Challenge
Regular expert publishing helps a site grow, but daily posting by hand is easy to drop, and automated “AI content” without checks damages trust. The system had to be free to run and keep a human editor in control.
Approach
Small Node.js scripts work with Astro Content Collections. One picks the day’s task from an editorial calendar or a backlog and rejects duplicates by title and keyword similarity. A quality gate checks every draft and reports PASS, FAIL or REQUIRES_REVIEW per criterion. Articles with a future date are published automatically on that day by a GitHub Actions workflow that redeploys only when something is due.
Details
- Gate criteria: required metadata, heading structure, sources reachable over HTTPS, internal links that resolve, filler phrases, keyword stuffing and unverified first-hand claims
- Editorial statuses from AI draft to published; only published articles reach production
- Idempotent runs with a ledger and lock files; a single switch turns everything off
- No API keys or paid services required
Result
A repeatable process for publishing checked articles on a schedule — the kind of automation that removes routine work without removing judgement.