Misty Cripps · Vaquita DesignAutomation decisions are trust decisions.
I design and engineer trust-aware automation for judgment-intensive workflows, services and agents that handle production tasks without overriding human discernment.
Building a content assessment assistant and dashboard for San Antonio Review (SAR).
Available for specialized full-time roles or strategic consulting engagements.
San Antonio Review
San Antonio Review (SAR) runs on a custom theme, a custom submission workflow, and a coordinated set of LLM-augmented pipelines that handle production work behind the decisions humans still make. The question of what to automate is answered by guidelines I use for every automation decision:
- AI should relieve drudgery, not reduce humans to reviewers of output.
The point of automation is to remove the work people don’t want to do, not to reduce them to verifiers of work. - Automation must not generate work.
If humans spend more time cleaning up AI output than they save by using it, the design has failed. - Humans stay in the loop wherever a trust violation could damage the organization or the people who rely on it.
The trust framework isn’t philosophical—it’s operational. - Automation must show a net positive economic impact.
For small organizations especially, AI is infrastructure or it’s a hobby — there’s no middle ground.
Content production & delivery pipeline
Overview of the end-to-end process, including approval workflow, author normalization, image creation, and social media.
PHP · WordPress · MySQL LIVEAutomated content approval workflow
Gravity Forms + Gravity Flow with custom hooks that gate content creation behind evaluation and acceptance.
PHP · WordPress · MySQL LIVEAuthor normalization
Submission → contributor record. Bio rewriting, face-aware avatar cropping, six-platform social URL normalization.
PHP · Claude API · Cloud Vision LIVEImage creation service
Service reads approved content, selects a standalone snippet, and composites it onto one of twelve custom-designed templates. Outputs to media library for HITL review.
Python · Pillow · Claude API LIVESocial media service
Plugin integrated into content production pipeline. Social text generation with editing capability. Publishes to networks in parallel with content as last step in pipeline.
Python · Flask · SQLite LIVECustom theme
Custom collections, byline composition, archive navigation.
PHP · theme.json · ACF LIVERAG-based content search
Content indexed by mutiple vectors – mood, theme, summary
Pinecone · OpenAI API In DevelopmentContent assessment assistant + dashboard
On-demand second-reader for borderline content and a dashboard surfacing queue health, contributor history, and pipeline state.
PHP · React · Claude APISelected Projects
The reasoning behind the work
Practitioner essays on what AI should and shouldn’t do, grounded in design decisions, not the technical implementation.
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How to Build an Orchestra: A Systems Design Approach to AI Workflows
I do the product management, design, and development for a publishing platform. Designing and building it has become…
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Image Creation Agent: A faster way to get to custom editorial assets
Trust and human judgment are foundational to our business model; that isn’t corporate jargon. People who read San…
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We’re Not For Everyone: The story of an automated submission process
Prior to designing and building an automated submission and approval workflow for San Antonio Review, we tried off-the-shelf…
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What AI Shouldn’t Touch: Designing for trust in an automated publication workflow
San Antonio Review is a small publisher that primarily publishes on digital channels, though it also occasionally publishes…
Dual-Screen Android Phone
System-level interaction framework, four application models, and five core apps.
frog · Flextronics · Patents ShippedDatabase Management & Monitoring
Enterprise platform UX for technical operators of complex systems.
CA Technologies · frog ShippedRunning App for Smartwatch
Constraint-respecting design for a specialized audience. Tight screen real estate, attention budget, and motion.
MMF · MapMyRun · Independent