Selected work
Tools & systems
Systems · Automation · AI—2023 — now
The operating layer — every system on this site in one index: the machines that keep the stories, stores and studios running.
Most of my technical work never gets seen. It's the systems that let a small team publish like a big one: pipelines that turn field notes into published stories, automations that keep a store, a spreadsheet and a website agreeing with each other, and AI agents that carry context between sessions so nothing gets lost.
I build with AI daily — not as a novelty, but as a workshop. The main lesson so far: the tools are only as good as the clarity you bring them. Most of the value is in the brief.
What I build
A few of the systems in daily use — built for real teams, run in production, maintained by me.
- Content · Automation
Content pipelines
Field notes, photos and interviews go in one end; published stories, newsletters and social posts come out the other — with a human hand on the tiller the whole way.
stories.mangaroa.org - Systems · Case study
The Butchery OS
Cut requests, scale labels, barcode lanes and paddock-to-pack traceability for Mangaroa's on-farm butchery — the deepest system in the workshop.
Read the case study - AI · Agents
An AI operating system
Memory, skills and guardrails that let AI agents do real work across many projects — with a paper trail, and rules about what they may never touch.
- Film · AI
Video workflows
From raw footage to edited, captioned and published — auto-sync, reframing and caption systems handling the repetitive middle so the craft time goes where it matters.
- Community · Teaching
Community AI calls
Live calls where I build AI systems with a community of practitioners — real problems, real screens, no gatekeeping. The practice, taught in the open.
buildwithbilly.ai - Content · AI
The Upstream
An AI-powered content machine — turning ideas and conversations into a steady publishing rhythm.
theupstream.ai - Systems · Case study
The Lucid booking flow
A breathwork studio that runs itself — booking, screening, payments and follow-up joined into one quiet flow, so one facilitator can hold it all without an admin team.
Read the case study - Meta · Registry
This site's engine
billylewis.co.nz runs on a project registry — every build, its story, its relationships and a dated log of what shipped. An agent reads my project memory, proposes updates, and the now page writes itself.
See it live — /now
The workshop
Build With Billy
The workshop on this estate — where the practice behind everything above is taught in the open. Free guides, a monthly call, a cohort, and the kits I actually use.
Connected work