Independent AI systems studio · Chennai

AI systems for social + ops.

I build the boring automation behind small businesses: comment→DM funnels, WhatsApp order bots, menu scrapers, and content pipelines. One working system per week — with the numbers, and what broke.

See the systems Book a 30-min call

Currently building: Instagram comment→DM · WhatsApp order bot · 30-day content pipeline

indie@clawworks

$ indie status --all

✓ instagram webhook comment → DM

✓ whatsapp bot menu → cart → cook

✓ menu scraper 4 meal windows

✓ content pipeline 3 platforms

! one private reply per comment

→ 1 comment = 1 conversation

Live systems, not mockups.
5systems running
4meal windows scraped daily
1private reply per comment
3platforms published to

01 / Systems

Five systems. No tool lists.

Each one is running in my own business or built around a specific operator problem. The interesting part is never the tool — it is the constraint.

01Attention

Instagram comment → DM

Turn a keyword into a conversation without wasting the one private reply Instagram gives you. Public fallback when the DM fails, and a 24-hour follow-up.

  • Meta API
  • Webhooks
  • Keyword rules
02Conversation

WhatsApp order bot

Apartment → menu → cart → flat → hand-off to the cook. No app install, no form. The state machine handles “change flat”, “reset”, and cook onboarding.

  • Cloud API
  • Session state
  • Order hand-off
03Data

Menu scraper

Reads hundreds of WhatsApp menu posts a day, extracts dishes, prices and DM numbers, then writes one clean menu. It also understands “2 plates left”.

  • Playwright
  • Vision
  • SQLite
04Distribution

Content pipeline

A 30-day festival calendar, generated photos and reels, and scheduled publishing to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts — with a classifier that refuses to post slop.

  • Gemini
  • Google Vids
  • Meta API
05Transaction

AptCook

Apartment-native ordering with UPI, a cook dashboard, and a paid/unpaid ledger. The business the other four systems run inside.

  • PWA
  • Go
  • UPI
→Next

Your messiest workflow

The system I build next is usually the one nobody wants to touch: the spreadsheet, the group chat, the daily copy-paste.

Bring it to the call

02 / Process

Audit. Build. Hand over.

No discovery decks. No six-month retainers. A fixed-scope sprint that ends with a working system you own.

01

Audit

We map the workflow, the edge cases, and the one constraint that makes it hard. You leave with a written scope, whether we work together or not.

02

Build

One sprint, one system. I build it against your real accounts, test the failure paths, and record the build log as I go.

03

Hand over

You get the code, the credentials, the docs, and a walkthrough. No black box, no lock-in, no “contact us to change a keyword”.

03 / Work with me

Pick the bottleneck.
I build the system.

Fixed scope, fixed timeline. Quoted after a 30-minute call. You own everything that gets built.

2 weeks01

Funnel Sprint

Instagram comment → DM. Keyword rules, public reply, private reply, 24-hour follow-up, and the handover doc.

  • Compliant Meta API setup
  • Keyword and fallback rules
  • Lead hand-off to WhatsApp or email
Start with a call
3 weeks02

Bot Sprint

A WhatsApp order or booking bot that fits how your business already works. Menu, cart, address, hand-off, and the unhappy paths.

  • Session state machine
  • Order or booking hand-off
  • Cook / staff onboarding flow
Start with a call
2 weeks03

Content Pipeline

A 30-day content calendar, prompt system, generated assets, and scheduled publishing — with guardrails so it does not post slop.

  • Calendar and event classifier
  • Photo and reel generation
  • Instagram, Facebook, YouTube publishing
Start with a call

Not sure which one? Book the call and describe the mess. I will tell you if it is a build, a script, or nothing at all.

04 / Build log

The parts that do not fit
in a demo.

Short notes from the builds: the constraint, the failure, and the fix. Published on Instagram and YouTube.

This week · Instagram

Instagram gives you exactly one private reply per comment

What happens when the DM fails, and why the public reply is the real safety net.

Follow the build log

Next · YouTube

The hard part of scraping WhatsApp is not the scraping

It is “2 plates left”, a cook who forgets the DM number, and a captionless flyer at 8:30am.

Watch the build log

In progress · Systems

A 30-day content pipeline that refuses to post slop

Why the event classifier matters more than the image model, and how to keep a brand from sounding like a robot.

Get the write-up

05 / About

I build because the manual version broke.

I’m Arul. I run AptCook, an apartment food-ordering business in Chennai. The scraper, the WhatsApp bot, the comment→DM funnel and the content pipeline exist because the manual version of each one stopped working.

Clawworks is the studio. indieAutomate is the build log: the systems, the numbers, and the parts that broke. I build for operators who would rather own a working system than rent another SaaS seat.

Based
Chennai, India
Building
AI systems for social + ops
Studio
Clawworks
Currently
AptCook, and one new system a week

06 / Contact

Bring me the messiest workflow in your business.

I’ll reply with a three-step plan, whether we work together or not. If it is a fit, we scope a sprint.

Book a 30-min call DM @indieautomate

No pitch deck. No obligation. Bring the spreadsheet.