Pipeline 07 of 07
The ledger layer
The boring half that pays
Prompting is the easy part. What earns its keep is the directory structure, the skills, the connectors and the ledger telling you what every accepted asset actually cost.
The ledger layer
The boring half that pays
Prompting is the easy part. What earns its keep is the directory structure, the skills, the connectors and the ledger telling you what every accepted asset actually cost.
01 Map
- Runs on
- A whiteboard and an owner per step
- Fixes
- Every step gets written down with an owner: what a person decides, what a model drafts, what a script handles alone at four in the morning.
- Takes
- Half a day
02 Skills
- Runs on
- Claude Skills
- Fixes
- A skill is a directory holding a SKILL.md file plus references, templates and scripts. Its description stays in context and the body loads only when a task matches, so instruction sets stay out of the way until needed.
- Takes
- Two days
03 Code
- Runs on
- Claude Code
- Fixes
- The repetitive end: batch renaming, render queues, spreadsheet updates, site copy edits and the client-facing pages themselves.
- Takes
- Three days
04 Connect
- Runs on
- MCP servers
- Fixes
- The studio gets wired to the tools already in use: Higgsfield for generation, Drive for assets, Sheets for the tracker, Slack for approvals.
- Takes
- One day
05 Interface
- Runs on
- Figma Make
- Fixes
- A pipeline turns into something the client can operate. React and Tailwind underneath, so a prototype can graduate into the real product.
- Takes
- Two days
06 Ledger
- Runs on
- Sheets, a run log
- Fixes
- Naming convention, version tags, run log and cost per accepted asset. This is the part that makes a creative studio explainable to a finance team.
- Takes
- Ongoing
Control gates
-
Human gate
Test A person signs off the brief and the final cut, at any volume.
Fail No exception has ever been worth it.
-
Rights gate
Test Model licence checked for commercial use under the client terms.
Fail Swap the model before rendering, never after.
-
Secret gate
Test No keys, client data or unreleased assets inside a prompt.
Fail Rotate the key and route through the connector.
-
Cost gate
Test Credit ceiling per asset agreed before a batch starts.
Fail The job halts and asks for a decision.
Loop Half a day mapping how the work runs today, one to two weeks building, then a live walkthrough. Everything sits inside the client accounts.