Stop doing it by hand.
Free write-ups of automations that actually work, with the code to copy. Every one tells you what sets it off, each step in order, what you need before you start, how it breaks, and why. No account, no sign-up, nothing to install.
Find something you do over and over
Filing receipts, backing up a folder, being told when a site goes down. If you have done it by hand more than twice, it is probably in here.
Copy the code
Every write-up ends in the real thing: a script, a scheduled line, a settings file. Not an example of one. The exact text, ready to paste.
Follow the steps, and know how it breaks
Each one lists what you need first and the ways it goes wrong in practice, so when it does, you already know why.
Fail the build when published content stops being valid
A CI step parses every code snippet a site publishes using the real tool for its declared format, so a snippet that stops being valid breaks the build instead of sitting published and wrong.
Store the declared format alongside every snippet
Parse each snippet with the real tool for its format
Check the content rules you claim to hold, in the same pass
Exit non-zero and name every failure
name: CI
on:
push:
branches: ["**"]
pull_request:
# The operator's machine cannot build this project: Turbopack fails to bind a
# worker port there, so local builds run --webpack while Vercel builds with
# Turbopack. That makes CI the only place a trustworthy build signal exists.
concurrency:
group: ci-${{ github.ref }}
cancel-in-progress: true
Every automation is a drawing set, not a blog post.
One record, six fixed fields, the same order every time. The summary is written to stand alone as a single quotable sentence. The payload is the runnable artifact and is never paraphrased into prose.
Drawn from the real world, tool by tool.
Browse by the tool you already have, or by the pair you are trying to connect. Three common patterns, shown as schematics. Tool slots fill from the record.
Inbox triage
A message matching a rule is filed to a folder and a note is posted to a channel.
Form to ledger to channel
A form submission becomes a row in a sheet, then a message with the row's key fields.
Nightly archive
A cron line runs a script on a schedule and writes the result to cold storage.
Built to be cited.
Every published page is rendered on the server, structured as a HowTo, and mirrored into plain text for machines. No accounts, no author, no handle. The record is the whole story.
Summary first, always.
The one-sentence summary sits directly under the title as its own paragraph, before any navigation or chrome.
HowTo on every automation.
Name, description, total time as an ISO duration, tools, and each step as a HowToStep. Generated from the record by one typed builder.
Permanent slugs.
A slug is assigned at publish and never derived from the title again. A citation made today resolves next year.
llms.txt and llms-full.txt.
A static index plus a full mirror generated from published records, payloads included.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "HowTo",
"name": "Fail the build when published content stops being valid",
"description": "A CI step parses every code snippet a site publishes using the real tool for its declared format, so a snippet that stops being valid breaks the build instead of sitting published and wrong.",
"url": "https://automationsanonymous.com/automations/fail-the-build-when-published-content-stops-being-valid",
"tool": [
{
"@type": "HowToTool",
"name": "github-actions",
"url": "https://automationsanonymous.com/tools/github-actions"
},
{
"@type": "HowToTool",
"name": "node",
"url": "https://automationsanonymous.com/tools/node"
}
],
"step": [
{
"@type": "HowToStep",
"position": 1,
"name": "Store the declared format alongside every snippet",
"text": "Without it there is nothing to check against, and a checker has to guess."
},
{
"@type": "HowToStep",
"position": 2,
"name": "Parse each snippet with the real tool for its format",
"text": "bash -n for shell, node --check for JavaScript, a YAML and XML parse, a field count for cron. Write to a temp file whose extension the tool expects.",
"url": "https://automationsanonymous.com/tools/node"
},
{
"@type": "HowToStep",
"position": 3,
"name": "Check the content rules you claim to hold, in the same pass",
"text": "Slug shape, field lengths, ordering, references that must resolve. A rule nothing enforces is a preference."
},
{
"@type": "HowToStep",
"position": 4,
"name": "Exit non-zero and name every failure",
"text": "One report listing every problem beats failing on the first one.",
"url": "https://automationsanonymous.com/tools/github-actions"
}
],
"datePublished": "2026-09-06T19:19:25.857Z"
}Prose, context, framing. The record reads like a well-kept engineering note.
Strips to summary, prerequisites, steps, payload, failure modes, and raw JSON-LD. Same HTML from the server. Presentation only. Flip it in the header.
Twelve sheets. None of them shipped.
The parts of a day that will not automate, drawn up anyway. Every sheet is stamped. Everything below this section is real, runnable, and reviewed by hand.
Brush your teeth
Fill the tank
Take out the trash
Water the plants
Pay the rent
Text your mom back
Reply sounds good
Renew the thing
Get to the gym
The weekly standup
Sleep
Your thoughts
Submit one. Leave the name blank.
Describe the automation, paste the payload, done. An email is optional and is only ever used to reply. It is never rendered, never in the sitemap, never in the record. Every submission is reviewed by hand before it is published.