Tools: what fills each role without a person
Every role a freelancer fills can also be filled by a tool. This is the list, with what each one costs per asset and whether its output can be checked by a machine.
| tool | kind | fills | step | interface | deterministic | unit cost | status | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOPE | estate-repo | clipper | publish | cli | yes | to measure | archive | harvest once, publish everywhere — the multi-rail publish step, to revive |
| crx-corpus | estate-repo | researcher-verifier | scan | cli | yes | $0 | archive | Chrome Web Store scraper/index — the data product for the extensions niche (copy, do not rebuild) |
| omni-extension | estate-repo | outreach, community-mod | publish | extension | no | to measure | archive | universal browser automation: Chrome extension + CF Worker orchestrator + local daemon — the base for our own extensions |
| Google Flow / Veo | subscription | faceless-video | render | extension | no | to measure | paused | estate repo: Chrome extension + server for programmatic Flow control — catalog scan, media harvest, tab routing (plate-harvester agent exists) |
| Remotion | library | faceless-video, video-editor | render | cli | yes | $0 | paused | estate repo: Layer-3 Remotion compositor driven by a schema — the deterministic render for evergreen assets (script + plates → mp4); gate = transcript diff |
| UGC-generator | estate-repo | face-presenter | render | cli | no | to measure | paused | AI UGC pipeline for TikTok affiliate — the AI-avatar credibility tier |
| backlot | estate-repo | faceless-video | author | cli | yes | to measure | paused | video production as a document the system compiles — 35 films one format |
| clip-rankings | estate-repo | clipper | score | cli | yes | $0 | paused | clip ranking studio + competitor vault (irreplaceable local data) |
| replicator | estate-repo | author | cli | no | to measure | paused | AI workflow studio; prior attempt at the same OS — mine for parts, do not resume | |
| youtube-api | estate-repo | researcher-verifier | count | cli | yes | $0 | paused | the publish+count step's official read; replaces page scraping for our own channels |
| Whop Trends Pro + MCP | subscription | researcher-verifier | scan | mcp | yes | $29 | pending-owner | shortcut for daily coverage of every category; our scanner is the free substitute |
| Apify | api | researcher-verifier | scan | http | yes | to measure | to-wire | Substack/Skool/Gumroad/YouTube scrapers as actors — the rails chrome-js does not reach at scale |
| ElevenLabs | subscription | voice | render | http | yes | to measure | to-wire | replaces the $68-avg voice gig; deterministic given voice_id + text; gate = transcribe back and diff (memory: transcribe-generated-audio-to-verify-it) |
| Google AI Studio / Gemini | subscription | researcher-verifier, designer | author | http | no | to measure | to-wire | text + image generation; thumbnails via image model; non-deterministic → always behind a rubric gate |
| Browser MCP | mcp | outreach, community-mod | publish | mcp | no | $0 | working | clicking/typing in Chrome; not deterministic (accessibility snapshot), so used only where a URL or count confirms the action |
| Claude Code | subscription | researcher-verifier, outreach | author | cli | no | to measure | working | the author and the desk; subagents for collect/organize/rank; cost is the machine line in cash_ledger |
| chrome-js.mjs | cli | researcher-verifier | scan | browser-js | yes | $0 | working | JS in the owner's logged-in Chrome via Apple Events; ~0.35 s per read; the read side of every scanner |
| scan-fiverr.mjs | cli | researcher-verifier, outreach | scan | cli | yes | $0 | working | 806 suppliers across 13 roles in one pass |
| scan-whop.mjs | cli | researcher-verifier | scan | cli | yes | $0 | working | 150 categories · 3,504 products · enrichment from whop.com landing pages |
| simulate.mjs | cli | score | cli | yes | $0 | working | 120 months per concept from rate rows | |
| vidmatic | estate-repo | faceless-video, video-editor | render | cli | yes | to measure | working | video replication monorepo (active); replicate-beat skill; corpus + reference side-by-side |
"Deterministic" means the same input gives the same output and a gate can check it; anything else sits behind a rubric.
Get the weekly table. One email a week: what moved in the league, which hooks are working, what is for sale. Faceless, no pitch.