How to do it
- Ask while you code At the end of a session, ask Claude Code or Cursor to draft a post about what you just shipped. The agent reads the diff and drafts over MCP.
- Let releases post themselves into drafts Tag a release and the GitHub trigger creates an announcement draft for X and Bluesky.
- Swipe to approve Open the installable PWA on your phone and swipe through drafts. Approve, reject, or tap to edit.
- Hit the kill switch when needed Launching something sensitive or on holiday? The kill switch pauses every agent and holds the queue until you resume.
Day 41 of building in public. Shipped team invites today. The tricky part was not the invite flow, it was deciding what happens when someone is invited to two workspaces. Went with a picker on first login. Screenshot below.
Build in public without the daily writing tax
The indie hacker version of social media is simple: show your work, share numbers you are comfortable sharing, ask for feedback, and announce when things ship. The hard part is consistency. An agent that already knows what you did today, because it helped you do it, is the best possible ghostwriter. You stay the editor.
A lean setup
- Run it free on your own server with Docker Compose (self-hosting guide), or start the hosted trial. The Starter plan covers a few channels and agents.
- Connect X and Bluesky. Add Mastodon if your users are there.
- Install the MCP server in your editor. See Claude Code or Cursor.
- Tell brand memory how you write: lowercase or not, whether you share revenue, topics you skip.
What the agent should be allowed to do
Start with draft only. After a few weeks of clean approvals, promote the agent to auto-publish on one network if you trust it, using the trust ladder. Keep launch posts and anything with numbers draft-only by policy. If a guardrail fails, the agent drops back to draft-only on its own.
Knowing if it works
Use per-post metrics to see which build-in-public posts get replies. Replies from potential users matter more than likes. Tag landing page links with the UTM builder and watch signups. Best-time suggestions are labeled heuristics; small accounts have too little data for them to be precise.
Pitfalls
- Over-automating. People follow indie hackers for the person. Keep your own replies and conversations manual.
- Sharing numbers by accident. Put revenue and customer names in banned topics if you do not share them.
- Burnout posting. Let the agent queue a week with plan week and approve once, instead of writing daily. The lessons learned template and milestone template are good repeat formats.