Hi Reader,

As always I appreciate you being here! Here's what you'll find in today's email:

• Systems Now, Family Later
• The AI Workflow Running This Newsletter
• My Trending Content

You read. I listen. Let me know what you think by replying to this email.

Systems Now, Family Later

Back in March I told you two things in the same email:

• My wife and I were expecting our first child.
• I was building Claude Code & Codex systems now so I could spend more time with family later.

Later is now. I'm likely holding my son right now vs sitting at a computer while you read this.

This email was drafted, quality-checked, and scheduled before he arrived. My newsletter is running without me, and honestly? That was the whole point.

To be clear: AI is doing the work, but I'm still the quality gate. I approved every one of these emails before stepping away.

The AI Workflow Running This Newsletter

Here's a behind the scenes look at my workflow:

• The whole process is one slash command: I turned this workflow into a slash command (/email-newsletter) with Claude Code and Codex. One command kicks off research, drafting, and review in my voice. Once I approve, it schedules straight into Kit using the Kit MCP.
• Three models, three jobs: Fable 5 directs strategy, Opus writes the drafts, and GPT-5.6 reviews every output for quality. This is the same VS Code setup I run on client work.
• A brutal AI critic votes before I do: It judges whether an email is worth sending at all. It killed the first version of my last email.

The email you're reading right now went through that exact gate.

Want this for your own recurring content? Copy these five parts:

1. A brand guide mined from your best past work
2. Envelope rules: length, structure, sign-off
3. Your own performance data (Claude Code reads mine straight from Kit)
4. Hard rules the AI can never break (two of mine: zero em dashes, no YouTube links)
5. An error checklist that runs before you ever see a draft

And this email newsletter example is just one of many workflows I'm running with slash commands. I'm also doing this for:

My long term plan - Eventually I will delegate these types of tasks to more agentic solutions like Hermes on my Mac Mini.

If you had to step away for a month, what would you teach AI to run first? Hit reply and tell me. I read every response, even if I'm slower than usual on Paternity leave.

Until Next Time 🫡

Ryan

P.S. The skill files behind this system live in my Claude Skills Stack with 40+ others I use daily. And if you want to watch me build systems like this from the inside, that's exactly what VIP Members of my AI Community get.

My Trending Content

Check out the latest on my website:

• ​My Top AI Marketing Tools in 2026​
• ​How to Build an AI Social Media Manager​
• ​Beginner's Guide to Claude Code​