Automation Is Plumbing, Not Magic

Meta Description: My AI agent failed. Not because it wasn’t smart. Because I didn’t connect the pipes. Agents need infrastructure, not just prompts.

I built a bot.

To test my course. To be the student I can’t be (because I wrote it).

It failed.

The Blind Robot

It logged in. It got the email. It went to the folder.

And panicked.

“Directory not found.”

The AI wasn’t stupid. It was blind.

The Unsexy Truth

I have a private repo (where I work). And a public repo (where students work).

I forgot to sync them.

I forgot the plumbing.

The agent performed perfectly. It went exactly where I told it to go. And found nothing. Because I hadn’t moved the furniture in.

It’s Just Pipes

We think AI is magic.

It’s not. It’s water.

If you don’t lay the pipes—the git remotes, the permissions, the sync workflows—the water just spills on the floor.

I fixed the sync. The bot worked.

Impact

Closed 8 tickets in 3 minutes.

Because the plumbing worked.

Don’t just build the brain. Build the pipes.