yourself

  Same idea as Zapier, with a visual workflow builder, AI steps and the option to host it on your own small server for free. More assembly, no per-task bill.

• Zapier: connect apps together without code

  When something happens in one app, Zapier does something in another. Thousands of apps, no code, AI steps in the middle. Easy to start; the bill grows.

• Raycast: a Mac launcher I use every day

  A Mac launcher I use instead of the built-in search. It opens apps, moves windows and runs small utilities. It is a convenience, not an AI tool.

• ElevenLabs: generated speech that sounds like a person

  A text-to-speech service that turns written lines into natural sounding audio. Useful when you need hours of narration and cannot record it yourself.

• Grok Bot: managed AI workers from xAI

  xAI's managed way to run persistent AI bots with roles, tools and scheduled work, sharing a cloud computer you never have to administer yourself.

• Kling: turning a still image into short video

  A video generation service. The use that earns its place is the modest one: feeding it a still image and getting a short piece of motion back.

Setups

• My current AI setup

  The exact set of tools I use day to day, what each one is for, and what changed when I stopped writing this page from memory and actually checked.