I am a solo developer. Over eight weeks I built PilotReels, a tool that turns one series setup into daily faceless short videos and posts them to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok. The AI parts were the fast part. This post is about everything else.

Approval is a feature, not a safety net

Early on I let finished videos publish on their own. Two videos went out with the same hook three days apart. Now every video stops at an approval step, and the user can edit the script before it renders. Users told me this was the one thing that made them trust the tool. I expected the opposite.

A judge model that blocks drafts

One model writes the script. A second model scores it on a short rubric and rejects anything below a threshold. Rejected drafts are regenerated with the judge's notes attached. The judge catches repetition across the series, claims with no source, and openers that do not fit the format.…