# Build brief — a focused alternative to Skribra

> **Verdict:** Not faithfully · **Buildability:** 36/100 · **Category:** SEO Marketing
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/skribra
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Skribra. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Skribra** — Picks the keyword, writes the article, publishes it to your CMS, then keeps it ranking. It currently costs $19/mo.

The writing isn't the hard part · an agent will turn a keyword into a decent long-form article without much trouble, and the prompt below does exactly that. What you can't prompt your way past is permission. Publishing to WordPress is open to anyone with an application password, but every other destination is gatekept by the platform: Shopify wants your app through App Store review, Webflow wants a marketplace submission, Notion wants a public integration, Search Console wants verified OAuth scopes. That's someone else's review queue, measured in weeks, and no model clears it for you. The other half is that content only compounds if something keeps touching it · a generator ships posts and forgets them, and the value here is the unglamorous machinery that comes back to article 14 in week nine because its ranking slipped.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Skribra that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

One keyword in, one structured long-form article out, published to WordPress · the one destination that doesn't need a platform's permission.

- Automate a bounded research or reporting workflow using permitted data sources.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- An always-on host with a queue, since one article is dozens of chained calls.

### Data and integrations

- An LLM API key with real per-article spend · this build is metered, not free.
- A keyword data source (paid API) or manual keyword picking.
- An approved OAuth app per destination beyond WordPress · weeks of someone else's review.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build me a single-article SEO writer that publishes to WordPress. Requirements:

- WordPress only, deliberately: it authenticates with an application password the
  site owner generates alone, while Shopify or Webflow need a platform-approved
  OAuth app and a review process before one post goes live elsewhere.
- Stack: one Node + TypeScript CLI, no web UI and no accounts, with SQLite via
  better-sqlite3 to remember what's been written. Config in .env.
- Input: a target keyword plus a short site description. Output: one published post.
- Generate in explicit stages, persisting each stage's output to SQLite so a failed run
  resumes instead of restarting: outline · section drafts · intro/conclusion · FAQ · title ·
  meta description · slug.
- Aim for 1500-2500 words of specific prose. Ban the usual tells in the prompt: no 'in today's
  fast-paced world', no 'delve', no section that just restates the one above it.
- Internal links: query the WordPress REST API for existing posts, pick the 3-5 genuinely
  related ones, and link them inline with descriptive anchor text.
- One generated header image, uploaded to the media library and set as featured image.
- Emit JSON-LD Article plus FAQPage, and a real meta description rather than a truncated
  first sentence.
- Publish via the REST API with an application password · draft by default, --publish to go live.
- Log every run's token cost to SQLite and print a per-article total, so the metered cost is
  visible instead of arriving as a surprise.
- Out of scope, and these are the hard parts: keyword research, scheduling, any other CMS,
  and post-publish monitoring or refresh. Pretending a one-shot build covers those would be
  dishonest.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Permission to publish anywhere but WordPress · Shopify sits behind App Store review, Webflow behind a marketplace submission, Notion behind a public integration · not code you can write, a queue you wait in.
- A bespoke adapter per destination · HTML converted into Notion's block tree with its character and per-request batch limits respected, Webflow field mapping plus a second call to actually publish the item, Shopify find-by-handle upsert.
- The feedback loop · Search Console deciding which live posts get refreshed, retitled or relinked, with guards so a page already earning clicks never gets rewritten on a whim.
- A pipeline that survives its own failures · every stage retried and resumable, stuck jobs requeued after a deploy kills a worker, and a breaker that trips before the API call so a runaway loop costs zero tokens.
- Connectors, OAuth flows, and vendor API changes require constant upkeep.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

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