Six pieces of an agent-powered content system, and how to cost them

A content system with agents isn't an app, it's six pieces that talk to each other. Here are the six, what each does, how to cost it, and a template to map your stack. It's what doesn't fit in a carousel, and it helps you decide what to adopt.

Why six pieces and not a list of apps

When you see someone operating with a system you don't understand, what you're missing isn't one more tool. You're missing the map. Lists of apps give you loose names, and with loose names you can't tell what you're missing, what you have twice, or what the whole thing costs you.

I think about it the other way around. First the functions any content system needs, and only then the tool that fills each one. There are six, and my system is built on those six. The tool changes; the function doesn't.

The six pieces, one by one

1. Data. Where what you produce and what you measure lives. Your scripts, your ideas, the numbers for each post. A spreadsheet or a database, but one place.
2. Model. The one that reads, drafts, proposes, and reviews. The AI assistant you use.
3. Transcription. What turns voice and video into text. Your voice notes, your recordings, the reels you want to study. Without this piece, the model can't read what you say.
4. Voice. What turns text into speech, when you publish without your face or without recording yourself. It's the only one of the six you might not need.
5. Render. What turns text into something publishable, whether an image, a carousel, or a video.
6. Orchestration. What brings the other five together and decides what order they run in. Today it can be a person with a list, tomorrow an agent. Almost nobody puts it on their list, and it's what turns a drawer of apps into a system.

How to cost each piece

The cost of a piece is three things added together. The fixed part, which is the subscription or the plan. The variable part, which is what you pay for usage, like credits or tokens. And the time of whoever operates it, which never shows up on the invoice and is usually the most expensive.

What runs on your computer costs zero in subscription, but it isn't zero. Someone installs it, maintains it, and fixes it when it breaks. Write that time down anyway, because it's what you'll compare when a paid tool shows up promising to save it.

Open last month's invoices and put the number next to its piece. Where there's no invoice, put the hours.

The rule for deciding what to adopt

When a new tool shows up, before trying it, answer one question. Which of the six pieces does it fill?

If it fills an empty piece, it can come in, and you already know which column it belongs in. If it fills a piece you already have covered, it's a replacement, and it only comes in if it costs less than what you already pay, counting time. If it fills none, it's not part of your system, and it doesn't go in the table.

It's the filter I use.

The template

It's a table of six rows, one per piece, with six columns. What that piece does in your system, which tool fills it, how much it costs you per month, what its minimum setup is, and who operates it. It comes with one made-up example row, marked as such, so you can see the level of detail, and the rest blank.