# the dashboard got there first

Source: https://aaronmakelky.com/what-i-built-today-2026-05-26
Last updated: 2026-05-27

A public build log about the automation payoff of an already-sorted dashboard, a workshop board that can actually run, and a repo that lets the same chief-of-staff system work across agent tools.

[Back to writing](/blog)

What I built today

Today was chopped up from the start. The useful part was not some big AI reveal. It was opening the dashboard and seeing the five or six projects that actually mattered already surfaced for me, without spending the first stretch of the day rebuilding context and asking what I was even supposed to be working on.

May 26, 2026 · 4 min read · Public work log

AI Workflows Automation Planning Field Notes

Why it worked

The day got easier because the work had a place to land: a real board, a smaller content plan, and one operating layer the agents could actually read.

What shipped

### Opened the day with the real board already sorted

The best thing I built today was the part that happened before I touched anything. When I opened the dashboard, the five or six projects that actually mattered were already there with the next move attached. I did not have to go hunting through notes or stop for the usual what am I even supposed to be working on right now reset.

### Turned one workshop into a board I could actually run

I took a workshop that could have stayed fuzzy and made it run from one interactive board instead of a pile of half-related surfaces. One lane for the coding-agent story, one lane for the parallel demo, one public setup guide, and a tighter handoff for the next day.

### Made a content plan smaller on purpose

I also stripped an overbuilt content idea down to the version that might survive contact with actual humans. It became a lighter opt-in support system for people who already had something real to say, not a big everybody become a creator program.

### Moved the chief-of-staff system out of one machine

The bigger infrastructure move was taking the operating layer out of scattered local files and putting it in one readable repo with a clear README and instruction pages. That makes the same system readable from Codex, Claude, Cursor, or whatever tool I am using next instead of being trapped on one laptop.

What kept feeling true

## This is the automation payoff I keep wanting.

I am not chasing some giant autonomous workflow here. The useful part was smaller and better. The sort had already happened before I sat down. The board told the truth about the day, the briefing work was already close at hand, and I did not have to spend my first block of time trying to remember which lane had actually moved.

That changed the feel of the day. I could tighten the workshop because the prep was already there. I could make the content plan smaller because I was not burning the first half hour finding notes, checking the same surfaces, and rebuilding the same context from scratch.

The repo move is the same idea at a bigger scale. If the operating layer lives somewhere every agent can read, I am not locked into whichever tool or laptop happened to have the latest local file.

Why it mattered

## I spent the day shaping work instead of hunting for it.

The workshop board, the smaller plan, and the repo move were all useful. The bigger win was that they sat inside a day that had already been sorted enough to be usable. That gave me room to tighten the work instead of locating it.

I trust the version where the board tells the truth, the right projects are already surfaced, and the operating system can follow me between tools.

anyway, still testing...

## Related pages

- [Back to writing](/blog)
- [Tools](/tools)
- [About Aaron](/about)

## Sources and references

- [Descript](https://www.descript.com/)
- [OpenAI Codex GitHub repository](https://github.com/openai/codex)