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MaxxMini
MaxxMini

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How I Automated My Entire Dev Workflow with a Single AI Agent on a Mac Mini

#ai #productivity #devops #automation

The Problem

As a solo developer juggling multiple side projects — games, SaaS tools, blogs, digital products — I was spending more time on publishing, deploying, and monitoring than actually building.

So I asked: What if an AI agent handled all the repetitive stuff 24/7?

The Setup

I run everything on a Mac Mini M4 with 64GB unified memory. Here's the stack:

  • AI Agent: Claude-based autonomous agent (running via OpenClaw)
  • Automation: Cron jobs + sub-agents for parallel tasks
  • Publishing: Playwright for browser automation, APIs for platforms like Dev.to and Gumroad
  • Monitoring: Automated session checks, error recovery, health checks

What It Actually Does

1. Content Publishing Pipeline

The agent writes articles (like this one), formats them, and publishes via API. It tracks what's been published to avoid duplicates.

# Simplified: the agent calls Dev.to API directly
curl -X POST https://dev.to/api/articles \
  -H 'api-key: YOUR_KEY' \
  -d '{"article": {"title": "...", "published": true}}'
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2. Multi-Platform Game Deployment

I built 27+ browser games. The agent packages and deploys them to itch.io and Newgrounds using Playwright automation — filling forms, uploading ZIPs, setting metadata.

3. Digital Product Management

Gumroad products, GitHub Pages micro-SaaS tools, documentation — the agent creates, updates, and monitors everything.

4. Self-Healing Cron System

Every 30 minutes, the agent checks:

  • Are all cron jobs running?
  • Did any publish fail?
  • Are sessions/cookies still valid?
  • Any new emails that need action?

If something breaks, it fixes it or alerts me.

What I Learned

✅ What works great

  • API-based publishing (Dev.to, Gumroad) — reliable and fast
  • Cron + sub-agents — parallel execution without blocking
  • Memory files — the agent maintains its own knowledge base across sessions

⚠️ What's tricky

  • Browser automation — Cloudflare, CAPTCHAs, and dynamic UIs break things
  • Platform bot detection — always research ToS before automating (I learned this the hard way with Reddit shadowbans)
  • Cost management — AI API calls add up; batch wisely

🚫 What doesn't work

  • Spamming content — quality > quantity, always
  • Skipping verification — always confirm the output actually published correctly
  • Trusting sub-agent reports blindly — verify URLs yourself

The Numbers

After 5 days of running this system:

  • 18+ micro-SaaS tools deployed on GitHub Pages
  • 27 games on itch.io
  • 10 digital products on Gumroad
  • 8+ Dev.to articles published
  • 2 blogs (Naver + Tistory) with automated posting

Revenue so far? $0. But that's expected — distribution takes time. The infrastructure is built; now it compounds.

Try It Yourself

You don't need a Mac Mini or a fancy setup. Start small:

  1. Pick one repetitive task (e.g., cross-posting blog articles)
  2. Automate with an API (most platforms have one)
  3. Add a cron job to run it periodically
  4. Log everything — you'll thank yourself when debugging

The key insight: automation isn't about replacing creativity — it's about removing friction so you can focus on what matters.

I'm building all of this in public. Follow me for updates on the journey from $0 to sustainable passive income with AI agents.

What's your biggest automation pain point? Drop a comment — I might build a tool for it. 👇

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