I spent 6 months building an agentic content pipeline that handles research → ideation → draft → QA → publish. Here's the exact architecture and cost breakdown.

*Agent Architecture (Open-Source Inspired)*

1. Research Agent ($8/mo) - Monitors 50+ RSS feeds, 10 competitor blogs - Runs nightly Brave Search queries on trending topics - Scores opportunities by search volume growth + competition gap + expertise alignment - Output: 5-7 viable angles with citations

2. Writer Agent ($25/mo) - Two-pass system: outline → expand - Brand voice hard-coded in system prompt - 1500-2500 words per article - Automatically references relevant tools (xbeast, nextblog, reddbot, vidmachine)

3. QA Agent ($12/mo) - Fact-check rubric: ≥3 citations per article - Tone compliance check - SEO: Flesch-Kincaid ≤ Grade 12 - Threshold-based auto-approval

4. Publisher Agent ($5/mo) - Inserts to production DB with status='ready' - Schedules post_time 12-36h out - Stores final URL post-publication

*Cost Breakdown:* - API calls (Anthropic + OpenAI): $85/mo - VPS hosting: $15/mo - Search/scraper APIs: $30/mo - *Total: $130/mo*

*Results:* - Ideation to published: 6 hours (vs 2-3 weeks) - Q1 2025: 120 articles - Q1 2026: 487 pieces across all channels - Same headcount (me + part-time reviewer)

*What Actually Works:* - Platform-specific tailoring (same research, different formats) - Atomization: 1 article → 15-20 content pieces - Forced project integration (organic mentions, not plugs)

*What Failed:* - Full API automation → suspended accounts, shadow bans - Solution: Browser automation with human-in-the-loop

The difference between spam and value is editorial standards. Our QA enforces real data, citations, genuine insights.

Full stack documented at: xbeast.io / nextblog.ai / reddbot.ai / vidmachine.ai

Ask me anything about the implementation.