Cutting an automation brief down until it was worth building
A Python service that files class recordings into the correct batch folder automatically — after we removed most of what was originally requested.
- Client
- An online education provider
- Services
- Applied AI, Automation
- Stack
- Python · Google Workspace APIs · SQLAlchemy · APScheduler · pandas
The problem
Recorded classes were being saved manually into batch folders. The work was repetitive, easy to get wrong, and grew linearly with the number of batches.
The original brief was considerably larger — student lists, reminder emails, admission logic. Most of it either already worked or belonged in a settings panel rather than in code.
How we approached it
We narrowed the scope before writing anything, and confirmed the reduced version in writing with the manager.
Two things needed to happen. One was a Google Workspace administrative setting, not software — so we configured it rather than building it. The other was genuine engineering work, and that is what we built.
The README opens by naming what the project deliberately does not do. Explicit non-goals are the most reliable defence against scope creep.
What we built
Scheduled recording filing
A service that reads the batch list, matches each recording, and files it into the correct destination folder without supervision.
Operational visibility
Status checking and logging, so a failure is noticed by the team rather than by a student who cannot find their class.
A spreadsheet as the interface
Batch configuration lives in a spreadsheet the operations team already knew how to use. No admin panel to learn, no new tool to adopt.
Decisions worth explaining
- 01
Configuration over code
Auto-recording was a Workspace setting. Building it in software would have billed hours for something a checkbox already did.
- 02
Written non-goals
Listing what is out of scope, at the top of the README, in the client's own words. It settles disagreements before they start.
Have a problem shaped like this one?
We will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.