# Not everything deserves a pipeline.

> I automated the recording, the scripts and the editing of eight training videos. The voice-over I generated by hand: eight clicks. Wiring the API would have taken longer than the clicks.

- Author: [Emir Alanyalioglu](https://alany.co/about)
- Published: 21 October 2026 (2026-10-21)
- Updated: 11 November 2026 (2026-11-11)
- Entry 02 of [The Lab](https://alany.co/lab) · Engineering team
- Canonical: https://alany.co/lab/not-everything-deserves-a-pipeline

## The system in four steps

1. script: written from the code (agent)
2. record: screen walkthrough (agent)
3. edit: the cut (agent)
4. voice-over: eight clicks (by hand)

## The system

The team I lead turned the codebase of a software product into a training course: eight videos, scripts written from the code, screen recordings and editing produced by a pipeline. One agent reads the code and writes the script, one records the walkthrough, one cuts the video.

Three steps run in the pipeline: script, recording, edit. The fourth step, the voice, I left out of it.

The voice-over I generated by hand. Eight clicks in ElevenLabs.

Wiring the voice API into the pipeline would have taken longer than the eight clicks, and the course will not be re-recorded every week. The pipeline exists for the parts that repeat: the scripts change with every code change, the recording follows the script, the edit follows the recording.

The rule I use: automate the step that repeats and changes, click through the step that repeats and does not. A pipeline is a cost. It has to earn its place.